What All The Charlie's Angels Look Like Today
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In the 1970s, crime television tended toward gritty dramas with hardened, masculine cops or detectives putting their lives at great risk. But with the women's movement on the rise and ladies all over the country increasingly trying to have it all, it was high time that television started to reflect society's changing views. Along came Charlie's Angels, the campy, glamorous five-year romp featuring three prominent policewomen doing all manner of undercover work for their mysterious benefactor, the never-pictured Charles Townsend.
Though perhaps not the empowering representation that feminists at the time were searching for, Charlie's Angels presented, for the first time in the genre, women who were not only a delight to look at, but also smart, capable, and strong. Though the term "jiggle television" was coined by snobby critics specifically to criticize the rampant sex appeal of the series, audiences absolutely loved this brand-new take on the crime action drama.
Nearly 20 years after the original series ended, audiences would once again be taken in by a film reboot, with series creator Leonard Goldberg on producing duties alongside actress/producer Drew Barrymore. And there's yet another Charlie's Angels reboot on its way to audiences soon. It seems that no matter what decade, we all love to watch women supporting each other as they kick serious bad-guy butt.
Kate Jackson - Sabrina Duncan
Sabrina Duncan was the de facto leader and "brain" of the Angels, played by then-rising star Kate Jackson. After making the theatre rounds in the 1960s, Jackson got her television start in a rather unlikely place: as the silent ghost Daphne Harridge on the supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows. From there, she would move on to a supporting role in the police procedural The Rookies, which caused Charlie's Angels showrunners Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg to think of her taking on a cop persona herself.
She was an Angel from 1976 to 1979, moving on to several TV movies and appearances on other series, including Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Family Guy, and Criminal Minds — the last of which is her most recent acting credit, from 2007. Her career was marked by several upsets, including a breast cancer diagnosis that she kept from the public for a very long time, as well as joys such as adopting her son, Charles Taylor Jackson. More details will likely be found in her upcoming memoir, announced in 2010 but currently in publishing limbo.
Farrah Fawcett - Jill Monroe
Blonde bombshell Farrah Fawcett had already been in the Hollywood sphere since 1969, taking on a variety of roles in television and film. But it wasn't until her infamous red swimsuit pinup poster launched her into the hearts and minds of every American citizen that she obtained her role in the 1976 film Logan's Run, and then subsequently her year-long role as Jill Monroe in Charlie's Angels.
If Kate Jackson was the brains, then Fawcett was the sex, and it was no secret that many fans tuned in every week just to see her vibrant smile and fantastically feathered coif. In fact, her hair became a huge sensation, and she went on to sell her own brand of hair care products. After some legal struggles to get out of her five-year contract, Fawcett left Charlie's Angels after only one year, signing a new contract to make guest appearances sporadically.
After gracing television as an Angel, Fawcett moved on to star in more serious roles such as that of Francine Hughes in the made-for-TV movie The Burning Bed. In the '90s, she would take on guest roles in cartoons like Johnny Bravo and The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars. She worked up until 2006, but was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer later that year. She passed away in 2009, at the age of 62, leaving behind a legacy of dazzling smiles, incredible hair, and undeniable talent.
Cheryl Ladd - Kris Monroe
After Farrah Fawcett's tumultuous egress from the show, Cheryl Ladd was brought on to play her character's funny and spunky little sister, Kris Monroe. Ladd got her start in Hollywood through singing, as the voice of Melody on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Josie and the Pussycats. Concurrent with her popularity on Charlie's Angels, Ladd saw a rejuvenation of her musical career, and she even had the honor of singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl in 1980. She would go on to star in many films and television series, as well as a brief stint on Broadway.
As though acting and singing were not enough, Ladd also has some publishing credits to her name. She published the children's book The Adventures of Little Nettie Winship in 1996, and then an autobiography called Token Chick: A Woman's Guide to Golfing With the Boys in 2005. Though she's certainly done enough for a lifetime, it seems that she's still doing the occasional acting work, having taken roles as recently as last year.
Shelley Hack - Tiffany Wells
The sophisticated, glamorous Shelley Hack was best known as a fashion model before she replaced Kate Jackson as an Angel named Tiffany Welles. Producers were trying to push back against their reputation of being "jiggle TV" by increasing emphasis on what the ladies were wearing, becoming as appealing to female fashionista viewers as to their husbands and boyfriends. Hack was perfect for this, with her New England breeding and reputation as the face of Revlon's Charlie perfume (what an appropriate name).
She didn't stay on the show for very long, and though she did go on to act in a few more roles, she left acting for a while in the '90s to pursue political and media consultancy in developing nations. She and her husband are currently the co-presidents of the production company Smash Films. She seems to be getting a lot of fulfillment through producing movies with Hallmark, especially working with young up-and-coming women writers and performers.
Tanya Roberts - Julie Rogers
To fill in after Hack left the show, model and former dance instructor Tanya Roberts was cast as the street-savvy Julie Rogers, adding a very different Angel archetype to the series. She had had steady acting roles since 1975, but Charlie's Angels would be the first highly-visible role for her. It wouldn't be the last.
In 1982, she played the sexy love interest in The Beastmaster, a sword-and-sorcery barbarian movie. Continuing with the scantily-clad fantasy tradition, she played the titular character in Sheena: Queen of the Jungle in 1984. Soon afterward, Roberts had the distinction of playing Stacey Sutton, the Bond girl in 1985's A View to a Kill.
Modern audiences will probably best recognize her as Midge Panciotti on That 70's Show, a role which she played for six years. She ultimately left the show rather suddenly to spend time with her ailing husband, who passed away in 2006. She seems to be firmly out of the limelight these days, though she did write the forward to The Q Guide to Charlie's Angels, published in 2008.
Cameron Diaz - Natalie Cook
Though she hasn't been in films for a few years now, actress Cameron Diaz is certainly a very recognizable figure in modern Hollywood, having firmly established herself throughout the 2000s. She took up the mantle of "the blonde" Angel in both 2000's Charlie's Angels and its sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. She went on to star in many films after that, including the entire Shrek series as Fiona, and the movie adaptation of Jodi Picoult's novel My Sister's Keeper.
She is now retired from acting, but she's certainly kept herself busy nonetheless. She has published two health and wellness books, The Body Book: Feed, Move, Understand and Love Your Amazing Body (co-written with Sandra Bark) in 2013, and The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging, the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time in 2016. She is also very active in environmental activism and involved in advocacy for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Drew Barrymore - Dylan Sanders
Drew Barrymore was seemingly fated to be a huge Hollywood presence, as the granddaughter of the famous and renowned actor John Barrymore. Her very first acting experience came when she was a mere three years old in the TV movie Suddenly, Love. She didn't hit it big until her role as Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and the rest, as they say, is Hollywood history. Her earnest performances led to her starring in slews of '90s romances, including Ever After and Never Been Kissed. And in 2000, she took on her third producer credit with Charlie's Angels, where she plays Dylan, the redhead that the original series never had.
Her acting and producing careers are both still going strong, and she most recently has been starring in the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet as Sheila Hammond, a wife and mother in suburbia who is grappling with her transformation into a zombie with the loving help of her family. It's a suitably wacky role for the charming Barrymore, who seems to favor roles of imperfect but sympathetic women, like Beverly Donofrio in Riding in Cars with Boys.
Lucy Liu - Alex Munday
Before the supremely talented Lucy Liu took on perhaps her most notorious role as O-ren Ishii in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films, she was Alex Munday, the third member of the updated Charlie's Angels cast. And though she has quite a few film credits to her name, she is also a prolific television and voice actress, known especially for roles like Ling Woo on Ally McBeal (which also featured fellow former Angels Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett), Joan Watson on Elementary, and Master Viper in the Kung-Fu Panda franchise.
In addition to furthering her acting career, Liu has also taken on directorial efforts, beginning with the short film "Meena" in 2012, based on the true story of a young Indian girl who is sold to a brothel. She is an established painter, who has had several gallery shows mostly under her Chinese name, Yu Ling. Her first museum exhibition was held at the beginning of this year at the National Museum of Singapore. In true Angel fashion, she is a woman of many remarkable skills.
Jaclyn Smith - Kelly Garrett
The third original Angel, Jaclyn Smith was the only actress to complete her entire five-year contract on the show as Kelly Garrett for a whopping 110 episodes. After Charlie's Angels, she took up the mantle of Jacqueline Kennedy in Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, a TV movie focusing on the former first lady's life before becoming "Jackie O." She went on to do plenty of television and film, including a special appearance in 2003's Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and appearances in more serious cop dramas like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and CSI: Crime Scene Investigations.
In the mid-'80s, Smith branched out into design, starting a line of women's clothing and accessories for department store chain Kmart. Like her Angels co-stars, Smith also had a bout with cancer in 2003, and in 2010 was featured in the breast cancer documentary 1 a Minute. Though her last acting role was in 2015, she seems to be still very involved with her eponymous brand, and is constantly being praised for her youthful visage, even now in her 70s.