Career
Smith's first acting venture outside the Angels mold was the CBS-TV movie of the week Escape from Bogen County (1977). Then came a leading role in Joyce Haber's The Users with Tony Curtis and John Forsythe in 1978. In 1980, Smith starred with Robert Mitchum in the suspense thriller Nightkill. She then starred in the title role of the television movie Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy in 1981, receiving a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination for her performance but lost to Jane Seymour. In 1983, Smith starred as Jennifer Parker in the TV movie Rage of Angels, based on the novel by Sidney Sheldon. The film was the highest rated in the Nielsen ratings the week it aired. Smith reprised the role in the 1986 sequel, Rage of Angels: The Story Continues.
In 1988, she appeared with Robert Wagner in Windmills of the Gods. That same year she was offered the chance to star opposite Richard Chamberlain in the adaptation of Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity. Smith was Chamberlain's first choice as his leading lady but she had just wrapped up with the Windmills of the Gods shoot and declined the part. The role was offered to Lesley-Anne Down who wanted her husband to photograph the film. Producers refused and again offered the role to Smith, who then accepted.
In 1989, Smith starred in Settle the Score. This film again proved her Nielsen ratings clout. Other television movies and miniseries in which Smith appeared include George Washington, The Night They Saved Christmas, Florence Nightingale, Lies Before Kisses, The Rape of Dr. Willis, In the Arms of a Killer, and several TV versions of Danielle Steel novels, including Family Album. Smith starred in the 1985 feature film Deja Vu, which was directed by her then-husband Tony Richmond. In 1989, she played the title role in Christine Cromwell, a mystery television series based in San Francisco, but which only lasted one season. That same year, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
From 2002 to 2004, Smith had a recurring role as Vanessa Cavanaugh in the TV series The District, which starred Craig T. Nelson. She reprised her role as Kelly Garrett for a short cameo in the 2003 Charlie's Angels feature film. Her appearance at the 2006 Emmy telecast led Bravo TV’s producers to cast Smith as the celebrity host of Bravo’s weekly competitive reality series, Shear Genius, which began airing in March 2007. Shear Genius (Season 2) began airing on June 25, 2008.
In March 2010, Smith returned to acting after a five-year absence with a guest role on the NBC television drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In February 2012, it was announced that Smith would be guest-starring on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, as the mother of David Hodges (played by Wallace Langham).
Read more about this topic: Jaclyn Smith
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