Victoria Principal

Acting

Biography

Victoria Principal (born January 3, 1950) is an American actress, producer, entrepreneur, and author, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes Ewing on the American primetime television soap opera series Dallas. After her debut in John Huston's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) (opposite Paul Newman), she earned a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. After a few disappointing films, Principal decided to leave acting and became a Hollywood talent agent and booking agent, which was her profession from 1975 to late 1977. She then had ambitions to study at law school, and would support herself if needed through small acting roles on television, rather than in feature films, so as to fund her future college tuition. In 1977, she made a return to acting in a guest appearance on the pilot of the television series Fantasy Island which aired on the ABC network, and in the 1977 television film The Night They Took Miss Beautiful on the NBC network. The initial offer to return to acting came when television producer Aaron Spelling directly offered Principal a role in the pilot of his television series Fantasy Island, which she accepted on the condition that the contract stipulated for her role to be written out of the ongoing series, as she was reportedly planning to attend law school. When Principal obtained the pilot audition script for Dallas, her academic career ambitions changed, and she decided to return to the full-time acting profession.