From PEOPLE Magazine
Click to enlarge
That's the karate-chopping, bikini-sporting, crime-stopping kind, of course—and the source of bittersweet memories for Ladd, who found fame as one of the TV hit's heavenly bodies from 1977 to 1981. But afterward, the would-be feature-film star wound up in TV-movie purgatory. "Nobody was going to take me seriously as an actress," she says. Still, Ladd, wed since 1981 to former singer and songwriter Brian Russell, 55, has much to be happy about. "I didn't get to be Julia Roberts, but I have a great husband and two wonderful children, and I've gotten to work with some wonderful actors and played a lot of interesting roles," she says. "I feel guilty even thinking I should complain about any of it."
Ladd is now trying to break out of her small-screen niche. She won kudos for a role in last year's edgy film Permanent Midnight and played a mother in last month's family drama A Dog of Flanders. She vows to be picky about TV roles—no more of those "victim mother things." Her dream gig? "Some wonderful Mrs. Robinson part, where I can be really attractive, sexual and powerful," she says, adding with a purr, "There are a couple of young actors I'd sure like to work with."
Even if The Graduate II never gets green-lighted, Ladd has plenty on her plate. Her hobbies include golf (she has a 17 handicap and attends pro tournaments as a Buick spokeswoman), art (she collects folk paintings of cows and sells prints of one of her own works on her Web site) and writing children's books (The Adventures of Little Nettie Windship, by her and her husband, was published in 1997). She also guides daughter Jordan, 24, an actress who starred with her in the 1998 TV movie Every Mother's Worst Fear, and stepdaughter Lindsay Russell, 23, a singer-guitarist who plays L.A. clubs. "We really pushed them [to pursue] education," says Brian (who shared custody of Lindsay with former wife Brenda). "They said, 'Look, guys, you're wasting your money. We're destined for show business.' "
As was Ladd. The South Dakota-born daughter of a railroad engineer and a waitress, she got her first TV gig in 1970 as the singing voice of Melody on the cartoon Josie and the Pussycats and wed David Ladd, the son of screen legend Alan Ladd. In 1977 she was tapped by Charlie's Angels producer Aaron Spelling to replace Farrah Fawcett (then Fawcett-Majors), who had unexpectedly left the year-old sensation. Petite but with plenty of vavoom, Ladd was a hit, as Kris Munroe. "She had to fill a big pair of shoes, and she did it with confidence," says costar Jaclyn Smith.
But her seven-year marriage was crumbling. After her 1979 split, Ladd found romance with Scottish-born Russell, who had cut two '70s pop albums before turning to movie producing in the '80s. Both newly solo, the longtime friends "looked at each other differently," says Ladd. "I said, 'Look, why don't you just kiss me? We'll either laugh our asses off and get this over with—or we'll get married.' "
They wed in 1981, the year Angels folded its wings. Ladd's movie-star hopes fell to earth. "Directors wouldn't meet me," she says. She has since racked up 20-odd TV movies, from a 1983 Grace Kelly bio to this year's Michael Landon, the Father I Knew. She is dubious of the soon-to-shoot Charlie's Angels movie (Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz are on board): "How do you make it fresh? I can't imagine." For now, she's counting her blessings. "They say," she says, "if you want to give God a good laugh, tell Him you have plans."
Samantha Miller
Michael Fleeman in Santa Ynez
- Contributors:
- Michael Fleeman.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
