There was no shortage of contract girls making the rounds of '70s television, but Pamela Hensley stood out in the field. She got a lot of hype in 1975 when she was cast to marry James Brolin's character on the hit ABC show Marcus Welby, M.D. She also looked set to break into superstardom after appearing as James Caan's love interest in Rollerball (1975). Instead, the trained actress went on to a long career of shining in bad sitcoms and TV movies--oh, and there are still lots of aging sci-fi fans with very, very fond memories of her as Princess Ardala on the 1979 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. But she certainly made a memorable big screen debut in There Was a Crooked Man... (1970), in which Pamela--along with veteran actress Jeanne Cooper--helped break the Hollywood skin barrier by showing her boobs in a big studio Western (starring Henry Fonda, no less). Our dongs were crooked after watching her barrier- and button fly-breaking performance. Unfortunately, that's the only nudity that Pamela did on screen. She rode mediocre TV series and movies into the '80s, appearing in Condominium, 240-Robert, Fantasy Island, Hotel, The Nude Bomb (1980), Rooster (1982), and Double Exposure (1982). In 1984 Pam guested in two episodes of The Love Boat, and in 1985 she concluded her 69-episode run on the crime drama series Matt Houston. There are no other credits on her resume; Pamela retired that year, but we're awfully grateful that she left behind a little bit of her skin. Thank you, Pamela Hensley!
