What Really Happened To Jaclyn Smith After Charlie's Angels?

Jaclyn Smith's role in the hit action series "Charlie's Angels" was what propelled the actress to stardom, but she'd already been active in film and on television for quite some time. Her first appearance on screen was as a wedding guest in the 1969 movie "Goodbye Columbus," but it was uncredited (via IMDb). Smith's real claim to fame for years, besides guest star roles on "The Partridge Family" and "McCloud," was as a model in television ads for Breck Shampoo (via Biography) and Wella Balsam, according to her website.

From 1976 onward, the actress played private investigator Kelly Garrett on "Charlie's Angels" for five seasons and over 100 episodes, even though several of her costars, including Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson, left the show earlier. She even had to turn down a role as a "Bond girl" in "Moonraker" because of her commitments to the series (via SoapHub). Smith, however, had to make some serious career decisions after the escapist drama was finally canceled after five seasons. This is what the actress did after "Charlie's Angels" ended.

When "Charlie's Angels" aired its last episode in 1981, Jaclyn Smith quickly found more acting work. She even earned a Golden Globe nomination in 1982 for playing the title role in the TV movie "Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy." However, much of Smith's time outside her family has been spent creating and managing the famous Jaclyn Smith collection of women's sportswear found at Kmart since the 1980s (via CBS).

A celebrity making their own brand was unusual at the time, and Smith herself was unsure of the move at first. But the model and actress remembers, "On instinct, I changed my mind and said, 'This is something I want to do.'" Her team-up with the company turned out to be wildly successful, and the Jaclyn Smith brand is still sold in Kmart stores.

She continued to make prolific film and TV appearances, including a regular role on "The District," up until 2005, when her schedule slowed down. Smith's most recent credit was a 2021 guest appearance on "All American," but she also made cameos as Kelly Garrett in "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and in the recent 2019 "Charlie's Angels" reboot. Smith told Forbes that she didn't expect the show to still be popular: "Sometimes you assume that you haven't reached that many generations. The re-runs help."