Pam Dawber

Pamela Dawber is an American actress and former model who is best known for her lead roles in television sitcoms. She gained widespread recognition for portraying Mindy McConnell on the ABC series Mork & Mindy from 1978 to 1982. She later starred as Samantha Russell in the CBS sitcom My Sister Sam, which aired from 1986 to 1988.

Dawber was born on October 18, 1951, in Detroit, Michigan, as the elder of two daughters of Thelma M. and Eugene E. Dawber, a commercial artist. She attended Reid Elementary School in Goodrich and later went to North Farmington High School. She subsequently enrolled at Oakland Community College with the initial intention of transferring to a four-year college.

Beginning her career in New York City, Dawber initially worked as a fashion model with Wilhelmina Models before making the transition to acting. Throughout the 1970s, she appeared in television commercials for products including Fotomat, Noxzema, Neet, and Underalls. She screen-tested for the title role in the sitcom Tabitha, and while the part went to Lisa Hartman, ABC executives were impressed enough to enroll Dawber in their talent development program, leading producer Garry Marshall to recruit her.

Dawber achieved her professional breakthrough when Marshall selected her to star as Mindy McConnell in Mork & Mindy opposite Robin Williams, despite her having relatively little acting experience and no formal audition. The comedic series was a significant success, finishing third in the Nielsen ratings in its debut season. Alongside her television success, Dawber performed as Mabel in a Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production of The Pirates of Penzance in the 1980s, later playing the role at New York's Minskoff Theatre in mid-1982.

In 1986, Dawber returned to television as the star of My Sister Sam, co-starring Rebecca Schaeffer. After the series was canceled in 1988 and Schaeffer was killed the following year, Dawber joined her surviving castmates in a filmed public service announcement regarding gun violence prevention and became an advocate for gun control. She has also served as a national spokeswoman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

In addition to her television work, Dawber starred in feature films such as the 1992 comedy Stay Tuned alongside John Ritter and the 1999 period film I'll Remember April. Her later television credits include starring in the short-lived 1997 sitcom Life... and Stuff, reuniting with Williams on The Crazy Ones in 2014, and appearing in a 2016 tribute episode of The Odd Couple. In 2021, she appeared in seven episodes of NCIS as investigative journalist Marcie Warren alongside her husband, actor Mark Harmon, whom she married in 1987 and with whom she has two sons.