Jaclyn Smith. For anyone who grew up in the ‘70s, her name conjures the image of Kelly Garrett, the cool and composed angel who fought crime in perfect feathered hair. For younger generations, she might just be “the lady who helped your mom find affordable chic at Kmart.” Either way, Jaclyn Smith has lived about five lives since Charlie’s Angels first hit TV screens in 1976.
But let’s rewind. Because before she was an angel, Jaclyn was a Houston girl named Jacquelyn, born in 1945 to a dentist dad and a mom whose details are lost to history. She graduated high school in 1964, tried out college for a hot second, then decided she’d rather pirouette her way to New York and study ballet under the legendary George Balanchine. A dancer’s life didn’t quite pan out, but that didn’t mean Jaclyn was about to fade into the Texas sunset.
The Accidental Angel
Smith didn’t waltz into Charlie’s Angels as a household name. Before her big break, she was busy doing commercials for Breck shampoo and taking bit parts in shows like McCloud and The Partridge Family.
Her entrance into Hollywood was serendipitous—producer Glen Larson spotted her Breck ad and thought, “That’s Kelly Garrett.” A few auditions later, she was cast in Switch, and soon after, she was fighting crime under the watchful (but never visible) eye of Charlie Townsend.
Smith’s own recounting of those early days is refreshingly unvarnished. When asked about the show’s meteoric rise, she doesn’t spin some grandiose tale of destiny. “We were like college roommates,” she said, describing her on-set camaraderie with Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson. “We didn’t want to work 18-hour days, but we had fun.
The show tested well, but even the network thought it was a fluke.” Spoiler: It wasn’t. For five years, Charlie’s Angels dominated television, drawing in millions of viewers who came for the bikinis but stayed for the clever crime-solving and the Angels’ chemistry.
The Fashion, The Feathers, and the Fun
Smith recalls the Charlie’s Angels experience as a mix of high-stakes glamour and absurdity. Kate Jackson, she says, was the “boss” both on-screen and off. One particularly memorable moment involved Jackson locking the trio in her trailer to avoid a lunch-hour photo shoot for Time magazine. “The door’s jammed,” she deadpanned to the crew outside. (Spoiler: It wasn’t.)
And then there was the fashion—bold, colorful, and over-the-top in the best way. Smith has a clear-eyed view of the show’s legacy: “It was escapism. Pure entertainment. Aaron Spelling called it ‘mind candy.’”
She also noted that it appealed to everyone: “Young, old, men, women—and definitely men.”
From Icon to Empire
After Charlie’s Angels, Smith could have ridden off into the syndication sunset, but she reinvented herself as a business mogul. Her Jaclyn Smith Collection debuted at Kmart in 1985 and became a pioneer in celebrity branding.
“We were the first to bring real fashion to the mass market,” she says. “I introduced navy, black, and pinstripe suits to stores that were all pastels.”
The success wasn’t just in the numbers (though over 100 million women have worn her designs). It was in the relationships she built with her customers.
Smith fondly remembers traveling the country for in-store appearances, shaking hands, and looking people in the eye. “It was real,” she says, contrasting it with today’s Instagram-driven branding. “Now it’s all filters and enhancements.”
What is Jaclyn Smith Doing Now?
At 79, Jaclyn Smith is still working—reading scripts, designing new apparel lines, and promoting her skincare and wig collections.
She’s also writing a memoir, which she insists won’t be a Hollywood tell-all. Instead, it’ll focus on the lessons she’s learned, from growing up in Texas to navigating fame, divorce, and parenthood.
But don’t mistake her positivity for naïveté. “Life isn’t without its bumps,” she says, referencing her first marriage and her ex-husband’s struggles with addiction. “But I think it’s about what you do with those experiences. You grow, you move forward.”
As for her beauty secrets? They’re delightfully down-to-earth. She swears by Abilene cream in the shower and sleeping on a slant with three pillows. “It’s great for your face and your back,” she says with a laugh, adding, “My husband thinks I look like I’m sitting up in bed.”
Legacy in Real Time
Perhaps what’s most striking about Smith is how she balances nostalgia with forward momentum. She still hears from fans, many of whom grew up idolizing Kelly Garrett.
She made a cameo in the 2019 Charlie’s Angels reboot and remains connected to her co-stars, recently reuniting with Kate Jackson at her son’s wedding.
But she’s not resting on her laurels. “I like being challenged,” she says. “It’s what keeps you growing. And really, isn’t that what life is all about?”
