Pam Dawber
Dawber in 2012
Born	Pamela Dawber (1951-10-18)October 18, 1951 (age 74) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1978–present
Spouse	Mark Harmon ​ (m. 1987)​
Children	2

Pamela Dawber (born October 18, 1951)^[1] is an American actress known for her lead television sitcom roles as Mindy McConnell onMork & Mindy (1978–1982) and Samantha Russell onMy Sister Sam (1986–1988).

Dawber was born in Detroit, the older of two daughters of Thelma M. (née Fisher) and Eugene E. Dawber, a commercial artist.^[2] She went to Reid Elementary School inGoodrich and attendedNorth Farmington High School andOakland Community College (OCC), with the intention of transferring to a four-year college.^[3] She deferred her studies at OCC to do some modeling work and eventually dropped out after deciding to go into modeling full-time.

Dawber moved to New York City and was initially a fashion model withWilhelmina Models before switching to acting. She appeared in several television commercials during the 1970s (Fotomat,Noxzema,Neet,Underalls, etc.).^[1][4]

Dawber screen-tested for the title role inTabitha, a 1977 to 1978 situation comedy spun off fromBewitched, but the role instead went toLisa Hartman. However,ABC executives were impressed enough with her to enroll her in the company's "talent development" program, which paid its participants until they could find appropriate roles.Garry Marshall recruited her from this program.

Dawber's professional breakthrough came when Marshall chose her, despite her having relatively little acting experience and not having auditioned for the part, as one of the two title characters of the ABC sitcomMork & Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982. She portrayed Mindy McConnell, thecomedic foil and eventual love interest for theextraterrestrial Mork from the planet Ork, played by a then-unknownRobin Williams. The show was very popular in its debut season, when it averaged at number three in theNielsen ratings for the year.^[5] The only major difficulty for her on set was that she often found it impossible tomaintain the proper composure in character in the face of her co-star's comedic talent. Also, pressure came from the ABC network to sexualize her character as the series progressed, which Dawber successfully resisted, with Williams's support.

Dawber sang in a 1980s Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production ofGilbert & Sullivan'sThe Pirates of Penzance, based on theJoseph Papp /New York Shakespeare Festival production. Her role, as Mabel, had been played byLinda Ronstadt in the New York run of the show. In mid-1982, Dawber performed the role of Mabel at the Minskoff Theatre in New York.

From 1986 to 1988, Dawber again had a title role in a television series, playing Samantha Russell in theCBS sitcomMy Sister Sam, co-starringRebecca Schaeffer. The series was a success in its first season, but it suffered a ratings drop in its second after moving to Saturday night.My Sister Sam was canceled in April 1988, with half of the second season's episodes never shown on CBS. They were eventually broadcast (along with all previous episodes) onUSA Network.^{[citation needed]}

In July 1989, over a year after the show's cancellation, Schaeffer was shot and killed in front of her apartment in Los Angeles byRobert John Bardo, an obsessed fan who had stalked her for three years. Dawber was reportedly "devastated" by her former co-star's death.^[6] Dawber and her other survivingMy Sister Sam co-stars – Joel Brooks,David Naughton andJenny O'Hara – all participated in a filmedpublic service announcement about gun violence prevention, and Dawber herself became agun control advocate.

Although mostly known for her television work, Dawber has starred in several films, including the comedy movieStay Tuned (1992) withJohn Ritter and the period movieI'll Remember April (1999), alongside husbandMark Harmon.

In 1997, Dawber starred in the short-lived sitcomLife... and Stuff on CBS.^[7]

In 2014, she reunited withRobin Williams on his comedy seriesThe Crazy Ones as a love interest of Williams's character.^[8][9] The reunion failed to improve ratings, and the series was canceled shortly afterwards. Williams, already suffering fromLewy body disease by this time, died by suicide later that year.

Dawber is a national spokeswoman forBig Brothers Big Sisters of America. Garry K. Marshall, the film-and-television comedy writer–producer–director who enabled Dawber's professional breakthrough, died in 2016. That year, Dawber made a guest appearance onThe Odd Couple in a tribute episode to Marshall, along with other Marshall alumni such asRon Howard, Garry's sisterPenny Marshall,Cindy Williams,Anson Williams,Don Most andMarion Ross.

She appeared with her husband, fellow actorMark Harmon, onCBS'sNCIS in 2021 for seven episodes as '"seasoned investigative journalist" Marcie Warren.^[10]

Dawber married actorMark Harmon on March 21, 1987, in a private ceremony.^[2][11] They have two sons: one born in 1988^[12] and another in 1992.^[13] Dawber isRoman Catholic.^[14]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toPam Dawber.

• Pam Dawber atIMDb 

• 1951 births
• 20th-century American actresses
• 21st-century American actresses
• Actresses from Detroit
• American film actresses
• American television actresses
• American voice actresses
• Catholics from Michigan
• Female models from Michigan
• Harmon–Nelson family
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• North Farmington High School alumni
• Oakland Community College alumni
• People from Farmington Hills, Michigan

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