Shelley Hack Biography

Shelley Marie Hack (born July 6, 1947) is an American model, actress, producer, and political and media advisor. Hack is best remembered for her role as Tiffany Welles in Season 4 (1979–1980) of the ABC television drama Charlie's Angels, replacing the departing Kate Jackson. She appeared in a total of 26 episodes of the series, before being replaced in Season 5 by model-actress Tanya Roberts. Hack's other roles include Cathy Long in Martin Scorsese's film The King of Comedy (1983) and Susan Maine in The Stepfather (1987).

Life and career

Hack was born in White Plains, New York and raised in nearby Greenwich, Connecticut. She graduated from Greenwich Academy and Smith College, with a History degree. She began her career as a teen fashion model and became the face of Revlon's Charlie perfume from the mid-1970s until the early 1980s. Life proclaimed her one of the million-dollar faces in the beauty industry who were able to negotiate previously unheard of lucrative and exclusive deals with giant cosmetics companies, were instantly recognizable, and whose names became known to the general public. Shelley ranked among a handful of the 1970s supermodels.

Her feature film debut was a bit part in Woody Allen's award-winning film Annie Hall (1977), as "Street Stranger". In her second film appearance, she was the leading lady in the Joe Brooks romance drama, If Ever I See You Again, but the film was not a success. Shortly thereafter she was cast as Kate Jackson's replacement on the television series Charlie's Angels for one season (1979), playing the character "Tiffany Welles", the role for which she is probably best known. She beat out many competitors for the role, including Michelle Pfeiffer and Barbara Bach.

Following Hack's departure from Charlie's Angels, the actress played a variety of supporting roles. Hack received positive reviews in Martin Scorsese's film The King of Comedy (1983), in which she played a passive-aggressive executive. She starred with Annette O'Toole and Meredith Baxter Birney in the critically acclaimed Vanities (1981), a television production of the comedy-drama stage play about the lives, loves and friendship of three Texas cheerleaders starting from high school to post-college graduation; it aired as a part of Standing Room Only, a series on the premium-television channel HBO. She had a well-received leading role in the cult horror film The Stepfather and was a regular on two short-lived TV series of the 1980s: Cutter to Houston (1983) and Jack and Mike (1986-87). Both series were well received by critics, and Hack was praised for her portrayal of Doctor Beth Gilbert in Cutter To Houston, as well as empathic newspaper columnist Jackie Shea in Jack and Mike. She had several more notable guest appearances in film and television up until 1997.

After Hack left acting in the late '90s, she entered politics. Hack became a voting registration and polling station supervisor in the 1997 elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina and produced the first-ever televised presidential debates there as well. She also produced the debates in Sarajevo, Mostar, and the two in Banja Luka. She established herself in a new field as a media consultant for pre- and post-conflict countries. Among her duties was to help spread independent media such as newspapers, radio and television, citing the fact that, with autocratic governments, the population is often fed only State television, which delivers biased content(sic!). Hack worked in the television sector for ten years, creating ethnically diverse television programs in Eastern Europe. Additionally, she became a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy (PCIP), whose mission is to give a more effective voice to West Coast perspectives on critical global policy issues.

In October 2000, appearing as herself, Hack returned to the Charlie's Angels Townsend Agency office as guest host on A&E Biography, which featured profiles of several Charlie's Angels stars during Hello Angels Week.

In January 2008, Hack made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. The episode, "Classic Americana", featured Hack as Revlon's Charlie perfume model in a 1976 television ad with Bobby Short at the piano. "It was a time when women were changing" Hack stated to Oprah Winfrey. "Women looked at [the ad] and said, 'I want to be like that.'" Referring to the later Revlon commercials and Charlie's Angels, Hack stated "I was lucky. There were two things I was in that were about making women feel a little more empowered".

Hack and her husband, Harry Winer are company principals for the production company Smash Media ("Entertainment That Brings People Together") that develops and produces content for motion pictures, television and new media.

Credits

Production

• Lucky Christmas - Hallmark Channel - (2011)
• Perfect Match - Hallmark Channel - (2015)

Film

• Annie Hall - Street Stranger (1977)
• If Ever I See You Again - Jennifer Corly (1978)
• Time After Time - Docent (1979)
• The King of Comedy - Cathy Long (1983)
• Troll - Anne Potter (1986)
• The Stepfather - Susan Maine (1987)
• Blind Fear - Erika (1989)
• A Casualty of War by Frederick Forsyth - ITV film series (1989)
• The Finishing Touch - Hannah (1991)
• Me, Myself & I - Jennifer (1992)

Television

• Charlie's Angels - Tiffany Welles (1979-1980)
• Death Car on the Freeway (TV movie) - Janette Clausen (1979)
• The Love Boat ("Dumb Luck") - Carol Ketay (1979)
• Married: The First Year (TV Series) (1979)
• Vanities - Mary (1981)
• The American Sportsman - Herself (1982)
• Cutter to Houston (TV series) - Dr. Beth Gilbert (October 1, 1983 - December 31, 1983)
• Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer (TV Movie) - Logan Gay (1983)
• Single Bars, Single Women (TV Movie) - Frankie (1984)
• Kicks (TV Movie) - Maggie Pierson (1985)
• Jack and Mike (TV series) - Jackie Shea (September 16, 1986 - March 24, 1987)
• Bridesmaids (TV movie) - Kimberly (1989)
• A Casualty of War (TV movie) - Monica Browne (1990)
• Taking Back My Life: The Nancy Ziegenmeyer Story (TV movie) - Nan Horvat (1992)
• seaQuest DSV (TV movie/pilot) - Capt. Marilyn Stark (1993)
• Not in My Family (TV movie) - Becky Worth (1993)
• A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Wicked Wives (TV movie) - Abby Walters Morrison (1993)
• L.A. Law (TV Series) Whose San Andreas Fault is it, Anyway? - Lynn Barnett (1994)
• Tales from the Crypt (TV series) The Assassins - Janet McKay (1994)
• Falling from the Sky: Flight 174 (TV movie) - Lynn Brown (1995)
• Frequent Flyer (TV movie) - JoBeth Rawlings (1996)
• Diagnosis Murder (TV series) Looks Can Kill - Dr. Elaine Denell (1997)
• Biography: Hello Angels Week - Guest Hostess (2000)
• TV Tales: Charlie's Angels (Documentary) - Herself (2002)
• The Oprah Winfrey Show, "Classic Americana" - Herself (2008)
• Lucky Christmas (Executive Producer) (2011)
• Zombie Blondes (Executive Producer) (2012)

Stage

• Vanities (1981)
• Born Yesterday (1982)
• Close Ties (1983)
• Tamara (1989)

Home Video

• The Celebrity Guide to Wine - Herself (1990)
• The Celebrity Guide to Entertaining - Herself (1993)

Discography/Audio Book

• The First Family Rides Again (1981)
• The Big Book for Our Planet - Narrator (1993)
• Lord of Hawkfell Island - Narrator (1993)