Victoria Principal

Acting

Victoria Principal

Born 1950-01-03 · Fukuoka, Japan

Victoria Principal (born January 3, 1950) is an American actress, producer, entrepreneur, and author, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes Ewing on the American primetime television soap opera series Dallas. After her debut in John Huston's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) (opposite Paul Newman), she earned a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. After a few disappointing films, Principal decided to leave acting and became a Hollywood talent agent and booking agent, which was her profession from 1975 to late 1977. She then had ambitions to study at law school, and would support herself if needed through small acting roles on television, rather than in feature films, so as to fund her future college tuition. In 1977, she made a return to acting in a guest appearance on the pilot of the television series Fantasy Island which aired on the ABC network, and in the 1977 television film The Night They Took Miss Beautiful on the NBC network. The initial offer to return to acting came when television producer Aaron Spelling directly offered Principal a role in the pilot of his television series Fantasy Island, which she accepted on the condition that the contract stipulated for her role to be written out of the ongoing series, as she was reportedly planning to attend law school. When Principal obtained the pilot audition script for Dallas, her academic career ambitions changed, and she decided to return to the full-time acting profession.

Acting credits

Earthquake poster
6.2

Various interconnected people struggle to survive when an earthquake of unimaginable magnitude hits Los Angeles, California.

Earthquake

1974

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean poster
6.5

Outlaw and self-appointed lawmaker Judge Roy Bean rules over an empty stretch of the West that gradually grows, under his iron fist, into a thriving town, while dispensing his his own quirky brand of frontier justice upon strangers passing by.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

1972

Fantasy Island poster
7.5

Mr. Roarke and his assistant Tattoo greet a former reporter in World War II who wants to relive a brief romance that took place in London 30 years ago, a big-game hunter who, for once, wants to be the hunted and a wealthy businesswoman who wants to be a secret and silent observer at her own funeral.

Fantasy Island

1977

No artwork available
NR

Trace the history of television and its impact on American culture with clips, newsreels, and exclusive interviews from television greats like Walter Cronkite, Carol Burnett, and Jay Leno.

Television: The First Fifty Years

1999

Night of 100 Stars poster
5.8

The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.

Night of 100 Stars

1982

Pleasure Palace poster
5.5

Story of a professional gambler, connoisseur, gourmet and sportsman who sets out to help a Las Vegas hotel-casino owner from losing his controlling interest to a business syndicate but finds his reputation is on the line when he runs into a mystery lady who seems to operate on both sides of the law.

Pleasure Palace

1980

River of Rage: The Taking of Maggie Keene poster
5.7

A white water rafting vacation turns into a nightmare when divorced mother Maggie Keene must confront the deadly and charismatic killer who is stalking her. The hunt is on, and Maggie's desperation to stay alive proves to be a worthy match for her killer, the river, and the dangerous elements she is forced to survive.

River of Rage: The Taking of Maggie Keene

1993

Don't Touch My Daughter poster
4.7

A young girl is kidnapped and molested by a classmate's father. The man she identifies is arrested and jailed, but is later released on bail. He calls the girl's mother and threatens to kidnap her daughter again, and this time kill her and make sure her body will never be found. She goes to the authorities for help, but there's nothing they can do until he actually tries something. Afraid for her daughter's life, the mother decides to take matters into her own hands.

Don't Touch My Daughter

1991

Dallas Reunion: The Return to Southfork poster
9.0

The original cast of Dallas reunites at Southfork Ranch to remember the popular 1980's drama nighttime serial that became notorious for its 1980 cliffhanger "Who Shot J.R.?"

Dallas Reunion: The Return to Southfork

2004

Vigilante Force poster
5.0

In a small town in California, the quiet citizens find their lives disrupted by boisterous, lawless oil-field workers who have infested their community. One resident, Ben Arnold, enlists his brother Aaron, a Vietnam veteran, to assemble a group of men to restore law and order to the town. Though Aaron's crew succeeds, the newfound power goes to some of their heads, and Aaron and Ben must again reclaim the town for the citizens.

Vigilante Force

1976

The Naked Ape poster
4.4

Somewhat based on Desmond Morris's fascinating book of pop anthropology, this partially animated satirical docudrama produced by Playboy Magazine publisher Hugh Hefner, traces the evolution of human kind and offers insight into the reasons why we behave the way we do. Though often dealing with sexuality, nothing in the film is terribly offensive or graphic. A prime example of mainstream experimental film-making from the early 70's featuring a young and breathtakingly lovely Victoria Principal.

The Naked Ape

1973

The Night They Took Miss Beautiful poster
5.6

Criminals hijack an airplane carrying five beauty contest finalists, but unknowingly they've also kidnapped a government agent carrying a dangerous virus that is to be used in bacterial warfare.

The Night They Took Miss Beautiful

1977

I Will, I Will...For Now poster
4.8

Les Bingham takes umbrage that his ex-wife Katie has a new love in life. What he doesn't know is that her new paramour is lawyer Lou Springer. When Katie's sister Sally arrives and tells the two about her new, hip '70s marriage contract, Les and Katie decide to try to get together again under a more liberal marriage contract, like Katie's sister. But, unfortunately for the couple, the contract is planted with the seeds of self-destruction.

I Will, I Will...For Now

1976

Love in Another Town poster
5.2

A fortyish interior designer, dumped by her husband, moves across the country and finds love in another town in a relationship with a much younger man.

Love in Another Town

1997

Naked Lie poster
4.8

They are the perfect, and politically correct, couple. He is a judge, she is a high profile attorney. When she takes on a sensational murder case, the trail leads right to her own front door.

Naked Lie

1989

Last Hours Before Morning poster
4.5

An ex-cop, now a private detective, investigating a gambler's murder finds that there may be a connection between that crime and the jewel robbery at a beautiful movie star's home.

Last Hours Before Morning

1975

Mistress poster
4.3

A woman who's been having an affair with a married man who's been taking care of her. When he dies she finds herself with nothing. So she tries to rebuild her life but not without the stigma of being a kept woman following her.

Mistress

1987

Blind Witness poster
7.0

Woman is trapped in her home with her husband's killers.

Blind Witness

1989

Dancing in the Dark poster
6.2

Anna Forbes suffers an attack and sexual abuse by her father-in-law. But when she overcomes her fear and tells her husband Mark what happened he does not believe her, choosing instead to believe his father who denies everything. As Anna becomes increasingly desperate to be believed and her actions become more erratic, Mark has her committed to a mental institution for psychiatric treatment.

Dancing in the Dark

1995

Beyond Obsession poster
6.0

The story of Traci Di Carlo who was accused of plotting the murder of her obsessively domineering mother. Traci's boyfriend was arrested for the killing.

Beyond Obsession

1994

Michael Kael vs. the World News Company poster
4.0

A naive French reporter is sent to an African town to cover a sensational news story, unaware that it has been faked by an international news giant in the hopes of getting the US president re-elected for a third term.

Michael Kael vs. the World News Company

1998

Not Just Another Affair poster
5.4

A lady marine biologist, determined to save herself until marriage, meets a handsome attorney who is not used to being rejected sexually, and it becomes a battle of wills as to who will emerge the winner.

Not Just Another Affair

1982

No artwork available
NR

Documentary about Hollywood's glamorous stars, with commentary from five actors.

Sixty Years of Seduction

1981

Seduction: Three Tales from the 'Inner Sanctum' poster
10.0

Victoria Principal stars in three gripping tales of obsessive love, portraying three different women who find there is a price to pay when passion, desire and love are taken to the extreme. In the three tales, she is seduced into a deadly love triangle, uncovering her husband's deadly obsession, and dealing with an innocent computer correspondence that becomes an obsessive, erotic love affair.

Seduction: Three Tales from the 'Inner Sanctum'

1992