Pam Dawber

Dawber was born in Detroit, the older of two daughters of Thelma M. (née Fisher) and Eugene E. Dawber, a commercial artist.{{cite journal| last=Bernstein| first=Fred| title=Dawber hits the Mark!| journal=People| url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20095744,00.html| volume=27| date=March 1987| page=45| access-date=June 18, 2013| archive-date=March 4, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304064718/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20095744,00.html| url-status=dead}} She went to Reid Elementary School in Goodrich and attended North Farmington High School and Oakland Community College (OCC), with the intention of transferring to a four-year college.{{cite news| url=http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/02/13/detroit-native-pam-dawber-to-reunite-with-mork-mindy-alumn-robin-williams-on-cbs-the-crazy-ones/| title=Detroit Native Pam Dawber To Reunite With 'Mork & Mindy' Alumn Robin Williams On CBS's 'The Crazy Ones'| work=WWJ News | date=February 13, 2014| access-date=August 16, 2014}} 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 with Wilhelmina Models before switching to acting. She appeared in several television commercials during the 1970s (Fotomat, Noxzema, Neet, Underalls, etc.). {{cite book| title=Wake Me When It's Funny: How to Break Into Show Business and Stay| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qEJcH4zNGVgC| author=Marshall, Garry| year=1997| page=16| publisher=Newmarket Press| isbn=978-1-5570-4288-0}}

Dawber screen-tested for the title role in Tabitha, a 1977 to 1978 situation comedy spun off from Bewitched, but the role instead went to Lisa 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 sitcom Mork & Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982. She portrayed Mindy McConnell, the comedic foil and eventual love interest for the extraterrestrial Mork from the planet Ork, played by a then-unknown Robin Williams. The show was very popular in its debut season, when it averaged at number three in the Nielsen ratings for the year.{{cite web |url=http://www.amug.org/~scrnsrc/top_tv_shows_70s.html |title=Screen Source: Top TV Shows, 1970's |website=Arizona Macintosh Users Group |date=March 28, 1997 |access-date=May 16, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151020084338/http://www.amug.org/~scrnsrc/top_tv_shows_70s.html |archive-date=October 20, 2015 }} The only major difficulty for her on set was that she often found it impossible to maintain 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 of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, based on the Joseph Papp / New York Shakespeare Festival production. Her role, as Mabel, had been played by Linda 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 the CBS sitcom My Sister Sam, co-starring Rebecca 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) on USA Network.{{Cn|date=January 2025}}

In July 1989, over a year after the show's cancellation, Schaeffer was shot and killed in front of her apartment in Los Angeles by Robert John Bardo, an obsessed fan who had stalked her for three years. Dawber was reportedly "devastated" by her former co-star's death.{{cite book |quote=[Rebecca Schaeffer's] Sam costar Pam Dawber adored her and was devastated by her death. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4TUbsH5QJ8EC&pg=PT255 |title=Obsession |first1=John E. |last1=Douglas |first2=Mark |last2=Olshaker |date=November 1, 1998 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-4391-0740-9|access-date=September 26, 2014}} Dawber and her other surviving My Sister Sam co-stars{{Snd}}Joel Brooks, David Naughton and Jenny O'Hara{{Snd}}all participated in a filmed public service announcement about gun violence prevention, and Dawber herself became a gun control advocate.

Although mostly known for her television work, Dawber has starred in several films, including the comedy movie Stay Tuned (1992) with John Ritter and the period movie I'll Remember April (1999), alongside husband Mark Harmon.

In 1997, Dawber starred in the short-lived sitcom Life... and Stuff on CBS.{{cite news| newspaper=Variety| title=Review: 'Life and Stuff'| date=June 6, 1997| url=https://variety.com/1997/film/reviews/life-and-stuff-3-1200450308/}}

In 2014, she reunited with Robin Williams on his comedy series The Crazy Ones as a love interest of Williams's character.{{cite web |url=http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/01/24/pam-dawber-to-reunite-with-robin-williams-in-an-upcoming-episode-of-the-crazy-ones/231803/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140128113926/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/01/24/pam-dawber-to-reunite-with-robin-williams-in-an-upcoming-episode-of-the-crazy-ones/231803/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 28, 2014 |title=Pam Dawber to Reunite With Robin Williams in an Upcoming Episode of 'The Crazy Ones' |author=Sara Bibel |date=January 24, 2014 |website=TV by the Numbers |access-date=August 12, 2014}}{{cite news | url=http://www.i4u.com/2014/01/61759/pam-dawber-reunites-robin-williams | title=Pam Dawber Reunites with Robin Williams | date=January 24, 2014 | access-date=August 16, 2014 | archive-date=August 19, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819084557/http://www.i4u.com/2014/01/61759/pam-dawber-reunites-robin-williams | url-status=dead }} The reunion failed to improve ratings, and the series was canceled shortly afterwards. Williams, already suffering from Lewy body disease by this time, died by suicide later that year.

Dawber is a national spokeswoman for Big 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 on The Odd Couple in a tribute episode to Marshall, along with other Marshall alumni such as Ron Howard, Garry's sister Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams, Anson Williams, Don Most and Marion Ross.

She appeared with her husband, fellow actor Mark Harmon, on CBS's NCIS in 2021 for seven episodes as '"seasoned investigative journalist" Marcie Warren.{{cite magazine |url=https://people.com/tv/mark-harmon-wife-pam-dawber-to-join-him-on-ncis-for-4-episodes/ |title=Mark Harmon's Wife Pam Dawber to Join Him on 'NCIS' for 4 Episodes |first=Naledi |last=Ushe |magazine=People |access-date=March 17, 2021}}

Dawber married actor Mark Harmon on March 21, 1987, in a private ceremony.{{cite book| title=Earl Blackwell's Celebrity Register, 1990| publisher=Gale Research| year=1990| pages=[https://archive.org/details/earlblackwellsce0000unse/page/113 113, 190]| isbn=978-0-8103-6875-0| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/earlblackwellsce0000unse/page/113}} They have two sons: one born in 1988{{cite news |date=April 27, 1988 |title=Baby Boom |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-27-ca-1515-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}} and another in 1992.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.parade.com/celebrity/2008/09/in-step-with-mark-harmon |title=In Step With...Mark Harmon |magazine=Parade |date=September 2008 |access-date=November 26, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120908065718/http://www.parade.com/celebrity/2008/09/in-step-with-mark-harmon |archive-date=September 8, 2012 }} Dawber is Roman Catholic.{{cite web |title=Select FIRST letter of actor’s first name… P |url=https://christiananswers.net/spotlight/actors-p.html |website=ChristianAnswers.net |access-date=December 24, 2023}}

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Category:1951 births

Category:20th-century American actresses

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Pam Dawber

Category:Living people

Category:North Farmington High School alumni

Category:Oakland Community College alumni

Category:People from Farmington Hills, Michigan