Kate Jackson: That Feisty Ex-Angel is living her own life now
Title: Kate Jackson: That Feisty Ex-Angel is Living Her Own Life Now
Source: Ladies Home Journal
Author: Nicholas Harring
Date: June 1980
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“Kate left the TV series that brought her Angel-fame. But her young husband, family plans and a more varied career more than make up for the halo.”
Kate Jackson was the second defecting Angel in Charlie’s formerly triumphant triad. She left the series in 1979 to pursue her own career and, as she told Journal two years ago, to be married by the time she’s 31. When the Journal last spoke to her she was dating actors Warren Beatty and Nick Nolte with the knowledge that neither man would become her husband. She had yet to meet Andrew Stevens, the 24-year-old son of actress Stella Stevens. It was on the beach at Malibu in July 1978 that their romance began; they were married six weeks later on Martha’s Vineyard.
Kate is still the slender, feisty, independent actress she was at the peak of Charlie’s Angels success. Always outspoken, not as glossy as the others who made their fame on the show (Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd and the also departed Shelley Hack), she doesn’t have any regrets about leaving the series.
As we sit, talking over coffee at her dining room table on a bright California Sunday morning, Kate is keyed with energy; her face, animated and makeup-free, seems to contort in a hundred humorous expressions. She is wearing a checked shirt obviously a couple of sizes too large for her, and faded blue corduroy jeans - no shoes. “I’m comfortable,” she says, aware of her rather unglamorous appearance. “I’m going outdoor roller skating later this afternoon and I wan t to get some sun. Who needs makeup?”
The new Beverly Hills home she and Andrew have bought is in complete disarray. All around, there are unpacked cartons, crates, furniture and keepsakes heaped in corners. “It’s a mess now,” Kate says, “but it’s going to be beautiful - another step into the future.”
Kate prefers to deal with the present and future than recall the past. When she does glance back to her days as an Angel, it is usually with a sigh of relief that she no longer is one.
“I’m not as nervous as I was during the show,” she says. “I’m not under as much strain and negative pressure. There’s not as much hassle; no more beating my head against the wall. Still, I suppose I’ll probably always be identified as an Angel, and there are worse things in life than that.”
It has now been nearly two years since Kate first asked for her release from her Charlie’s Angels contract. That contract, among other things, forced her to turn down the role Meryl Streep eventually got in Kramer vs. Kramer - something that in view of that movie’s enormous success, must be more than a minor disappointment.
Since then, however, Kate has been making up for lost time, co-producing and starring with Andrew in their TV remake of Topper; appearing with him for three weeks in Barefoot in the Park on the stage of the Burt Reynolds’ Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, Florida, and playing opposite Elliot Gould in the soon-to-be-released film, Dirty Tricks.
Then, too, she has been faced with the task of trying to make a show business marriage work, which anyone in Hollywood knows is no short order.
The marriage between Kate and Andrew began with unexpected fanfare when the press learned that the two were going to Martha’s Vineyard to “elope.” “We weren’t really eloping,” Kate recalls. “We planned to be married with just our families present. But all of a sudden it was this tremendous thing. There were reporters from every magazine; the phones were ringing off the hook, helicopters were flying around the house…. It was bizarre.”
Things have quieted down somewhat since then, but the couple’s life has not settled into what Kate considers an orderly pattern either. They have learned to cope with long periods apart by taking advantage of any small block of time left between their too-busy schedules.
“Right now, I’m working on projects that can be handled by telephone.” Kate says, “and I’m free to spend time with my husband every couple of weeks.” Several weeks after our Hollywood visit with Kate, she flew to Baniff in the Canadian Rockies, where Andrew was filming Death Hunt with Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson. She talks and cuddles with Andrew in the trailer for a while, then decides to go outside, where the temperature is hovering around ten degrees below zero. The owner of four Siberian huskies, Kate has learned that there are ten teams of the dogs on the movie set. So she borrows Andrew’s heavy socks and ski parka and, after giving him a kiss, heads out into the snow.
Andrew explains that he and Kate mostly work separately because there are problems in working together. “Kate’s interests are different from mine. Television has been good to her. She likes it and wants to do it more. I, on the other hand, have no interest in series television,” adds the boyish blond-haired Andrew. “I want to do films, and if I do TV, it’s only going to be made for TV films.
“Kate and I are not a package deal; you don’t hire one and automatically get the other. Kate is going to follow her interests, and I am going to follow mine.”
Problems Revealed
Kate agrees. She recalls with fondness the making of Topper, which was ABC’s highest-rated Friday Night Movie last year, but remembers that it revealed the problems and drawbacks in “Team” efforts.
“It’s rough on two people who live together to work on something together,” she says. “There were times when we were both so intense that we became a little rigid. We had to back off and say, “It’s not heart surgery; it’s a movie.”
Kate also confirms that while movie acting attracts her - and she will take parts - television is her favorite medium.
“When used properly, TV can be the most powerful medium in the world,” she says. Jane Fonda recognizes this.
“When Jane decided to go into television, she came to talk to me about it. She told me that more people saw the third rated prime time television shows on any given one night than would ever see her in the film Coming Home for all time. Indeed, once Jane and I walked into a restaurant in Santa Barbara together; all eyes were on me, not Jane, which really surprised me.
“People seem to think that the logical progression is from television to movies. But they don’t realize the exposure is greater on television. Jane Fonda has made a deal with ABC [a made-for-TV film, The Dollmakers, expected to air later this year], and I’ve told her all I know about the business.”
Thinking again about her career and her marriage, Kate admits that there are limits to the amount of separations a marriage can stand. Last year for example, after completing work in Montreal in Dirty Tricks, she was in conflict about doing a TV movie project that would have taken her to another distant location after a brief two week break.
“I finally asked to withdraw from the project, even though it was a terrific script and I was truly anxious to do it,” Kate recalls. “I’d been away from home and Andrew long enough, Andrew has never asked me not to work, but when I said I was withdrawing in order to spend more time with him, Andrew agreed.
“It’s tough on any married couple to be apart and I’m not talking about infidelity. It’s just not a good thing. After all, you get married because you want to be with your mate.
“On the other hand,” Kate muses, “I can’t sacrifice my career. Andrew wouldn’t want that either.”
Passing up the TV movie project, Kate says, was merely one of the compromises that must occasionally be made to strike a balance between career and marriage - the kind of selective compromise she believes will help her avoid having to change the two.
Now Kate has reached the age of 31, and what she expects to be doing in the near future - besides films, and, perhaps a new half-hour TV series she prefers to keep mum about - is starting a family.
“I want to pass the love I have for life on to another human being, who will pass it on in turn,” she says. “But I don’t want to just have a baby and let someone else take care of it. I want to have time with my child. I want to be a good mother. I want a full, well-rounded life,” she says, “and parenting is one of the most important human experiences. I’d like to have a hundred kids, but I guess we’ll settle for two.”