Pam Dawber

Pam Dawber is an American actress born on October 18, 1951, in Detroit, Michigan, the elder of two daughters of Thelma M. (née Fisher) and Eugene E. Dawber, a commercial artist. She attended Reid Elementary School in Goodrich and later North Farmington High School and Oakland Community College, where she initially planned to transfer to a four-year institution. She left her studies to pursue modeling and eventually committed to it full-time, relocating to New York City and signing with Wilhelmina Models. During the 1970s, she appeared in television commercials for brands including Fotomat, Noxzema, Neet, and Underalls before transitioning to acting.

Dawber tested for the title role in Tabitha, a 1977–1978 sitcom spun off from Bewitched, though the part ultimately went to Lisa Hartman. ABC executives were sufficiently impressed to place her in the network's talent development program, through which producer Garry Marshall recruited her. Marshall cast her, without a formal audition, as one of the two leads in the ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982. She played Mindy McConnell, the comedic foil and eventual love interest to the extraterrestrial character Mork, portrayed by Robin Williams. The series ranked third in the Nielsen ratings during its debut season. Throughout the run, Dawber resisted network pressure to sexualize her character, with Williams's support.

Dawber's Broadway credit came in 1981, when she performed the role of Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance at the Minskoff Theatre in New York. The production was rooted in the Joseph Papp and New York Shakespeare Festival staging, and the role of Mabel had previously been played by Linda Ronstadt in the New York run. Dawber had also performed the role in a Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production of the Gilbert and Sullivan work prior to her Broadway appearance.

From 1986 to 1988, Dawber starred as Samantha Russell in the CBS sitcom My Sister Sam, co-starring Rebecca Schaeffer. The series performed well in its first season but saw ratings decline after moving to Saturday nights in its second, and CBS canceled it in April 1988. A portion of the second season's episodes never aired on CBS and were later broadcast on USA Network along with the full series. In July 1989, Schaeffer was shot and killed outside her Los Angeles apartment by an obsessed fan, Robert John Bardo, who had stalked her for three years. Dawber subsequently became a gun control advocate and participated in a filmed public service announcement on gun violence prevention alongside surviving cast members Joel Brooks, David Naughton, and Jenny O'Hara. She also serves as a national spokeswoman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Dawber's film work includes the 1992 comedy Stay Tuned with John Ritter and the 1999 period film I'll Remember April, in which she appeared alongside her husband, actor Mark Harmon. In 1997, she starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom Life... and Stuff. In 2014, she reunited with Williams on his comedy series The Crazy Ones, playing a love interest to his character. Williams died later that year. In 2016, Dawber made a guest appearance on The Odd Couple in a tribute episode to Garry Marshall, who died that year, alongside alumni including Ron Howard, Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams, Anson Williams, Don Most, and Marion Ross. In 2021, she appeared in seven episodes of CBS's NCIS, playing investigative journalist Marcie Warren.

Dawber married Mark Harmon on March 21, 1987, in a private ceremony. They have two sons, born in 1988 and 1992. She is Roman Catholic.