Pamela Bellwood

Pamela Bellwood, born Pamela King on June 26, 1951, in New York City, is an American actress whose career has spanned Broadway, television, and film. She trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York under Sanford Meisner and also pursued studies in London. Her early interest in acting was sparked by a portrayal of Emily in Our Town. Because another working actress already held the name Pamela King, she performed early in her career under the name Pamela Kingsley. She is now credited as Pamela Bellwood-Wheeler.

Bellwood's Broadway career ran from 1969 to 1973 and included two productions: Butterflies Are Free and Finishing Touches. Her work in Butterflies Are Free began regionally in 1971, when she played Jill Tanner at the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. By 1972 she had moved the role to the Booth Theatre on Broadway, where she took over from Blythe Danner. That same year she appeared alongside Barbara Bel Geddes in Finishing Touches. Her performance in Butterflies Are Free earned her a Clarence Derwent Award in 1972.

On television, Bellwood appeared in a 1974 episode of Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers and that same year played Jill Martin in the Rhoda episode titled "9-E is available." In 1978 she took the starring role of television executive Ellen Cunningham in the NBC drama W.E.B., a series set within a fictional television network that was cancelled after five episodes due to poor ratings. She is perhaps most widely recognized for her role as Claudia Blaisdel Carrington on the prime time soap opera Dynasty. An original cast member when the series launched in January 1981, Bellwood was written out during the third season in late 1982, made a single appearance in March 1983 to facilitate the recasting of Steven Carrington with actor Jack Coleman, and returned full-time in October 1983. She remained with the series until 1986, when she departed to become a full-time mother. In 2006 she reunited with former castmates for the non-fiction special Dynasty Reunion: Catfights & Caviar.

Her film credits include Two-Minute Warning, Airport '77, and The Incredible Shrinking Woman, in addition to a number of television movies. In April 1983 she appeared in an eight-page pictorial in Playboy magazine. In her personal life, Bellwood was married to British writer Peter Bellwood in the early 1970s and subsequently married photographer Nik Wheeler in 1984.