Jan Smithers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jan Smithers on the cover of Newsweek, March 21, 1966

Karin Jan Smithers (born July 3, 1949) is an American television and film actress.

Smithers grew up in Woodland Hills, California. She attended William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills. She played the character Bailey Quarters on the popular television series WKRP in Cincinnati. She first reached the public eye as a teenager, when she was featured on the cover of a 1966 issue of Newsweek, seated on a motorcycle. As a result of that exposure, she landed some commercial modeling work while pursuing studies at the California Institute of the Arts.

As a teen, Smithers was involved in a car accident which left a permanent scar on her chin. To avoid another car that had run a stop sign, Jan swerved and hit a telephone pole. The impact smashed her face into the steering wheel, causing the injury. This scar cost her some roles and, according to Jan, made her feel insecure about her looks.

From 1987 through 1995 she was married to actor James Brolin. They had one daughter together. Although she had been living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and had retired from show business, she is now living in Ojai, California, and is reported to be considering a return to acting.^{[citation needed]} In 2001 Jan appeared on Entertainment Tonight specifically to quash the rumor that Barbra Striesand has stolen Brolin away from her. She said that Smithers and Brolin had broken up years before Brolin met Streisand.