Priscilla Barnes

Priscilla Barnes
Priscilla Barnes, 2006
Born	Fort Dix, N.J.[1]
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1976–present
Official website

Priscilla Barnes is an American actress best known for her role as nurse Terri Alden on the American television sitcom Three's Company. Barnes became the permanent replacement for Suzanne Somers after Somers left the series and Jenilee Harrison served as an interim replacement.

Early life

Barnes was born in Fort Dix, New Jersey, the third of four children of a strict Air Force major father and a housewife mother. Her childhood was marked by a series of moves across various military bases in the United States before her family settled in Lancaster, California. After graduating from Antelope Valley High School at 17, relocated to San Diego, working as a waitress and a dancer.^[1]

Career

Barnes' first break came when Bob Hope saw her shimmying in a local fashion show and invited her to join his troupe for a 1973 performance at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She subsequently moved to Los Angeles to attempt a career in show business in earnest. Her second break came at 19 when she met Peter Falk at Pips. Six months later he gave her a one-line part in his TV series, Columbo, which led to a series of bit parts in films like The Seniors (1978) and Delta Fox (1979), though she regrets the topless work she did in those films for the money. In 1976 she began studying acting with coach Sal Dano, whose students included Tom Selleck, Robert Hays and Catherine Bach. In 1978 she then starred in a TV series, American Girls, which was canceled after seven weeks.^[1]

Subsequent parts include the horror film Tintorera, and TV shows such as Starsky and Hutch, The Rockford Files, The Love Boat and the 1978 TV version of The Time Machine.

She also appeared as the “Pet of the Month” for the March 1976 issue of Penthouse magazine under the pseudonym Joann Witty, though she insists that the nude photograph is not of her.^[1]

Barnes was cast as Terri Alden on Three's Company after Suzanne Somers left the series, and Jenilee Harrison served as an interim replacement. The part, which is Barnes' most famous role, brought her instant public recognition. In the 1998 TV program, E! True Hollywood Story, Barnes called Three's Company the "three worst years" of her life, even though she became lifelong friends with castmate Joyce DeWitt. Barnes revealed that after shooting a couple of episodes of the show, she felt "uncomfortable" on the set and asked to be released from her contract.

Barnes later appeared in the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill as Della Churchill, the ill-fated bride of CIA agent Felix Leiter, and in the 1995 Kevin Smith comedy Mallrats.

Barnes appeared in The Devil's Rejects, a 2005 American horror film by writer/director Rob Zombie.

References

External links

• Priscilla Barnes at the Internet Movie Database
• Priscilla Barnes at Allmovie