Where are they now: MARGARET MICHAELS

Margaret Michaels came to SANTA BARBARA to replace Ava Lazar as Santana Andrade. She briefly portrayed the role from April to October 1985. Previously she has been hired as leading fashion model by rum Bacardi. Rid of the concern of earning her life, she then joined comedy lessons to fill her leisures, and also to learn how to become more natural in front of a camera. At these lessons, she met a young actor who advised her to leave New York, where she felt badly, to go to California to try her chance in Hollywood. He even gave her the address of one of his producer friends who could do something for her. “Thus I became in Los Angeles a production assistant. I was a little disappointed. But, very quickly, I was proposed small roles and it is thanks to one of these "breakdowns", like we say in this job, that one of the directors of Santa Barbara noticed me and hired me without any audition”. The small roles she speak about were on The Jeffersons (1982), Dynasty (1982) and Brian DePalma’s Scarface (1983).

In the late 1980s, Warner Bros. was looking for a Victoria Principal look-a-like to step into the role of Pamela Ewing on Dallas, after Victoria Principal had left the series. Late in 1988, Michaels appeared briefly in the first episode of the 11th season as Pamela Ewing, who had undergone plastic surgery after her near-fatal car accident. In the penultimate season 12, the producers of the series were looking for a Pam look-alike in order to give Bobby Ewing a chance to sort of say good bye to his former wife, as he never had the chance when Pamela had left abruptly back in 1987. Michaels was asked to return to the show, this time not as Pamela Ewing, but as a Pam Ewing look-a-like named Jeanne O'Brien. After her 4-episode stint on the show, Michaels' character Jeanne was written out.

From that moment on, Margaret Michaels left acting. She is devoted to the animal kingdom supporting Best Friends Animal Society sense 1979, and most recently the Onyx and Breezy Foundation. Since a continuation of the old Dallas, following a 20-year break, aired last year on TNT, I wonder if we’ll see Margaret Michaels in the coming seasons of the new Dallas.