Her first film was as a Mexican mistress in Paul Newman's The Life and
Times of Judge Roy Bean for which she earned a Golden Globe Nomination
as Most Promising Newcomer. Her next film was The Naked Ape (1973)
that also starred Johnny Crawford, in which she went topless. (Years
later, on The Tonight Show, she said that this was the worst movie of
her career.) She also that year appeared in a nude Playboy pictorial.
She later claimed that she didn't read the fine print for her contract
for The Naked Ape when she signed it, as it was the fine print that
required her to do the nude pictorial.
In 1974, she landed a huge break when she was cast in a co-starring
role in the successful disaster film epic, Earthquake.
Two years later, disappointed with her career, she quit acting and for
the next few years worked as an agent. Principal planned on going to
law school, and later become a studio executive.
Aaron Spelling offered her one year's tuition to accept a role in the
pilot of Fantasy Island. She agreed, and then landed the role of
Pamela Ewing in Dallas. Her part of Pamela Barnes Ewing was the
dramatic fulcrum point of the entire series - a Barnes marrying into
the clan-hating Ewing family caused rifts which would erupt for years
in and around Southfork. In 1983, her role earned her a Golden Globe
Nomination as Best Actress in a Television Series.
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