Victoria Principal was born Vicki Ree Principal and is an American actress, author, producer, and entrepreneur who is best known for her role as Pamela Barnes Ewing on the primetime television soap opera “Dallas.” The TV series aired from 1978 to 1991, but Principal only appeared until 1987. After her nine years on “Dallas,” Principal started her own production company, Victoria Principal Productions. This is just one of her many successful business ventures.
Principal’s production company mainly produced television movies. Principal appeared in some of the films she produced as well. Some of the films produced by her company include “Naked Lie” and “Blind Witness” in 1989 as well as “Sparks: The Price of Passion” in 1990. Principal would later leave the company to focus more on other projects.
Principal has been married and divorced twice and never had children. She has always been a highly motivated and creative person. In addition to acting and producing, she also has written four books. Three of the books were about health, beauty, and fitness, while the fourth was a self-help manual titled “Living Principal.” Her dedication to beauty and wellness led her to create Principal Secret, a skincare product line.
Principal’s skincare company was established in 1989 and is still around today. The products are a collection of cleansers, eye serums, and moisturizers meant for daily use. She stepped down from direct involvement with the company in 2019 to focus more on her charitable offers. However, from the way she looks at age 74, it is safe to assume that she is still religious about her skincare routine. Read on to learn more about Principal’s life and to see how she looks today.
Early Life and Career
Victoria Principal (1973), (Alan Band/Keystone/Getty Images)
Principal was born on January 3, 1950, in Fukuoka, Japan. She is the eldest daughter of United States Air Force sergeant Victor Rocco Principal. Her mother was Georgia native Ree Veal. Principal’s family was stationed in Japan at the time of her birth, and she lived there for her first three months of life.
Principal moved around often in childhood due to her father’s military career. She was raised in London, Puerto Rico, Florida, Massachusetts, and Georgia, among other places. Principal also attended 17 different schools, including the Royal Ballet School in England. Since the age of 5, Principal appeared in television commercials, which is when her love for acting first began.
Principal graduated from South Dade Senior High School in 1968 and then enrolled at Miami–Dade Community College, where she intended to study medicine. Unfortunately, she was hit by a drunk driver near the end of her first year of college and had to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time. Because of this, she was faced with the prospect of having to redo her first year of studies upon returning.
Instead of continuing her career path in the medical field, Principal decided to pursue a career in acting. She moved to New York at first but then decided to go to London, where she studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with Jean Scott. In 1970, she moved to Los Angeles to further her career in acting. She began starring in Western films, including “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” opposite Paul Newman. Principal earned a Golden Globe nomination as most promising newcomer for the role.
In 1974, Principal was cast in the feature-length disaster film “Earthquake.” In order to win the role of Rosa, she drastically changed her appearance by cutting her hair short and dying it black to appear more like the character. Her risky move paid off, and she was chosen in the end. This was one of the films that helped Principal gain attention as an actress.
“Dallas” was a primetime soap opera series on CBS that began airing in 1978. Principal was working as a talent agent in Hollywood at the time, and when she came across the script for a new show that was being cast, she knew she was perfect for the role of Pamela Barnes Ewing. She called the casting person and told them to expect her for an audition, and she got the part.
Principal spoke with People about the experience. “When I went in for the part on ‘Dallas,’ I had already fallen in love with the show and with the part, so my feeling from the moment I read it was that it was incredibly special and that I really, really wanted to be a part of it. I could not imagine not being Pam,” she said. It was as if she was born for the role.
Principal enjoyed her nine years on “Dallas,” despite not having a close relationship with her castmates. She told People, “There were phone calls, but I didn’t really have get-togethers. We never hung out really anyway. We worked together and we had different lives. When I started the show Patrick was married and starting a family, Steve was married and starting a family, Larry was married with children, Linda was married with children. I was single. And so those are very different lifestyles.”
Principal eventually decided her time on the show was nearing an end. “The first five years on ‘Dallas’ were so unbelievably wonderful — then some key writers departed, and by year 7 there was a decline in the writing, which was an enormous part of my decision to leave,” Principal told Entertainment Weekly. There was some drama surrounding her decision to leave the show; she said in the same interview that her parking space was taken away after her announcement.
After deciding to depart from “Dallas,” Principal went back and forth with the production company, who begged her to stay. She added to Entertainment Weekly, “The pressure intensified until they made an offer that completely caught me off guard: A few days before my final scene in the car accident, I’m offered a per-episode salary that would have made me the highest-paid woman on TV. There are moments in life when you discover your true character. That night I slept like a baby, because I wasn’t for sale.” She did not take the offer and left the show.
Despite her premature departure from the show, Principal looks back at her time, portraying Pam fondly. “I learned a lot from playing Pam. She was someone with such innate goodness and who was courageous in fighting for what she believed in. It was really a privilege to play her,” she said in the same interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Now over 30 years after the show has ended, new audiences are still finding a love for it. “I’m happy, based on all the emails that I’ve gotten, that people are introducing their children or their grandchildren to ‘Dallas’. I’m so excited that people continue to remember ‘Dallas,’” Principal told People Magazine.
Philanthropy
Principal has had a long history of charity work and devotion to the environment. She told The Huffington Post in 2012, “My deepest concern is for the planet and every living thing on it. Without a healthy planet, education won’t matter, hunger won’t matter and science won’t matter because we will not survive. Unless we rectify the damage we have done to our land and our oceans, then I truly believe, the planet will reclaim itself. If it is true that you reap what you sow, then all of humanity should be very frightened.”
This reverence Principal has for the planet is what drove her to start her own charity, The Victoria Principal Foundation For Thoughtful Existence. She explains what the foundation stands for in an interview with TV Insider, “I also created a charitable organization in 2006. The impetus is to help financially support this beautiful planet and life upon it. I’m particularly involved with ecology, oceans, banning toxic substances and helping children and animals.”
Principal shared more details about her work with animals with TV Insider, “I rescue and rehabilitate animals that have been neglected and abused. They need medical care, patience and love to recover physically, emotionally and in spirit. This is not a charitable organization but rather something I have dreamed of and they all live out the rest of their lives with me. It’s something that fills me with joy every day.”
When asked what her biggest accomplishment was by The Huffington Post, Principal responded, “Lobbying for 11 years as the ambassador to the government for the Arthritis Foundation. I was able to participate in establishing a federal fund in the National Institutes of Health for all autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, scleroderma and many more.”
Beauty as a Way of Life
Outside of the show “Dallas,” Principal’s greatest lasting achievement has been her skincare company, Principal Secret. She designed the line of skincare products to treat her own skin issues but decided to share her findings with the world. At age 74, Principal still looks youthful and glowing, so she must be doing something right.
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In an interview with The Huffington Post, Principal shared that she has loved skincare since she was a child and still does. “To this day I find the ceremony of skincare to be magical and irresistible. The musical sound of containers being opened and closed. The fragrance that wafts gently to you. The feel of a luxurious formula softening your skin, and the afterglow,” she said.
Part of her reason for starting her own skincare company in the 1980s was out of necessity. “In my young 20s, I developed adult acne, dermatologists could only prescribe antibiotics to clear it up, and these medicines left me with a terrible stomach ache. I found myself in a vicious cycle of studio skin care and makeup, acne breakouts, prescribed antibiotics, the acne drying up, a bill I could not afford and a stomach ache,” she told The Huffington Post.
Principal’s solution to this issue came later when she developed her own line of products. “I decided to break out of this cycle and to search out a healthy and holistic manner to treat my skin. Once I discovered I was allergic to more than half the ingredients of all skincare and make up, I arranged with a chemist to help make a cleanser, a moisturizer and an eye product that did not contain any of those irritants,” she said in the same interview.
Victoria Principal, Christopher Skinner (circa 1979) (Maureen Donaldson/Getty Images)
Principal told Love to Know that another driving force behind her beauty line was a desire to look young. “Soon thereafter I noticed that more and more women were resorting to drastic measures to achieve a more youthful look, but I knew that there was a better way for all of us. And so, Principal Secret was born.”
Principal also recommends a healthy lifestyle to stay looking young. “Make sure to drink plenty of water, get outside and enjoy fresh air and make sure to think of your age as how you feel, not how long you’ve lived on this planet; good judgment is the secret to the youthful glow we all want,” she said in an interview with Love to Know.
Skincare products aren’t the only thing Principal attributes to her youthful appearance. “Don’t forget the basics, which we all must do – exercising, eating, and sleeping well. Without those crucial ingredients you will find yourself fighting an uphill battle,” she said in the same interview.
Last but not least, here are the skincare products that Principal recommends everyone use to have healthy, glowing skin for life. She told Love to Know, “At the bare minimum, a woman (and man for that matter!) should have a gentle cleanser, a moisturizer with SPF for day, and eye cream – that’s it!”
Principal looks incredible for her age, so there must be some truth to her advice. She has had a thriving career as an actress, with a signature role that she still remembers fondly. Her personal life has been filled with charitable endeavors and an entrepreneurial spirit. Principal has undoubtedly had a fascinating and busy life.