Shelley Hack

Hack was born in Greenwich, Connecticut on July 6, 1947,^[1] the eldest of six children. Her father was a Wall Street financial analyst, and her mother was a former Conover model. She graduated from Greenwich Academy and Smith College, where she spent her junior year studying archeology at the University of Sydney.^[2]

Hack began her career as a teen fashion model whose first job put her on the cover of Glamour magazine. Later she became the face of Revlon's "Charlie" perfume from the mid-1970s until the early 1980s, during which it became the world's top selling fragrance.^[3] Life proclaimed her one of the "million-dollar faces" in the beauty industry able to negotiate previously unheard-of lucrative and exclusive deals with giant cosmetics companies, were instantly recognizable, and whose names became known to the general public. Hack ranked among a handful of 1970s "supermodels".^[4]

Hack's feature-film debut was a bit part in Woody Allen's Academy Award-winning film Annie Hall (1977) as "Street Stranger," followed by a leading role in the Joe Brooks romance drama, If Ever I See You Again ("A bomb", she admitted). Shortly thereafter she was cast as Kate Jackson's replacement on the television series Charlie's Angels playing the sophisticated character Tiffany Welles for one season (1979–1980). She beat out many competitors for the role, including Michelle Pfeiffer and Barbara Bach.^[2] Although there was an initial rise in the ratings (her debut episode was number one in the weekly Nielson ratings), they began to decline. Responding to the fallen ratings, ABC released Hack from her contract in February 1980. A statement later issued by Spelling-Goldberg read: "When she signed her contract for the series, Miss Hack had a personal agreement that she could review her continuation with the show at the end of her first season since series television represented an enormous change in her career and lifestyle",^[5] implying that Hack was included in the decision to exit Charlie's Angels. In an interview, Hack said, "They can say I didn't work out, but it isn't true. What happened was a network war. A business decision was made. Change the timeslot or bring on some new publicity. How to get publicity? A new Angel hunt. Who is the obvious person to replace? I am — the new kid on the block."^[6] Hack later said she "never expected to be there more than a year and I wasn't. I did my year and I moved on."^[7]

Hack thereafter played a variety of starring and supporting roles. She starred with Annette O'Toole and Meredith Baxter Birney in Vanities (1981), a television production of the comedy-drama stage play about the lives, loves and friendship of three Texas cheerleaders starting from high school to post-college graduation; it aired as a part of Standing Room Only, a series on the premium-television channel HBO. She received positive reviews for her portrayal of Cathy Long in Martin Scorsese's film The King of Comedy (1983). She had leading roles in two cult films: the comedy-horror film, Troll (1986) and the horror film The Stepfather (1987). She was also a regular on two short-lived TV series of the 1980s, Cutter to Houston (1983) and Jack and Mike (1986–87). In addition to several more notable appearances in film and television and on stage, she narrated the audiobook The Lord of Hawkfell Island, for which AudioFile stated "Shelley Hack's mellifluous voice brings this Viking tale alive."^[8]

In 1984, Hack was hired to replace Paula Kelly and portray new public defender Christine Sullivan - who was going to be romantically involved with Judge Harry Stone (Harry Anderson} - on the sitcom Night Court, But when the series started shooting, Hack and producer Reinhold Weege realized there was a problem. "What happened was the role was changed, Instead of being a funny lady, as she was in the reading, they had changed her into a straight woman. It wasn't working, The concept just didn't work and that's what I told them...what's the point if it's not working?" Hack and the producer mutually and amicably agreed she would not continue with the series.  Ellen Foley was brought in for season two as a new character, public defender Billie Young. In season three Markie Post was hired to portray Christine Sullivan.

In 1987, Hack, a former smoker, was named the national chairperson for the National Lung Association's and American Medical Association's campaign to educate young women on the dangers of cigarette smoking.^{[citation needed]}

Hack completed a master's degree in business administration from New York Institute of Technology^[9] and shortly afterwards (unofficially) retired from acting.

In October 2000, appearing as herself, Hack returned to the Charlie's Angels Townsend Agency office as a guest host on Biography, which featured profiles of several Charlie's Angels stars during '"Hello Angels Week". In January 2008, Hack appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the episode, "Classic Americana",^[10] that highlighted Hack as Revlon's Charlie perfume model in a 1976 television ad with Bobby Short at the piano.^[11][12] "It was a time when women were changing," Hack said. "Women looked at [the ad] and said 'I want to be like that.'"^[10] Additionally, referring to the Revlon Charlie commercials and Charlie's Angels, she said, "I was lucky. There were two things I was in that were about making women feel a little more empowered."^[13]

Hack and her husband Harry Winer are co-presidents of the production company Smash Media, which develops and produces content for motion pictures, television and new media.^[9]

Shelley Hack became a voting registration and polling station supervisor in the 1997 elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina and produced the first-ever televised presidential debates there as well. She also produced the debates in Sarajevo, Mostar, and the two in Banja Luka. In 1997, Hack founded the Shelley Hack Media Consultancy (SHMC), where she worked with the largest media conglomerate in Eastern Europe,^[9] primarily focused on the television sector for 10 years, creating ethnically diverse television programs in Eastern Europe. She established herself as a media consultant for pre- and post-conflict countries. Among her duties was to help spread independent media such as newspapers, radio and television, citing the fact that with autocratic governments, the population is often fed state television, which delivers biased content. Additionally, she became a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy (PCIP), which is an independent, non-partisan, membership-based organization dedicated to global engagement.^[14]

Hack has been married to film director and university professor Harry Winer since 1990. The couple have one child, daughter Devon Rose Winer (b. 1990).^[15][16]

• Shelley Hack at IMDb
• Shelley Hack at AllMovie
• Shelley Hack at Rotten Tomatoes