About Jenilee Harrison
Jenilee Harrison (born June 12, 1958) is an American actress who is possibly best known for her role as the replacement "dumb blonde" roommate Cindy Snow on the hit ABC-TV sitcom series "Three's Company", between 1980 and 1982. She went on to play Jamie Ewing on the long-running CBS-TV nighttime soap opera/drama series "Dallas" from 1984 to 1986.
Before breaking into show business, Harrison, who was born and raised in the Northridge section of Los Angeles, California, was a cheerleader from 1978–1980 for the NFL's Los Angeles Rams. She joined the cast of ABC-TV's Three's Company in 1980, in the middle of the show's fourth season. She entered the show as a replacement for Suzanne Somers who played the sitcom's ditzy "dumb blonde" Chrissy Snow. Somers left the show just after the show's fifth season had begun. Harrison was cast as Somers' replacement. Harrison's character, Cindy Snow, was created to be Chrissy Snow's cousin. Unlike Chrissy, Cindy was not a "dumb blonde"; instead, she was an extremely clumsy farm-girl. The character of Cindy was similar enough to Chrissy, however, that producers could use scripts already written with the Chrissy character in mind. Harrison debuted on Three's Company in the episode titled "Chrissy's Cousin" (season 5, episode 7). She enters as Jack and Janet's new roommate after Chrissy's departure.
Cindy proves she's a klutz right away by knocking Jack down. Her constant "accidents" (mainly with Jack) added to the show's gags of characters being clumsy. Even though she had replaced Somers, Harrison was not given opening credits billing, and instead Somers still obtained opening billing (as a part of finishing off her contract). Harrison was end-credits billed, as a guest star.
For the sixth season of Three's Company, a new blonde roommate named Terri Alden (Priscilla Barnes), a smart nurse, took Cindy's place in the apartment. Harrison was retained on the show and this time was given opening cast billing. However, she now had a lesser role, appearing less frequently in the series, with the character living near the apartment, at UCLA. By the end of the season, however, Cindy Snow disappeared from the series. Her last appearance was in "Janet Wigs Out" (season 6, episode 24).
In 1984, Jenilee played a reluctant prostitute in the movie "Tank", alongside actors James Garner and C. Thomas Howell.
Also, beginning in 1984, Harrison portrayed the recurring character Jamie Ewing Barnes in the CBS-TV drama/nightime soap series Dallas. She played the role until 1986. Her character was actually killed off twice, first when she starts the car belonging to her brother, Jack Ewing, in the episode "Blast from the Past" and it explodes killing her. After the whole season was explained away as a dream, Harrison returned for her character to die again. Early in 1987, Jamie was killed in a mountain climbing accident.
In 1985, she appeared on the NBC-TV daytime game show "Super Password" with Dick Gautier, appearing again in 1986, this time with Marty Cohen, Michael Young and Bruce Baum, and fellow "Dallas" TV-series star Ken Kercheval back in 1987 with Bert Convy.
Harrison also guest-starred on the FOX TV sitcom series "That '70s Show" in 1999.
In 2005, Harrison began appearing in infomercials for the "Ultimate Chopper with Chef Tony".
In the early 1980s, Harrison dated L.A. Rams guard Dennis Harrah and Major League Baseball player Reggie Jackson.
In 1993 she married Dr. Bruce Oppenheim, a prominent Los Angeles-area chiropractor, who is the ex-husband of actress Cybill Shepherd. She has two stepchildren from her husband's previous marriage to Shepherd: Molly Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim and Cyrus Zachariah Shepherd-Oppenheim.
