Shelley Smith, the statuesque supermodel who starred opposite Martin Short in a sitcom and was a regular on game shows like The $10,000 Pyramid before launching an egg donation program to help infertile couples, she has died. She was 70 years old.
Smith died Tuesday at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, her husband of 18 years, actor Michael Maguire, announced through tears on social media. He had been in a coma after going into cardiac arrest three days earlier and his health had deteriorated over the past year, he said.
On the 1979-80 ABC sitcom the associateskind of a sequel to The paper chase From creators James L. Brooks, Ed. Weinberger, Stan Daniels, and Charlie Hauck, Smith starred as a smart, upper-class Bostonian who works at a Wall Street law firm.
The show, which also featured Short, Joe Regalbuto, Alley Mills and Wilfrid Hyde-White, with whom he honored the cover of tv guide in November 1979, it lasted only 13 episodes.
The 5-foot-9 Smith played Captain Carolyn Engel in another short-lived series, the 1983 NBC military drama. for love and honor, which also starred Keenen Ivory Wayans and Yaphet Kotto. It was inspired by the blockbuster. An officer and a gentleman and aired 12 episodes.
Meanwhile, Smith was proving to be a popular contestant on game shows including super password, Body language and the one presented by Dick Clark $10,000 pyramid (followed by their inflation-adjusted versions of $25,000 and $100,000). His skills helped his partners win thousands of dollars.
“She was really good at Pyramid“The A.V. Club scored in 2014 when he placed her on his list of celebrities who found their “greatest fame” on game shows. “Smith not only possessed a formidably agile mind for the English language, but also carried himself with an unearthly calm that put the contestants at ease.”
Born October 25, 1952, in Princeton, New Jersey, Smith graduated from the University of Connecticut and built a prosperous modeling career, appearing in magazines such as Fashion, harper’s bazaar, Glamor and Miss.
She made her acting debut in 1979, appearing in an NBC telefilm about cosmetic surgery, mirror mirrorand in the associates. She would go on to guest star on shows like fantasy island, Hotel, the love boat, Murder, she wrote, Hunter, Magnum. Piand simon and simon in the early 1990s.
Smith gave up acting, earned a master’s degree in psychology from Antioch University, and became a marriage and family therapist.
In 1991, she founded The Egg Donor Program after having twins, Nicky and Miranda, through in vitro fertilization. He sold the company, now known as Hatch Fertility, a few years ago.
“When she wanted children and was having a hard time, she went through the process and discovered IVF and saw what was wrong with the industry…and started her own company,” Maguire said. “She helped thousands and thousands of people have babies. She was so sweet, and she was able to relive her own struggles and help other people avoid those struggles. It was nice to see it.”
