- Born
- Birth nameKarin Jan Smithers
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- One of four girls, Smithers was raised in the comfortable San Fernando
Valley suburb of Woodland Hills just north of Los Angeles, CA. Her
father was an attorney. While studying art at Taft High School,
Smithers swerved her automobile to avoid hitting another driver and ran
into a telephone pole. The accident left a permanent scar on her chin.
A couple of years later, Smithers was interviewed by Newsweek reporter
David Moberg for a story about typical American teenagers in the 1960s.
She was photographed happily riding on the back of a friend's motorcycle
by Julian Wasser. That carefree looking
shot made the cover of the March 21, 1966 issue of the magazine. The
shot led to work in commercials while she was continuing her art
studies at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.
After a few years as a working actress, she won the role of pretty but
shy Bailey Quarters in
WKRP in Cincinnati (1978),
a CBS sitcom about a Midwestern radio station. After the show ended its
run, she worked on occasion and in 1987, married actor
James Brolin. She became a stepmother to
his two sons and had a daughter with Brolin. Her marriage to Brolin
ended in 1995.- IMDb Mini Biography By: subcity
- SpousesJames Brolin(1986 - 1995) (divorced, 1 child)Kipp Whitman(December 1, 1971 - October 1972) (divorced)
- Children
- As of 2004, was retired from acting and living in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada. - Dismissed stories that singer Barbra Streisand had ruined her marriage to
James Brolin, by pointing out that she and Brolin had parted (amicably,
sharing custody of their daughter) a full five years before Streisand
and Brolin got together. - Mother, with James Brolin, of daughter Molly Brolin (aka Molly Elizabeth Brolin), born in 1987.
- As of 10/2017 was living in Ojai, CA.
- Ex-stepmother of Josh Brolin and Jess Brolin.
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