Jaclyn Smith turns 81 today, October 26, 2026. She was born in Houston, Texas, on October 26, 1945. Generations of TV fans know her as Kelly Garrett on Charlie’s Angels. Millions of shoppers know her name from a clothing tag, thanks to a 1985 deal with Kmart that she first refused.
Her reasons for saying no were practical, and several people in her life agreed with her. What made her reverse course, and how far that decision took her, is a business story few actresses of her era can match.
How Did A Breck Girl Become Kelly Garrett?
Smith trained as a dancer in Houston and spent a year at Trinity University in San Antonio before moving to New York. She worked in commercials and became a Breck shampoo girl in 1971. According to CBS News, a Breck ad caught the eye of producer Glen Larson, who cast her on McCloud.
Charlie’s Angels premiered in September 1976 with Smith, Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson. Fawcett left after one season and Jackson after three. Smith was the only original Angel who stayed for the show’s entire five-season run, which ended in 1981.
She kept working right after it. Her title role in the 1981 TV movie Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy earned a Golden Globe nomination, and Rage of Angels followed in 1983. Her home life was changing too. She married cinematographer Tony Richmond in 1981. Their son Gaston was born in 1982 and daughter Spencer Margaret in 1985.
Biography.com notes that Smith, now a mother of young children, started looking at what else her fame could do. That is when Kmart came calling.
Why Did Jaclyn Smith Tell Kmart No?
Kmart was the second-largest retailer in the country in the mid-1980s, and it wanted Smith’s name on a budget line of women’s sportswear. She was not a Kmart shopper. “I just wasn’t aware of the mass market for apparel at that time,” she told SUCCESS magazine in 2010.
The people around her were wary as well. “Many people told me not to do it and I originally turned it down,” she told Biography.com. Some friends and business associates worried a discount-store deal would hurt her acting career.
Her biggest sponsor objected outright. Smith was a spokeswoman for Max Factor cosmetics at the time. “Max Factor did not want me to join with Kmart,” she told CBS News.
Kmart did not give up. Executives walked her through their stores to show what they could produce at their price points, and Biography.com reports she was amazed. The offer was still on the table. Her answer was about to change.
What Changed Jaclyn Smith’s Mind?
“And on instinct, I changed my mind and said, ‘This is something I want to do,'” Smith told CBS News. She did not simply sign. She renegotiated the deal so she would have a real hand in the design and construction of the clothes.
That involvement showed up in the fabrics. According to Biography.com, she steered Kmart toward better materials and quieter colors such as beige, cream and black instead of pastels and busy patterns. The Jaclyn Smith Collection debuted on August 1, 1985, in 1,400 Kmart stores, a launch the Boca Raton Observer also detailed. Smith told CBS News she was “the first celebrity brand in Kmart.”
She has always insisted the work was hands-on. “All I can say about branding, if you do it for the paycheck, walk away, it doesn’t work,” she told CBS News. She described her job as “the day-to-day details.”
Plenty of stars had licensed their names before. Few stayed with one retailer long enough to see how big the gamble would get.
How Big Did The Line Become?
In 2017 alone, Biography.com reported, Kmart sold 700,000 of her slinky tees. CBS News said one of her best-selling blouses moved about 400,000 units in a single year. Kmart’s own research found roughly 80 percent brand recognition among women aged 35 to 60. “100 million women today have purchased some of my clothing or accessories,” Smith said.
The brand grew well past clothing. Kmart added a Jaclyn Smith bed and bath line in 2008, and she later sold wigs and home fabrics. Her skincare line was developed with her husband, cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Brad Allen. They met when he operated on her father’s heart and married in 1997. Daughter Spencer later joined her on a baby layette line.
In 2018, Sears added a Jaclyn Smith ready-to-wear collection, Textile World and Fox News reported. Her Kmart contract finally expired in July 2021, according to the Boca Raton Observer. “I learned a lot from having a clothing line with Kmart for 36 years,” she told the paper.
She did not stop there. Her first collection for HSN sold out at her first on-air appearance in January 2023, and she has kept designing for the network. This year she also published her memoir, I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie, which we covered when Jaclyn Smith announced her memoir.
Looking back on the deal everyone warned her about, Smith now calls it one of the wisest decisions she ever made, according to FashionUnited. Her advice is simple. “Go out on a limb,” she said. “That’s where the fruit is.”