Mork & Mindy, My Sister Sam
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Everyone typically points to the late 1970s as the time that Robin Williams got his start as an actor thanks to the show “Mork & Mindy”. While it was certainly the launching point for his career, it can’t be forgotten that it was also the big start for Pam Dawber, who indeed played Mindy. Dawber was in her late 20s when the series started, and didn’t have much acting experience as she was a model at the time. However, for the decades that followed, Dawber was a regular on the acting scene.
Dawber hails from Detroit, Michigan, where she was born on October 18, 1951. Dawber spent her childhood in the Detroit area, where she finished high school and was going to finish college. However, Dawber started to land modeling jobs while attending a community college in the area. With her career taking off, Dawber didn’t finish school and headed to New York City. She started to appear in advertisements, and knew she could make an acting career out of modeling. She signed on to develop her acting skills, and didn’t look back.
In 1978, Dawber landed her first roles that included the film “A Wedding” and a pilot for “Sister Terri” that didn’t get picked up. However, that same year also paired Dawber up with comedian Robin Williams for the series “Mork & Mindy”. The show proved to be a success, airing through the 1982 television season and nearly 100 episodes, as well as a cartoon series in the early 1980s.
During the show’s run, Dawber had a big screen role with “Swan Lake”, and also added multiple TV films. This would be a trend throughout the rest of the 1980s as Dawber became one of the more successful and consistent TV movie actresses. This included the films “Remembrance of Love”, “Wild Horses” and “Do You Know the Muffin Man?”
Another series was just around the corner for Dawber, as well, as she played the title character in “My Sister Sam” that started in 1986, running for three seasons and finishing in 1988. Dawber’s TV movie career continued throughout the rest of the 1990s with movies that included “Web of Deception”, “A Child’s Cry for Help” and “The Face of Fear”. She continued to make guest appearances on television and had a starring role on the short-lived “Life...and Stuff” as well as a feature film with “Stay Tuned”.
When the 2000s started, though, Dawber got away from acting for the most part. After appearing in the feature film “I’ll Remember April”, Dawber’s only movie role came in a 2006 documentary. As for television, she’s made a couple of cameo appearances in recent years. In 2014, she appeared on an episode of “The Crazy Ones” and again in 2016 with “The Odd Couple”.
The former of the two shows also got to reunite Dawber with Robin Williams shortly before his death. “I don’t know what it is about the two of us,” Dawber said after they hit it off immediately after more than 30 years of being apart. “Robin is truly one of the kindest, most caring people I’ve ever met...It was really interesting to just be there for that few days. I loved it.” She noted that the two sharing screen time was something that was very special to her, and was one of the reasons why she returned to acting for about a week.
Talking about how she wants to be viewed in her entertainment career, Dawber says that “I’m not a comedienne. I’m an actress,” but notes that there’s something else she wants to be known for, too. “I love to sing more than anything,” she said. “More than acting, even.”
You don’t hear much about Dawber’s personal life as she keeps it that way: personal. For more than 30 years now, Dawber has been married to actor Mark Harmon. He’s the man that’s been playing Leroy Jethro Gibbs on “NCIS” since the show’s inception, and the couple has two children together in their long-lasting marriage. When asked what the key was to their marriage, Harmon said “We were both in our thirties when we got married, so hopefully the stupid stuff we did earlier (in life). That’s probably the closest I have to what the key is.”
Dawber added on to this, saying “I don’t think two people can work all the time in show business and stay married.” Since he has one show that he can focus on and she’s semi-retired, the two have gotten to spend a lot of time together. She has no desire to keep getting back into show business on a full-time basis, either.
“I was in a number one show,” Dawber said. “I had my own deal. I got to do Broadway. I got to do musical theater. I got to do cartoon voices. I did everything you can do in this business, and then I had children and it’s like, ‘I’m not going to chase this fame thing.’ I wanted to drive my kids to school. I wanted to be there for their birthdays and bring cupcakes and donuts and do the school festivals and all that, and I did.”
“Notice you don’t see us in the magazines,” Dawber continued. “When you’re married, that’s real life. And to go and plaster your kids...I’m sorry. I’m not for that. I’m just their mom. They don’t care about what I did. They care about what they are doing. They want their parents to care about what they are doing.”
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