After opting to leave Charlie's Angels in 1980, Shelley embarked on an acting career full-time, recognizing the huge opportunity presented to her, as well as the big break she got from being part of the phenomenal hit TV series. She immediately tackled stage right after via the Jack Heifner play Vanities and, to the surprise of many, gained critical praise for her work. Other stage plays soon came after (Elizabeth Diggs's play Close Ties, Garson Kanin’s Born Yesterday and John Krizanc's Tamara at the end of the decade). She got critical praise for them as well. She starred in the feature films (Martin Scorsese's) The King of Comedy and (Joseph Ruben's) The Stepfather for which she got glowing reviews. She starred in the numerous TV movies including Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer, Found Money and Frederick Forsyth Presents: A Casualty of War. In the series Cutter to Houston and Jack and Mike, she got mixed reviews but was generally praised for efforts. She was able to share the big and small screens with legends like Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Dick Van Dyke, Sid Caesar just to name a few. Shelley had come a long way.
