Shelley in a promo pic for Charlie's Angels, 1979
Shelley became Angel #5 in 1979 when she joined the cast of Charlie's Angels. Her character, Tiffany Welles, was a classy Boston-bred (originally Connecticut-bred) policewoman who was the daughter of one of Charlie's oldest friends. She was chosen from among a bevy of beautiful actresses which included Priscilla Presley, Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer, Connie Sellecca and Shari Belafonte. In May of 1979, Bond Girl Barbara Bach was announced as the newest Angel. But it was quickly retracted and Shelley was announced as Charlie's newest Angel, with the approval of not just producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg but of incumbent Angels Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd as well.
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in Charlie's Angels from Remind 2023
When Shelley joined the cast of the phenomenal Angels series, many reporters and paparazzi photographers rushed to get a picture of her and talk to her. Her casting was was a huge deal and was even mentioned in the evening news. "I couldn't believe it. What was I doing in the evening news," Shelley exclaimed at the time. "Yesterday, I was a schnook, and today I can't get across the street" is how Shelley described her sudden rise to Hollywood superstardom. "It has been quite a whirl," she added. When she arrived in St. Thomas at the Caribbean, where her first Charlie's Angels episode was going to be shot, she was greeted by the paparazzi. "When I got off the plane, there were maybe eight million paparazzi. I looked around for Sophia Loren. It was for me. I couldn't believe it," Shelley said astonished by the amount of attention her Angel casting was getting. "I had press people crawling in my windows," she told TV Tales: Charlie's Angels in 2002.
Shelley in a promo pic for Charlie's Angels, 1979
