Shelley had worked continuously during the the 1970s and 1980s; and she had portrayed many different types of women during her acting as well as modeling career. As a Supermodel, she was known as THE Charlie Girl - a gorgeous, glamorous version of the modern liberated woman. Then she was then cast as a hard-hitting reporter in the telefilm Death Car on the Freeway. She became a Hollywood household name via her role as a police officer turned private detective in Charlie's Angels. Then she portrayed a liberated artist in the play Vanities. Then she portrayed a daughter struggling with her mother's senility in the play Close Ties. She then portrayed a dumb blonde in another play Born Yesterday. In Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy, she played a pleasant but firm talent coordinator of a television talk show superstar. In the TV movie Found Money, she played another tough TV reporter. In the TV series Cutter to Houston, she played an ambitious surgeon. She was later cast as a public defender in the second season of TV series Night Court (but she opted out of the role at the last minute). Then in the telefilm Single Bars Single Women, she played a truck stop waitress immersing herself in the currently changing dating scene. She took advantage of working non-stop, working as much as she could in front of the camera. "You become used to the camera," Shelley said, "It's hard, hard work and you can only make so much happen."
