Victoria Principal was born in Fukuoka, Japan, the elder daughter of Ree Veal and Victor R. Principal. She stated in a 2007 interview with the official Dallas website that she was born in 1950, not earlier as some sources indicate. She stated that she "...felt that was the only way to clear this up once and for all. My name is my real name; my age is my real age. Someone on the internet, years ago, printed a different age than I am and I’m in the process legally of clearing that up, because I have never lied about my age." She claims to have been the first American baby born in Japan after World War II.
Her paternal grandparents were immigrants from Italy and her mother was born in Georgia and is of English descent. Her father was a sergeant in the Air Force, thus moving often, growing up in London, Florida, Puerto Rico, Massachusetts, and Georgia, among other places. She attended 17 different schools, including the Royal Academy of Ballet, while in England.
Victoria Principal acted in a commercial when five, and began modeling in high school. She enrolled at Miami-Dade Community College, intending to study medicine eventually enrolling in, but not completing, chiropractic college. She continued modeling, also nude in Playboy, winning the Miss Miami title in 1969, but serious injuries that she sustained in a car crash forced her to refocus her energy on acting. She moved to New York City, working as a model and actress. After a modeling job in Europe, she studied at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and then moved to Los Angeles in 1971.
At the age of 19, Victoria Principal moved in with millionaire financier, Bernard Cornfeld. She dated numerous actors and personalities, including: Andy Gibb (with whom she recorded a duet version of "All I Have To Do Is Dream" in 1981), Steven Spielberg (during her work on Earthquake and his pre-production on Jaws), and Frank Sinatra.
Victoria Principal met Christopher Skinner in 1978 when he played a bit role on Dallas. Soon after, they married, but then divorced in 1980. In 1985, she married Hollywood plastic surgeon Dr. Harry Glassman after a three-year relationship. She has no children from either marriage.
In January 2003, her husband was arrested after a domestic violence incident; charges were never filed. They separated in March, 2006, and, on May 27, 2006 she filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences.
On December 27, 2006 the divorce was finalized; Glassman, labeled "Dr. McGreedy" by the press, received the Beverly Hills home and an estimated $25 million from Victoria Principal. Subsequently, Principal moved to Malibu. She maintains other homes in Big Sur, California and Switzerland.
As of 2007, it was reported that she is training for her booked flight on Richard Branson's commercial space flight venture.
Her first film role was portraying a Mexican mistress in Paul Newman's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), for which she earned a Golden Globe Nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. Subsequently, she appeared nude in The Naked Ape (1973) with Johnny Crawford.
In 1974, she landed a huge break when she was cast in a co-starring role in the successful disaster film epic, Earthquake. Victoria Principal continued to act in lesser-known films such as I Will, I Will...For Now and Vigilante Force. In 1977, Aaron Spelling offered her a role in the pilot of his television series Fantasy Island, which she accepted. Soon after, in 1978, she landed her most famous role playing Pamela Barnes Ewing in the evening soap opera television series Dallas. Dallas became a huge global hit, making Victoria Principal in her swimsuit a household name across the world. In 1983, she earned a Golden Globe Nomination as Best Actress in a Television Series for her role on Dallas.
After nine years, Victoria Principal left Dallas in 1987. She went on to star in various made-for-television movies such as Mistress, Blind Witness, Naked Lie, Sparks: The Price of Passion, and Don't Touch My Daughter, a few of which she co-produced. In 1994, she appeared in an episode of the hit sitcom Home Improvement.
In late 1999, Victoria Principal and her Dallas co-star Patrick Duffy appeared in an episode of the animated series Family Guy in which they played their Dallas characters. The scene was unusual for the animated series in that it was live-action. In it, they parodied the infamous "Dallas shower scene" in which her character dreamed up the death of her Dallas husband's character. The episode, entitled Da Boom, aired on January 1, 2000.
Victoria Principal returned to primetime soap operas in 2000 when she appeared in another Aaron Spelling production, the short-lived NBC television series Titans.
Entrepreneur
When Victoria Principal signed her Dallas contract, she omitted the clause that would have given the network the right to consent and profit from her outside endeavors. She explained, "As a result that’s why, you can only notice in hindsight, I was the only person in the cast who did commercials, who was doing movies of the week, who wrote books and these all belong to me. I retained the control and ownership of my image. No one owns me."
When she left the show in 1987, she began her own production company, Victoria Principal Productions, producing mostly movies for television. In the mid-1980s, she became interested in natural beauty therapies and in 1989 she created a self-named line of skin care products, "Principal Secret", having amassed over a $1 billion of sales to date. In 1995, she was named "Entertainment Business Woman of the Year" by the National Association of Women Business Owners and received an honorary degree from Drexel University's Business School. In 2003, Principal became a member of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists.
In addition, Victoria Principal became a best-selling author, writing three books about beauty, skin care, and health. These three books were titled, in order of publication, The Body Principal, The Beauty Principal, and The Diet Principal. As of late July 2009 none of these three books were still to be in print, but a fourth book, Living Principal, has been published and is in print.
Victoria Principal Films
* The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
* The Naked Ape (1973)
* Earthquake (1974)
* I Will, I Will... for Now (1976)
* Vigilante Force (1976)
* Michael Kael vs. the World News Company (1998)
Victoria Principal Television
* Banecek (1972)
* Last Hours Before Morning (1975)
* Fantasy Island (1977) (pilot for series)
* The Night They Took Miss Beautiful (1977)
* Dallas (cast member from 1978–1987)
* Hawaii Five-0, Episode "The Year of the Horse" (first aired 4/5/1979)
* Pleasure Palace (1980)
* Not Just Another Affair (1982)
* Mistress (1987)
* Naked Lie (1989)
* Blind Witness (1989)
* Sparks: The Price of Passion (1990)
* Don't Touch My Daughter (1991)
* The Burden of Proof (1992)
* Seduction: Three Tales from the Inner Sanctum (1992)
* River of Rage: The Taking of Maggie Keene (1993)
* Beyond Obsession (1994)
* Home Improvement (1994)
* Dancing in the Dark (1995)
* The Abduction (1996)
* Love in Another Town (1997)
* Titans (2000–2001)