Angie Dickinson was a very famous actress in her time. She acted so well that she won awards for her performances. People loved watching her in movies and TV shows.
Now, at 92 years old, she’s not in the spotlight like she used to be.
Angie Dickinson, whose full name is Angeline Dickinson, is from America. She had a great career on TV. She started acting in the 1950s, appearing in different shows. One of her early movies was “Gun the Man Down.” You might also remember her from “Rio Bravo,” where she won a Golden Globe award.
Besides TV, Angie Dickinson also acted in many movies. Some of her films include “Jessica,” “The Chase,” “The Outside Man,” “The Art of Love,” “The Killers,” “Ocean’s 11 (1964),” “Pretty Maids All in a Row,” and more. She was really popular during the 1960s and 1970s.
But her most important role was as Sergeant Pepper Anderson in “Police Woman.” This was special because it was the first time a woman led a TV show, and it was a big hit. Her character even inspired some young girls to become police officers.
Angie Dickinson said it was unusual to see a woman as a cop on TV back then. Today, it’s more common in shows like CSI or Law and Order, but back then, it was different.
In a PBS series called “Pioneers of Television,” Angie Dickinson talked about her role and how people liked crime shows, even back then.
The actress didn’t see herself as a “feminist.” She felt like she had to compete with men. Even though she didn’t call herself a feminist, her role did inspire many women.
She said, “When I was going for a role, I wasn’t competing with men; it was a role for a woman.”
When asked about the pay difference between male and female actors, she wasn’t bothered. She said she was happy with the money she was offered for her work.
She was also sad about some things in “Police Woman.” She thought the show could have shown more. She didn’t like that everything always ended perfectly in each episode and that there wasn’t much violence.
She wished the show had shown more serious consequences for the bad guys. She liked newer shows like “Southland” and “Detroit 1-8-7” because they did a better job with that.
When “Police Woman” was really popular, she got letters from fans who said she inspired them to become police officers.
She was in her 40s when she did “Police Woman.” She worked really hard to do a great job. She worked even harder than younger actresses. And even as she got older, she seemed to get more beautiful instead of just looking old.
A lot of people found her really interesting. Some people say she was very close to the Rat Pack, a group of famous entertainers. There were rumors that she had a 10-year relationship with Frank Sinatra after they both acted in the original “Ocean’s 11” movie. Some people also said she was involved with Dean Martin and former President John F. Kennedy.
She had a famous small part in the 2001 movie “Ocean’s 11” with George Clooney. Even today, people in Hollywood think she’s a legend.
In 2020, she said something surprising in an interview on the “CBS Sunday Morning Show.” She talked about her time on “Police Woman” and said that when she was first offered the role, she felt sick to her stomach.
She said doing the show was really hard. They made 20 to 21 episodes every season, which was really tough. She agreed to do the show for four years, but not longer than that.
After four years, she realized she hadn’t been paid much for her work. She said it took away a lot from her life and wasn’t worth it.
When asked why she took the role, she said the producer, David Gerber, told her it would make her very famous. But she said what people want can change over time.
She’s been married twice. Her first husband was Gene Dickinson, and they were married from 1952 to 1960. Then she married Burt Bacharach from 1965 to 1981. It was his second marriage too.
The couple had a daughter together, who was the first child for both of them. They named her Nikki. She was born early, about three months before her due date, in 1966. Angie later said that Nikki had Asperger’s syndrome, which is a type of “high-functioning autism.”
Nikki went to Cal Lutheran University and studied geology. But her eyesight got worse over time, so she couldn’t pursue a career. Her parents then took her to a special place where she lived for ten years.
Sadly, Nikki died by suicide in 2007 at her condo in Thousand Oaks. She was 40 years old. A statement released to the public said she took her life to “escape the pain” she was feeling in her mind.
Angie later talked about her daughter, saying, “She was really smart, funny, and amazing. All my memories of her are my favorite.”