Jonathan and Jennifer were the most passionate couple on TV since Gomez and Morticia Addams made eyes at each other more than a decade earlier. When the Harts weren't solving crimes or jet-setting around the world, they were either making love or talking about love.
“It was unlike anything either of us had ever experienced on screen,” Stefanie said of the chemistry between the two. “And people always used to ask me how my husband RJ [Wagner] was.”
Created by writer Sidney Sheldon and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, “Hart to Hart” ran on ABC from 1979-84. The series never rated higher than No. 15. but it gained a devoted following. Stefanie received two Emmy and five Golden Globe nominations.
Stefanie almost didn't get the role of Jennifer. Before she was cast, she was starring in a stage production of “Cyrano de Bergerac” with Stacey Keach in California when the show was scheduled to premiere on Broadway in 1979.
Stefanie had always dreamed of starring on Broadway, and finally, at age 37 she was realizing her goal when Wagner called and offered her the role. The series was initially called “Double Twist.”
Unbeknownst to Stefanie, although Wagner and writer-director Tom Mankiewicz were high on her talents, ABC wasn't interested in hiring her. Suzanne Pleshette and Lindsay Wagner were two of the actresses being considered for the role.
“The network was very cool on her,” Mankiewicz said. “She was more, to their way of thinking, a guest star for an episode than the star of the series.”
Wagner fought hard for her, demanding that Stefanie play Jennifer Hart, until ABC acquiesced.
“Little did I know what had gone on in the background,” Stefanie said. “If RJ had not made a stand, I would have never played the part. RJ really went to bat for me.”
“I thought there was nobody else to play it but her,” Wagner told Larry King. “Stef has such a range of talent that had never been tapped before...I had this instinct about her.”
As fate would have it, a newspaper strike in New York temporarily crippled Broadway and “Cyrano” was canceled.
Even after the “Hart to Hart” pilot was shot, there were doubts that ABC would launch the series.
“A lot of people didn't like the pilot but the thing that really made it happen was the relationship between Stefanie and myself,” Wagner said.
No. 14
Classic TV Beauties 1970s Countdown
STEFANIE POWERS as Jennifer Hart in "Hart to Hart"
Sophisticated, glamorous and elegant would best describe Jennifer. As the beautiful red-headed wife of self-made millionaire Jonathan Hart (Robert Wagner), Jennifer was a freelance journalist who worked with her husband as amateur detectives to solve murders and jewel heists and international
crimes in their spare time.
The Harts were a charismatic couple who traveled on their yacht, vacationed in exotic locales and attended fancy dinner parties.
Stefanie signed a movie contract with Columbia at age 15, near the end of the era in Hollywood. As a studio contract player, she attended acting and dancing classes with other young actors and worked her way up through the studio system.
“We were raised on the notion that we had to earn our stripes and pay our dues and the studio would keep you employed,” she said.
Stefanie was mentored by acting legend Joan Crawford.
“When I finally met her, after years of her writing me notes and years of me writing thank yous back, we happened to be on the same plane going to New York City,” Stefanie told the Edinburgh News in a 2011 interview. “I would have never dreamed of calling her Joan. It was always 'Miss Crawford.'
"And she never said, 'Call me Joan.'"
Playing “the girl next door” or “somebody's daughter” early in her career, she made movies with stars such as Glenn Ford and Lee Remick, and Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin. In the Western “McLintock!” she played John Wayne's daughter.
Stefanie's first big break in TV came in 1966 when she starred as April Dancer in “The Girl from U.N.C.L.E,” a spin off series of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”
Unlike current action heroine Emma Peel, April relied on self-parody and camp humor and the series bombed, lasting just one season.
Born Stefanie Zofya Paul in Hollywood, Stefanie, who speaks four languages, grew up with kids of celebrities, attending Hollywood Hills High. She took ballet classes with two future wives of Wagner – Natalie Wood and Jill St. John – and enrolled in the American School of Dance,
Stefanie's artistic personality was greatly influenced by her mother.
“My mother danced, she loved the ballet. There was always classical music on in the house, show tunes, we went to the theatre,” she said. “When I was a child, I had a chance to see 'South Pacific' and 'Gypsy' with Ethel Merman. I was very fortunate. I remember as a student we always went to an opera, a symphony or show as part of our education."
She made appearances on TV shows “McCloud,” “The Mod Squad,” “The Rockford Files,” and “The Six Million Dollar Man,” among others. Stefanie eventually played more than 200 TV roles during her career.
In 1977 she starred in her second TV series, working with Harold Gould in “The Feather and Father Gang,” playing lawyer Toni “Feather” Danton. The show was canceled after 13 episodes
Stefanie and Wagner reunited in 1994-96 and made eight two-hour “Hart to Hart” movies on NBC.
Said Stefanie of the role of her life: “After a certain amount of time you have to be associated with something successful to have a viable position in the business. And I really hadn't been associated with anything that was this big a success.”
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