IMDB

Actor

1943-11-20 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA · Female

14 series in the catalog

Veronica Hamel (born November 20, 1943) is an American actress and model. She was nominated five times for an Emmy Award for her role as attorney Joyce Davenport in the TV police drama Hill Street Blues.

Biography

The daughter of a Philadelphia carpenter and a housewife, Hamel graduated from Temple University. She worked as a secretary for a company that manufactured ironing board covers. She began a fashion modeling career after being discovered by Eileen Ford. In her first film role, she played a model in 1971's Klute, followed by roles in the disaster films Beyond the Poseidon Adventure and When Time Ran Out.

She was the model in the final cigarette commercial televised in the U.S. (for Virginia Slims, aired at 11:59 pm on January 1, 1971, on The Tonight Show). Such advertisements had been banned after passage of the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act. Hamel had also been a model in print advertisements for tobacco products inlcuding Virginia Slims and Pall Mall Gold.

Hamel started appearing in TV series in 1975. She was considered for the role of Kelly Garrett on Charlie's Angels, but reportedly declined the role. Producer Aaron Spelling cast Jaclyn Smith, instead. Hamel is best remembered for playing Joyce Davenport, the dedicated public defender, who also happened to be the love interest of police captain Frank Furillo, on the long-running TV series Hill Street Blues from 1981 to 1987. She was a five-time Emmy nominee for that role.

Hamel was cast in a leading role in Alan Alda's 1988 film A New Life as his doctor and love interest. She played Elizabeth, the wife of Charles Grodin's character in the movie Taking Care of Business in 1990. She was named on Us magazine's "Best Dressed" list for 1983.

In 2002, she also appeared on Hill Street Blues creator Steven Bochco's legal drama Philly. In the late 2000s, Hamel had a recurring role in the NBC television series Third Watch and appeared as Margo Shephard, Jack's mother, in the ABC series Lost.