The Only Major Actors Still Alive From 1974’s Police Woman

Police dramas were flourishing in the 1970s (and later parodied in the 1980s) thanks to “Dragnet” when television writer Robert L. Collins hit upon what counted as a genius notion at the tail end of the Richard M. Nixon administration: what if instead of “policeman,” “policewoman?” NBC said “Show us,” and Collins responded with the buzzy “Police Woman” starring Angie Dickinson as Sergeant Suzanne “Pepper” Anderson.

“Police Woman” was about as progressive as you could expect from an hour-long network drama in the ’70s when it was rare for a drama of any genre to be headed up by a woman. Once a week, Dickinson struck a quasi-feminist figure as an ultra-capable officer of the law with a penchant for dressing in tight-fitting shirts in pants. At least once she went undercover in a swimsuit. And as she complained to the press years later, the writers liked to have her character get called into action while taking a bath.

Despite these concessions to horned-up viewers, the series still had a positive impact on law enforcement in that it drove a spike in female applications to the nation’s police departments (though it’s worth noting that, according to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, as of 2023 women only make up 12% of all sworn officers). And while it was never a Nielsen ratings smash outside of its first season, it performed well enough until it was moved to an unfavorable time slot for its fourth and final season.

“Police Woman” might’ve been a big-time star vehicle for Dickinson, but it worked because of the camaraderie of its ensemble. Dickinson’s Pepper had terrific chemistry with the recently passed Earl Holliman as her superior Sergeant Bill Crowley as well as the undercover duo of Charles Dierkop’s Pete Royster and Ed Bernard’s Joe Styles.

Given that the show has been off the air for 46 years, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we’ve lost more than Holliman. But you’ll be pleased to learn that two of the series’ regular players are still with us!

If you’ve never seen “Police Woman,” the most accurate description I can muster is that it was a more sober-minded “Charlie’s Angels.” The undercover investigations thrust upon Pepper and the fellas were typically serious stuff, but you’d never confuse the series for “Dragnet,” let alone “Serpico.” It was low-stress watching during its initial run on NBC and plays as camp nowadays. This is my way of saying that Ed Bernard’s Joe Styles was no one’s idea of a badass detective like, say, Richard Roundtree’s John Shaft.

When “Police Woman” concluded its run in 1978, Bernard directly segued to playing Principal Jim Willis on Bruce Paltrow’s briefly popular high school basketball series “The White Shadow.” A few years later, he landed a series regular role as Lieutenant Bill Giles on “Hardcastle and McCormick.” After that, he settled into one-off appearances as a police officer or a judge in movies and shows like “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey,” and “NYPD Blue.” His last credit was as Moody Brown on “Cold Case” in 2005, so it appears the 85-year-old Bernard has retired from acting.

Angie Dickinson is, no hyperbole, a Hollywood legend. The one-time beauty queen broke through to television in her early 20s via appearances on shows like “Death Valley Days,” “Gunsmoke,” and “Wagon Train.” She made her film debut in 1954’s “Lucky Me,” and got her first starring role alongside James Arness in 1956’s “Gun the Man Down.” Playing the plucky gambler Feathers opposite John Wayne in Howard Hawks’ Western masterpiece “Rio Bravo” turned her into a full-blown movie star overnight. She went on to appear as Frank Sinatra’s wife Beatrice in “Ocean’s 11,” the femme fatale in Don Siegel’s noir classic “The Killers,” and a different kind of dangerous dame in John Boorman’s nasty “Point Blank.”

After an up-and-down early 1970s, Dickinson was in search of something both high-profile and steady. That project turned out to be “Police Woman.” As noted, her Sgt. Suzanne “Pepper” Anderson was both a sex symbol and an aspirational figure at a time when the feminist movement in America was fired up. Dickinson also received three Primetime Emmy nominations for her portrayal of Pepper, which would infuriatingly be the last time she ever earned serious awards recognition (we would’ve nominated her for out-Janet-Leigh-ing Janet Leigh in Brian De Palma’s crackling erotic thriller “Dressed to Kill”).

Dickinson continued to act in film and television throughout the 1980s and into the 2000s. Notable TV appearances included series like “The Larry Sanders Show,” “Ellen,” and “Saturday Night Live” (she hosted in 1987), while in movies she was memorable in “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,” “Sabrina,” and “Pay It Forward.” Her last performance came in the Hallmark film “Mending Fences” in 2009. Since then, the 93-year-old has been enjoying life and occasionally granting interviews to lucky saps like me.