Cathy Podewell

Actress Cathy Podewell played trophy wife Cally Harper Ewing on the long-running primetime soap opera, "Dallas." She won the part after Larry Hagman -- who played J.R., her womanizing, oil-tycoon husband -- recommended her after she appeared on the sitcom "Growing Pains." Beginning in 1988, Podewell's Cally suffered at the hand of her brutish, tyrannical husband before divorcing him and moving to Flordia in 1991. After that, the actress slowed down a bit, showing up in bit roles on "Murder, She Wrote" and "Beverly Hills, 90210." Born in Evanston, Illinois, Podwell attended the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she majored in drama and dance and appeared in the plays "No, No, Nanette" and "Hold Me." She got her first part on television with a guest role on the sitcom "Valerie's Family," starring Valerie Harper as a modern woman trying to balance the needs of career and family.