Shawn Weatherly

Healthy, athletic blonde leading lady Shawn Weatherly was elected Miss Universe in 1980. Four years later, she made her first film, Cannonball Run II, and co-starred in her first weekly TV series, Shaping Up. In the late summer of 1985, viewers watched as Ms. Weatherly learned the rudiments of deep-sea diving during a round-the-world voyage, a year-long experience pared down to a five-episode TV documentary series Oceanquest. Shortly before accepting the occasional role of Dale Robertson's daughter on the weekly J. J. Starbuck (1987) Weatherly displayed a hitherto unsuspected flair for comedy in the role of a nude, accordian-playing Russian defector on the funky Fox Network sitcom The New Adventures of Beans Baxter. In 1989, Shawn Weatherly was cast as lifeguard Jill Riley in the internationally popular series Baywatch, a job she held until March of 1990, when her character was killed by a shark.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide