Jenilee Harrison was born on June 12, 1958 into a large middle-class household in Northridge, California and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. Her father was an aerospace engineer and her mother a math teacher. They divorced when she was 15, but she remained close to them and to her two older sisters and two younger brothers. She began working as a waitress part-time at 14. Her wholesome good looks won her beauty pageants, such as Miss San Fernando Valley, Miss Los Angeles, Miss Hollywood, Miss Young America. She was chosen for the Rams' Embraceable Ewes cheerleading squad in 1978 for two years, because she thought it would be a way to get into Hollywood. She paid her way through University of Southern California (USC) with income from TV commercials and modeling. She won the title of Sweetheart of Sigma Chi in her senior year at USC. She graduated in 1980 with an education degree, although it was at USC that she met acting coach Joyce Selznick who trained her to be an actress.

At the tender age of 21, she was cast on the hit comedy Three's Company (1976) as Suzanne Somers replacement, since the producers balked at Somers request for a huge salary increase. It was a difficult, awkward situation for her, since Somers was still on the show but sequestered away from the rest of the cast to do her 3-minute telephone scenes. Yet, Somers was still prominently featured in the opening credits, while Harrison's name appeared in the closing credits as a guest star, so viewers saw her as a temporary replacement. Somers was finally let go at the end of the year, and her permanent replacement was Priscilla Barnes, whom the producers initially rejected for the role of Cindy, saying she was too old. Barnes (although older than Harrison) was deemed right for the role of Terri, and Harrison was now relegated to being a supporting player and acting with her replacement. It was uncomfortable for both actresses but they did the best they could under the circumstances. Producers felt she was inexperienced and unseasoned, and so her part was finally written out with no explanation, after two and a half years. (This part of her life was later dramatized in the TV movie Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Three's Company' (2003) with Liz Crawford playing Harrison). She soldiered on and was cast in the feature film Tank (1984). Later, she worked with Oscar winners James Coburn and Eva Marie Saint in the TV miniseries Malibu (1983). She landed a role on Dallas (1978), which she played for two years, and for which she received a Soap Opera Digest nomination as Best New Actress in a Prime Time Series.

Afterward, she continued with making guest appearances on such shows as Murder, She Wrote (1984) and She's the Sheriff (1987), where she finally worked with Suzanne Somers. In 1993, she married Bruce Oppenheim, dubbed a "chiropractor to the stars" by People magazine. He was previously married to Cybill Shepherd with whom he has twins, Zachariah and Ariel, who are Harrison's stepchildren. In 2022, she divorced Oppenheim.

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Jenilee Harrison

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