Charlie’s Angels star, Cheryl Ladd, looks decades younger at 75

Born Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor in Huron, South Dakota, on July 12, 1951, Cheryl initially dreamed of becoming a singer. After graduating from high school, she toured with a band before settling in Los Angeles. One of her first major jobs was providing the singing voice of Melody in the animated series Josie and the Pussycats under the name Cherie Moor. Commercials and guest roles followed, including appearances in Happy Days, The Partridge Family and Police Woman.

Cheryl’s life changed in 1977 when she was chosen to join the Charlie’s Angels cast as the younger sister of Farrah Fawcett’s Jill Munroe. The clever connection helped her join established stars Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith. She ultimately remained with the series for four seasons until it ended in 1981.

While Charlie’s Angels was sometimes dismissed for focusing on its stars’ beauty, Cheryl defended the show’s portrayal of intelligent, capable women who supported one another. “Well, I got tired of wearing a bikini, I’ll tell you that,” she told People at Paleyfest. “I finally kind of stomped my foot and I got the smallest bikini I could find, and I went out there and Aaron [Spelling] said, ‘Wait, you can’t wear that,'” she remembered.

Cheryl remained a familiar presence on screen after handing in her Angel credentials. She portrayed Hollywood star-turned-princess Grace Kelly in a 1983 television biopic and enjoyed a recurring role opposite James Caan in Las Vegas. In 2022, at the age of 71, she also stepped onto the ballroom floor for Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Louis van Amstel.

Cheryl married actor David Ladd in 1973 and welcomed their daughter, actress Jordan Ladd, two years later. Following their divorce, she married music producer Brian Russell in 1981 and became stepmother to his daughter, Lindsay. In April 2026, Cheryl revealed that she had been treated for an aggressive form of breast cancer and credited Brian, her doctors and her fellow Angels with supporting her. Now cancer-free, she reunited with Kate and Jaclyn at PaleyFest, proving that the bond between television’s most famous crime-fighting trio remains strong.