“What are we blowing up [today]? Oh, we're riding horses today,” she said. “We're doing a show with Roy Rogers. Roy Rogers saved me from a runaway horse. It was hysterical.
"I also got to hang from a helicopter -- the studio had a fit when they saw that. The real fun was when I had to simulate parachute jumping. They put me in a bikini in a parachute harness, and I was spread eagle and hung from a crane near the entrance
of Fox [studios]."
A native of Greenwich, Conn., Heather's family moved to California when she was young and she was raised in Santa Monica. Heather obtained fame as at age 14 when she co-hosted an NBC Saturday morning show, “Talking with a Giant,” a series in which teens interviewed celebrities.
Classic TV Beauties 1980s Countdown
HEATHER THOMAS as Jody Banks "The Fall Guy"
The pin-up queen of the decade, Heather appeared in more bikini scenes than any other prime time actress in the 1980s.
When “The Fall Guy” premiered, a reviewer observed, “Heather is easy to find: she's the series regular who finds a way to wear a bikini each week.”
And why not? The athletic blonde beauty with the curvy 37-23-32 figure became the favorite cheesecake poster model for boys in the 1980s, appearing in an array of bikinis. Years later she admitted that she enjoyed her sex symbol status.
“There's little as powerful as being a sex symbol,” she told the website www.retroality.tv in 2010. “It's quite a powerful position. It is objectifying yourself, so you have to take it with a grain of salt.”
“The Fall Guy” starred Lee Majors as a Hollywood stunt man by day and bounty hunter by night. Heather co-starred as his fellow stunt performer who also assisted him in his moonlighting job.
“I got to have a lot of fun,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I got to drive a lot of funny cars. I learned to shoot all sorts of things and got in stunt fights. It wasn't Shakespeare, but it was fun.”
Heather was voted “Favorite Female Newcomer” by US magazine after her first season in the series. She recalled to www.retroality.tv the excitement of coming to work on “The Fall Guy” set each day.
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Heather's first passion was writing and she was accepted into UCLA's Film and Television department. She began acting while attending UCLA. On her website, Heather said she was cast as a go-go dancer in David Rabe's play “In the Boom Boom Room,” wearing a “Band Aid sized cowgirl costume” and she landed an agent by the third performance.
Heather made appearances in several obscure TV programs before she earned the Jody Banks role in “The Fall Guy.” She appeared in all except one episode during its five-year run. Heather described her “Fall Guy” period as “about fame, fast cars, bar fights, bikinis and hot rollers.”
It was the decade of the two Heathers. She was often confused for Heather Locklear, another blonde California actress who also starred in an ABC action series, the police drama “TJ Hooker” during the same period.
The decade also brought her personal crisis. She suffered from cocaine addiction, and in 1986, she was struck by a car while crossing the street in LA. She suffered fractures in both legs and underwent surgery.
Her most memorable film role was as the snotty prom queen in 1982's “Zapped.” Heather said after “The Fall Guy,” she became disappointed with the roles she was offered and she soon stopped acting and began focusing on writing.
She sold a script called “School Slut” to Touchstone Pictures for a reported six figures, but the screenplay was never developed. After writing more than 40 scripts, she turned to writing books, and she published “Trophies” in 2008.
Heather told TV station KTLA one reason she wrote the book was to “debunk the thinking of second wives. Second wives have always been vilified.”
Heather said of her career change from acting to writing, “You have to say to yourself: What do I want my life to say? That I was famous? That I wore the right dress?”
“I was so lucky,” she said in the interview with www.retroality.tv. “That was when there were three networks, so you'd become very famous if you were on a hit TV show.”
