Jaclyn Smith says she demanded equal pay as Farrah Fawcett on Charlie's Angels

Jaclyn Smith recalled asking for better pay on Charlie's Angels while her costars made significantly more per episode than she did at first. 'I don't know where that business sense came from, but it was there, I guess, from my daddy. He would always say, 'Have a backup plan. Really think things out,'' she said. Smith's memoir, I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie, is available to purchase wherever books are sold. Jaclyn Smith wasn't afraid to ask for what she wanted — and deserved — on Charlie's Angels. Smith, who portrayed Kelly Garrett on the crime drama television series that premiered 50 years ago, wrote about her career in her memoir, I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie. Among the anecdotes was the pay disparity she experienced compared to her costars, the late Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson, in the show's first season. Smith wrote that Jackson, who already received her bona fides on The Rookies, received $10,000 an episode as Sabrina Duncan and was top-billed. Fawcett was paid $5,000 an episode as Jill Munroe. Smith, meanwhile, took home much less — $3,000. Jaclyn Smith at the Paley Honors Spring Gala at the Plaza Hotel in New York in May 2026. Theo Wargo/Getty Smith believed she was entitled to better compensation and thought she and Fawcett had similar experience that would amount to the same pay. She told her agent that if she didn't get a pay bump, she was leaving the show. As a result, Smith got the raise. 'I was probably a little more aggressive about that than today,' she told PEOPLE about negotiating her salary. 'I don't know where that business sense came from, but it was there, I guess, from my daddy. He would always say, 'Have a backup plan. Really think things out.'' Smith wound up staying on the show's run for all five seasons. Elsewhere in the interview, Smith reflected on the impact Charlie's Angels still has since its premiere in 1976. 'People still send Charlie's Angels pictures for me to sign every day,' she said. 'Who would have dreamed the afterlife of Charlie's Angels would be like this?' 'We were just three girls hoping to find an audience, and boy, did we find an audience,' added Smith. Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter. In April, Smith, along with Charlie's Angels costars Jackson and Cheryl Ladd, reunited for the show's 50th anniversary at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles as part of PaleyFest. 'It was three women chasing danger instead of being rescued from it. Independent, not defined by the man in their life, and it gave women permission to step out of the mold,' Smith said at the time of the show's impact. Jaclyn Smith on 'Charlie's Angels' season 2 in 1977. ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty I Once Knew a Guy Named Charlie is available to purchase wherever books are sold.