Soles was born Pamela Jayne Hardon in Frankfurt, Germany, to an American mother from New Jersey, Nancy Hardon (née Seiden), and a Dutch father from Rotterdam, Cornelis Johannes Hardon II.[3][4] Her maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Lithuania and Austria.[5] At the time of her birth, her father was working for an international insurance company and the family moved all over the world. Soles lived in Casablanca, Morocco, and Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish, and then Brussels, Belgium, where she went to high school at the International School of Brussels.[6]
Soles moved to Manhattan and began acting in commercials and modeling for fashion magazines. In 1974 she was hired by director Perry Henzell to portray a shampoo model in his film No Place Like Home. It would have been her first film appearance, but Henzell was not able to complete the film until 2006.[7] She relocated to Los Angeles in 1975.[6]
She was among the hundreds of actors auditioning for Brian De Palma and George Lucas in their joint casting session for Carrie (1976) and Star Wars (1977). She originally auditioned for the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars but the role ultimately went to Carrie Fisher.[8] However, she was cast as Norma Watson in Brian De Palma's Carrie. She starred alongside Sissy Spacek, Nancy Allen, John Travolta, Amy Irving and Piper Laurie. Originally, her character was just a minor role, and only supposed to have one line, but De Palma liked her so much that he expanded her role, as the secondary antagonist to Allen's Chris Hargensen.[9] Soles was injured on the set during filming, when a blast from a fire hose during the prom scene ruptured her eardrum.[10]
She is most known for her performance as Lynda van der Klok in the classic horror film Halloween (1978) directed by John Carpenter, the final victim of the character Michael Myers. Carpenter wanted her for his film Halloween after seeing Carrie.[12] He wrote the role of Lynda specifically for her because of the way she said the word "totally".
The following year, Soles was cast as Riff Randell in the musical comedy film Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) with the Ramones. She has a singing credit for a second version of the title song on the movie's soundtrack. She reprised the role of Riff Randell in the artwork for the album Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles? by Local H.
In 1980, Soles portrayed Private Wanda Winter in the comedy film Private Benjamin. The following year, she portrayed an MP who becomes Bill Murray's girlfriend, Stella Hansen, in the comedy film Stripes.
In 1981, Soles filmed a new scene to be inserted into the television version of Halloween.
She married J. Steven Soles in 1973, when she resided in New York, but then made the move to Los Angeles to work in television and movies. She and Soles subsequently divorced in 1975, although she decided to retain the name P.J. Soles as her stage name. She was later married to actor Dennis Quaid, whom she met on the set of the film Our Winning Season,[13] from 1978 until their divorce in early 1983. Later that same year, she married Skip Holm, who was a stunt pilot on The Right Stuff (1983). They have a son named Sky (born 1983) and a daughter named Ashley (born 1988). She and Holm were divorced in 1998.
Soles is the subject of the song Sweet Pamela Jayne by English rock band The Breakdowns, from their 2014 album Rock 'n' Roller Skates. The song refers to the film Rock 'n' Roll High School in its lyrics.[14][15]
Notes
^Photographed in 1974. Completed in 2006, and released on DVD in 2009.
.jpg)
