Actress JoAnna Cameron (a.k.a. Joanna Cameron), best known for starring in the Saturday morning live action show Isis (later re-titled The Secrets of Isis) passed away of complications of a stroke on October 15th. She was 70.
The Secrets of Isis was the first American TV show to feature a female superhero as the lead character when it debuted on CBS in September 1975. The Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman would make their prime time debuts the following year. I am just old enough to remember the show which was paired with Shazam! with several crossover episodes.
However, in my adulthood, I best remember Cameron from the 1974 Columbo episode "Negative Reaction" in which she is featured as the love interest of the murderer played by Dick Van Dyke, in a rare role as a villain. Indeed, I learned of her passing on the Columbo Appreciation Society Facebook page.
Cameron had a relatively brief acting career appearing in films like How to Commit Marriage with Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason, I Love My Wife with Elliott Gould and Brenda Vaccaro and Pretty Maids All in a Row with Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson and Telly Savalas. Cameron would later act onscreen with Hudson in a episode of McMillan. Most of Cameron's work was in TV commercials. For a time, she held the Guinness Book of World Records for appearing in the most national TV commercials before leaving the profession altogether in 1980.
I leave you with an appearance Cameron made on The Merv Griffin Show circa 1978-1979 in which she discusses spending time in Hawaii and learning to navigate around rejection in Hollywood. R.I.P.
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