The Beverly Hillbillies Role You Forgot Heather Locklear Played

Heather Locklear made her "Dynasty" debut as Samantha "Sammy Jo" Dean Carrington in December 1981, during the hit soap's second season. However, just a couple months before "Dynasty" made her a star, Locklear had a small, uncredited role in the TV reunion movie "The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies." The film's plot hinges on dealing with an energy crisis, making it a timely twist on late '70s/early '80s life. The cast included some beloved actors from the original "Beverly Hillbillies" cast, like Buddy Ebsen and Donna Douglas. Sadly, Irene Ryan died years earlier, and Max Baer Jr. opted out, since he wanted to diversify his resume a bit more. Locklear was born in September 1961, just a year before the original "Beverly Hillbillies" series hit the airwaves. 

Although the show ran until 1971, that was still long before she decided to pursue acting. Locklear's debut role was on "CHiPs" in 1980, so she was still building her onscreen credits when she appeared in "The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies." Unlike Baer Jr., Locklear wasn't especially concerned about the long term effects. Originally, she planned to study psychology, when she was scouted while taking an acting class for commercials. Since Locklear was hesitant about pivoting to acting full-time, her manager, Joan Green, took it slowly. "We kind of moved along according to how Heather grew," Green explained in a 1983 interview (via YouTube). "It's been kind of a real natural progression but we didn't design [...] for Heather to be a star the day we started."

Surprisingly, Heather Locklear's big break on "Dynasty" came about due to her print work, rather than her (relatively minor) acting credits. Locklear's dad worked at UCLA, and when she was a student there, he talked up her modeling talents. After her picture appeared on the cover of a university catalog, it helped Locklear get an audition for what turned out to be a role on "Dynasty." "There was four of us for Sammy Jo, and I didn't think I was going to get it, but I didn't think I was not going to get it," Locklear revealed on the "Hollywood & Divine" podcast in June 2026. The actor retained that humble attitude even as her success snowballed, and she picked up a second major gig starring alongside the legendary William Shatner on "T.J. Hooker." 

"It was very hard for me, being put in these situations and suddenly saying, 'Oh, now I'm an actress,'" she confessed to the Deseret News in 1996. "I thought that was very false. I didn't study for years and didn't go to London and didn't go to New York and all that. I thought, 'I don't want to be presumptuous and say I'm an actress just because I'm being paid to be on television.'" It's worth pointing out that her on-the-job education was hugely impressive during the '80s (even if Locklear's fashion wasn't always on point). She took the workload in stride too, even when it meant long days. 

Locklear's resume continued expanding to include hits like "Melrose Place" and "Spin City." However, decades later, she's still kept her down-to-earth outlook. Locklear has spent years focusing on separating her work and home lives, along with building a friend group that's notably not linked to Hollywood.