Janine Turner: From Dallas to New Projects!

native Janine Turner has had an enviable Hollywood career.

The 63-year-old actress got her start in the 1970s as a fashion model in as she landed some of the top campaigns.

Then in 1980 she was cast on the smash hit TV series Dallas as a friend of Lucy Ewing, played by . She also appeared on the soap opera General Hospital.

Next sudden fame came when she starred as Maggie O'Connell on the beloved series Northern Exposure which was on the air from 1990 to 1995.

She also starred as Jessie Deighan opposite in the film Cliffhanger and she was Katie McCoy on Friday Night Lights. 

The star also had a headline-making love life: she dated Stallone, and and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and was also once engaged to . 

Now she has talked to the Daily Mail about her new YouTube series, The Pursuit, which dramatizes the courage of the Founding Fathers and Mothers.

Turner talked to the Daily Mail about her rise from Texas country girl to top model in New York City.

'I was modeling at age 15 for Wilhelmina Models in 1978, it was really something,' she told the Daily Mail.

'And it was amazing to start my career as an actress at age 17 on Dallas. I played Susan, the friend of Charlene Tilton's character. 

'My first day on set I sat next to Larry Hagman by the makeup stand. He was very nice and said, “Hi there!” in a full Texas accent.'

After Dallas she 'packed up my maroon Buick with my eight track tapes and moved to Hollywood to get more roles,' she said.

Turner also popped up on The Love Boat, Happy Days, The A-Team, Knight Rider and Quantum Leap.

In 1989 she played Nancy Beth opposite Julia Roberts and Dolly Parton in Steel Magnolias.

But then she got tired of the scripts she was being sent and changed the way she was doing things.

'I had checked out of Hollywood. I thought, "I can't do any more bikini roles,"' she said.

'I found a method acting coach and really studied acting while I cut my hair and took off my fingernail polish,' she said. 'Next thing I knew I booked Northern Exposure, which happened out of New York. 

'The highlight of my career was Northern Exposure which was quirky and funny,' she added.

Northern Exposure was a 1990s classic TV show which also starred Rob Morrow as a city doctor who is .

She loved the role: 'Maggie was a character I was waiting for. I stopped doing titty roles and worked with Marilyn Monroe's acting coach so I could prepare myself for something better and I got it. I had $8 left in my bank account when I landed Northern Exposure.'

Turner also told the Daily Mail, 'The show is now streaming on Amazon Prime, so I have a whole new fan base, like kids that stop me in parking lots saying, "Mom, there's Maggie!" It still holds up.'

When the show ended, she moved to Texas where she bought a ranch, a pickup truck and a horse.

'I felt good being back home in Texas, where I raised my daughter,' she said. 'I'm thrilled I raised my daughter here. People ask of I would have it done differently. But I wouldn't. It was really all about her.'

And she also talked to the Daily Mail about Stallone, whom she dated and costarred with in 1993's Cliffhanger.

'It was amazing working with him on Cliffhanger, he was intelligent, funny and generous. He has a great ability to write scripts, such a talent,' she gushed.

Another film that stands out is 1997's Leave It To Beaver, in which she played June Cleaver.

'How different was that to do after Norther Exposure?' she asked. 'It was so fun being on a big studio lot and taking on a classic TV show like that.'

She has dipped her toe back into acting with the 2000 shows Strong Medicine and Dr T & The Women, and she also appeared in Law & Order: SVU. 

Then came Friday Night Lights which she starred on in 2008 and 2009.

After that she took roles here and there. Her last movie was Birthright Outlaw in 2023.

Now she is behind the camera. 

The Pursuit is a vertical historical short series created, written, and directed by Turner through her foundation, Constituting America. 

The series highlights American Founding Fathers and Mothers, with new weekly episodes running through July 4, 2026, in honor of America's 250th anniversary. 

'One of the main goals of The Pursuit is to have everyone be aware of how we have fallen into a dictatorship with the consent of the people,' she began.

'250 years later, I still can’t get over how powerful the founding story is. In The Pursuit, I had the joy of working with Bryan Brigham as he steps into the role of John Adams—my favorite founding father—in the vertical series from Constituting America, which I wrote, directed, and had the privilege to be part of. Featuring the Founding Fathers and Mothers who shaped the nation.'

New episodes are release weekly through July 4 in honor of America’s 250th anniversary.

Now she has two new projects she will direct, and she is also starring in her own musical Belva.

It is about Belva Lockwood, who was alive from 1830 to 1917. She was a pioneering attorney and activist who became the first woman admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court bar (1879) and the first to argue a case before the Court (1880). 

'It's a story about inspiration and hope,' she noted. 

'I will dance and sing, and there's lot of tap dancing,' she added. 'Hopefully it will be Broadway bound in a year. It is on my bucket list to be on a Broadway musical.'