Kathleen Bradley

Kathleen JoAnn Bradley (born on January 10, 1951 in Girard, Ohio) is an African-American Model, Actress, and Author. She is best known for being the very first permanent African-American Barker's Beauty on The Price is Right (for 10 years) from 1990-2000.

Early Life & Career

Born and raised in Girard, Ohio to parents Albert and Winnie Bradley. From an early age, Katheen knew that she wanted a career in the entertainment field and she has worked very hard to turn her dreams of stardom into reality.

After she graduated from High School, Bradley packed her bags and made the move to Los Angeles, California. Soon she began hitting the Beauty Pageant scene and winning numerous titles including 1971's "Miss Black California". She also had an incredible talent for singing. In 1979, she was part of the short-lived disco group Destination, which had a hit single with a remake of Curtis Mayfield's Move on Up. From there, she formed a singing group along six other aspiring singers as they called themselves "The Love Machine". The ladies shared stages with numerous well-known entertainers such as Sammy Davis Jr., Duke Ellington, Tom Jones, and Julio Igelsias. Kathleen and The Love Machine soon began traveling the globe as they performed for Kings, Queens and diginatries.

Acting

Aside from the singing gigs and beauty pageants, Kathleen also had a talent of acting, which was her first love. She has landed guest starring roles on numerous TV shows as well as appearing in stage plays. Bradley played the lead role in the musical comedy/drama Charlene and then appearing in the 1940s style musical/comedy Color of the Blues.

In 1987, she starred in a movie titled Perfume where she played the lead character, Vashti. The movie was written and directed by Dr. Roland Jefferson and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay by the NAACP Image Awards. Some of Kathleen's other movie credits include Harlem Nights and Troop Beverly Hills but her best known movie role is playing Mrs. Parker, the sexy, seductive neighbor in the 1995 comedy Friday, starring rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube, who spotted her on an episode of The Price is Right and decided that she was the perfect candidate for the part.

The Price is Right

In the spring of 1990, the television Game Show The Price is Right held a nationwide model search to feature their very first permanent African-American Model to appear on the series on a regular basis despite the fact that a woman named Harriet actually holds the distinction of being the very first African-American model as she appeared occasionally one some of the earliest episodes of the syndicated nighttime version of The Price is Right with Dennis James hosting and on the daytime version, a woman named Pat was the very first African-American to appear as a guest model during Holly Hallstrom's absence during the 1983-1984 season.

Kathleen was one of five candidates to audition as she made her debut during the final week of the show's then-18th season and returning at the start of season 19. Sometime later, the show's producers then rotated back and forth between Kathleen and other Barker's Beauty hopeful and Playboy centerfold Renee Tenison as they were most likely the two finalists and ultimately awarded Kathleen with the job as host Bob Barker officially announced her as the new permanent Barker's Beauty on the show's Christmas eve show on (airdate) December 24, 1990.

Serious Injury on The Price is Right set

On (airdate) December 10, 1992, Kathleen and Holly Hallstrom were both seriously injured during a showcase skit which involved a 500 pound Industrial Stove on a rotating platform dolly. The backstage crew began wheeling out another prize in that showcase skit which was a one-and-a-half-ton sailboat which the hull of the boat began pushing the stove forward and the platform dolly was supposed to be hauled off stage but no one came to retrieve it. The oversized appliance began tipping over onto to both Kathleen and Holly as they frantically tried pushing it back, keeping it from falling onto them but it was too heavy.

Kathleen was stuck and couldn't move while Holly was able to jump out of the way as a stagehand realized what was happening and came to their rescue. The appliance went crashing as it hit the stage floor, shattering into a million pieces as both Bradley and Hallstrom were struck in several parts of their bodies as they lay backstage in severe pain. Luckily, the studio audience didn't witness the scary mishap and Bob Barker was not aware of the incident until after the show taping when he was informed by one of the producers as an ambulance then arrived and both ladies were rushed to the hospital.

Both Kathleen and Holly suffered severe bruising and few lacerations and were too injured to return to work on the next day of taping. Janice Pennington was absent during that horrifying ordeal as she took that particular week off which left Dian Parkinson as the only regular model in attendance for the next several tapings.

While Kathleen and Holly were home recovering from the injuries and Janice taking the week off, substitute model Kyle Aletter was called in to helped Dian hold down the fort. The following week and a half later, Bradley and Hallstrom (and Pennington) returned to work but were still badly bruised in numerous places on their bodies as the accident justified a lawsuit against CBS for negligence (just as happened to Janice back in 1988) but instead CBS Television City and The Price is Right were extremely apologetic and voluntarily offered Kathleen and Holly small monetary compensations for their pain and suffering which both ladies willingly accepted.

A short time later in a radio interview, Holly stated that the accident was quite a scare as she and Kathleen were lucky to be alive and also believed that the stage is jinxed.

Price is Right Departure and Lawsuit

In late 2000, everything came to a screeching halt as Kathleen and fellow longtime model Janice Pennington were unjustifiably let go from the show (along with several of the show's staffers, Sharon Friem, Sherrill Paris, Linda Riegert and director Paul Alter). The speculation was their refusal to testify against ex-Barker's Beauty Holly Hallstrom, whom was abruptly dismissed from the series back in 1995, in her wrongful termination lawsuit against Bob Barker and both were fired as a result as their unannounced final appearances aired on the 13th of December.

Bradley and Pennington were not given a proper formal sendoff by the show which left a lot of fans angry and hurt. While Kathleen was on the show for 10 years, there was more anger and hurt over Janice's termination due to her longevity on the show dating back to it's 1972 premiere. Kathleen and Janice later sued for wrongful termination but settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Bradley later stated that her termination was "abrupt" and "unexpected" and as an event she was not prepared for while Pennington's settlement contained a hush clause (Kathleen's did NOT) as she was prohibited from speaking publicly against Bob Barker and although she has not spoken publicly regarding Barker or her departure from The Price is Right

As for former staff assistant Sherrill Paris, she also filed suit against Barker for wrongful termination as well as production assistant, Sharon Friem, who was also dismissed from her duties on the show and she too sued Barker for wrongful termination as well as sexual harassment, revealing that she was the target of many inappropriate sexual remarks and gestures. Both ladies received financial settlements to drop their lawsuits against Barker. In the case of Linda Riegert, her case was rumored to have had the same outcome as the others.

However for Paul Alter, he briefly regained his position and employment on the show in early 2001, where he remained until his retirement.

Personal Life, Other TV appearances & Trivia

Kathleen has married twice. She was previously married to Bill Overton and together they have a daughter, Cheyenne. Today, she's married to her current husband Terrance Redd and they have a son together named Terrance Jr.

In 1979, Kathleen appeared in one of the last episodes of Good Times in an episode titled "Blood Will Tell" where she played a Nurse. She has also appeared as an extra in two 1989 episodes of A Different World ("Risky Business" & "The Thing About Women") and is close friends with Dawnn Lewis, who played Jalessa on the series for the show's first five seasons.

In 1991 and again in 1993, Kathleen appeared with the cast of The Price is Right with Bob Barker serving as the team's captain on Family Feud (during the tenure of Ray Combs) as they faced off in a Soap Stars vs Barker's Beauties Special against the cast of The Young and The Restless with future TNPiR host Doug Davidson serving as their team's captain. Also in 1993, Kathleen appeared with Holly Hallstrom and Dian Parkinson (right before her departure from Price) on Vicki Lawrence's talk show Vicki! as they appeared alongside Susan Stafford, the original hostess/letter-turner on Wheel of Fortune, Carol Merrill, the original model on Let's Make a Deal, and $ale of The Century hostess and former Miss USA Summer Bartholomew.

In early 2002, Kathleen took part of an interview for E! channels E! True Hollywood Story about The Price is Right.

In 2014, Kathleen released her memoir Backstage at The Price is Right: Memoirs of a Barker Beauty, an entertaining tell-all book about her life, career as a singer and actress, as well as what all went on behind the scenes during her 10-year stint as the first permanent African-American model on The Price is Right. She is close friends with Claudia Jordan, who would permanently replace her on Price in 2001.

In 2015, Kathleen served as a consultant on Showtime's undeveloped half-hour sitcom 36-24-36^[1]The show was about the first black television model to be featured on a popular game show in 1990.

↑ Showtime Developing Comedy About 1990s Game Show Models

Kathleen is active on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

She still appears in various TV shows in guest starring roles as she was seen in a 2016 episode of Grey's Anatomy and is currently filming an upcoming movie titled A Day of Trouble, set to release in 2018.