Shelley Smith, ‘The Associates’ and ‘For Love and Honor’ Actor, Dies at 70

Dan Clarendon August 13, 2023, 1:45 pm

Shelley Smith in a publicity still for 'For Love and Honor' — MGM Television/Courtesy: Everett Collection

Shelley Smith, a model and actress known for her roles in the TV shows The Associates and For Love and Honor, has died. She was 70 years old.

Michael Maguire, Smith’s husband, announced her passing in a Facebook video, telling supporters that she died on August 8 after cardiac arrest put her in a coma at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital three days earlier.

“She wasn’t in any pain, and she passed peacefully, with me and Nicky and Miranda, her children, holding her hand and kissing her head and telling her how much we loved her,” Maguire said in the video.

Born in 1952 in Princeton, New Jersey, Smith found success as a model, appearing on the cover of Vogue, Glamour, Mademoiselle, and Harper’s Bazaar, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

She segued into acting in 1979, starring that year in the ABC comedy The Associates, in which she played Wall Street lawyer Sara James opposite Martin Short, Alley Mills, Joe Regalbuto, and Wilfrid Hyde-White.

Shelley Smith in a publicity still for 'The Associates'

Everett Collection

In 1983, she starred as Capt. Carolyn Engel, a base medical officer, in the NBC military drama For Love and Honor, also starring Keenen Ivory Wayans, Yaphet Kotto, Kelly Preston, and Rachel Ticotin.

As a guest star, Smith appeared in episodes of Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Diff’rent Strokes, Magnum, P.I., and Murder, She Wrote.

Smith also frequented game shows, appearing in dozens of episodes of The $10,000 Pyramid and its later incarnations.

“She helped people win money,” Maguire said of Smith’s Pyramid successes. “She was so proud of that. She was so quick and witty and funny.”

After leaving showbiz, Smith earned a master’s degree in psychology from Antioch University, became a marriage and family therapist, and launched the company The Egg Donor Program (now known as Hatch Fertility), according to THR.

“Shelley lived an incredible life!” Maguire wrote in his Facebook caption. “We are all heartbroken, but we are also so fortunate to have been touched by this beautiful, intelligent, compassionate and incredible soul.”