BERN NADETTE STANIS | 68

The name Bern Nadette Stanis was quite a popular one back in the 1970s. This was because she was active in the pageantry scene, having joined and won the Miss Brooklyn title. She also clinched the first runner-up slot for the Miss New York state pageant. As it turns out, being a beauty queen was not her true calling after all. Stanis later became an actress and a successful one at that! She gave life to the character Thelma Ann Evans on Good Times from February 1974 until August 1979.

After the series ended, she also made appearances on The Cosby Show and What’s Happening Now. It seems, however, that her career fizzled out after that, but she did appear on a number of occasions in other minor roles. Her latest significant project was the TV special Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Good Times, where she was given credit as herself.