Kathleen’s acting career began almost accidentally, when George Lucas came to her high school to cast extras for American Graffiti. She ended up with one line and her first screen credit. Not too many years later, at age 22, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her leading role as a mental patient in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977).
She did some nudity in her 20s, usually as a sensitive, often naive character with perfect diction. She even did a brief frontal scene in Sunday Lovers (1980). After her extended spa scene in The Last Winter (1983), she went nearly a decade with no nudity, and it seemed that part of her career was finished. She surprised everyone by emerging in her famous “fuck me, rock god” role in The Doors (1991), as the uninhibited, hard-nosed, hard-partying rock journalist Patricia Kennealy. (The real Kennealy said that the characters and incidents bore no resemblance to herself or her experiences.)
That was really the end of her nudography, except for two minor moments. While never naked, she appeared in a thong in Trial By Jury (1994). She then did a shower scene in Apollo 13 (1995) that seems to contain a nipple. That nipple can’t be seen in real time, but is there if you pause at exactly the right frame. Maybe.
1977 – I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
1980 – Sunday Lovers
1983 – The Last Winter
1991 – The Doors
1994 – Trial by Jury
1995 – Apollo 13
Very pretty woman, wish she’d done more nudes
If you want to see her in marvellous but clothed form in a bikini, quite young, try “Lifeguard”