P. J. Soles

Pamela Jayne Soles (née Hardon; born July 17, 1950) is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1976 as Norma Watson in Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976) before portraying Lynda van der Klok in John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) and Riff Randell in Allan Arkush's Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979). She has since appeared in a variety of films including Breaking Away (1979), Private Benjamin (1980), Stripes (1981), Sweet Dreams (1985), Jawbreaker (1999), and cult classics like The Devil's Rejects (2005) and Beg (2011). She has been regarded as a scream queen. Early life Soles was born Pamela Jayne Hardon in Frankfurt, Germany, to an American mother from New Jersey, Nancy Hardon (née Seiden), and a Dutch father from Rotterdam, Cornelis Johannes Hardon II. Her maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Lithuania and Austria. At the time of her birth, her father was working for an international insurance company and the family moved all over the world. Soles lived in Casablanca, Morocco, and Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish, and then Brussels, Belgium, where she went to high school at the International School of Brussels. Soles attended Briarcliff College in White Plains, New York, later transferring to Georgetown University, This career goal changed when she visited the Actors Studio in New York City, and Soles was inspired to pursue acting.