Stephanie Zimbalist poured herself entirely into Remington Steele — a show built on a premise that was quietly revolutionary for its time, with her character Laura Holt as the brilliant, tenacious detective who invented a fictitious male boss just to get clients to take her seriously — and the cruel irony embedded in that premise was one that Zimbalist herself would come to understand all too well, because as the show became a phenomenon and launched her co-star

Pierce Brosnan into a stratosphere that would eventually lead him to James Bond, it was Stephanie who had anchored every episode, carried the emotional weight of the series, and made the whole thing work, only to watch the industry do to her in real life exactly what Laura Holt had been forced to do on screen — sideline the woman who built it all and hand the glory, the legacy, and the career-defining momentum to the man standing beside her.