The Cheerleader From Cadillac Who Became a Star on “Cheers”

Cadillac — On most every list you’ll see, “Cheers” ranks as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. It’s up there with “Seinfeld,” “Friends,” “All in the Family,” and “The Office.”

It ran for 11 seasons on NBC, from 1982 to 1993, winning 28 Emmys and letting us spend every Thursday night at the bar in Boston where everybody knows your name. And it’s pretty cool for Michiganders to discover that even though the show took place at a bar in Boston, the show has some deep ties to Michigan.

George Wendt, who played the perpetual barfly Norm, had a vacation place in Oceana County and loved to frequent a bar in Shelby called the Stony Lake Inn. Three Detroit Tigers (Norm Cash, Al Kaline, and Bill Freehan) got a shoutout in the very first episode.

And best of all, one of the stars in the show’s later years was a cheerleader from Cadillac High School. Not only that, she was also in a music video with Prince, and he became so taken with her that he used to write her letters and even wrote a song for her. Oh, and she showed up in “Lethal Weapon” as a naked prostitute who falls to her death in the show’s opening scene.

A cheerleader from Cadillac High School did all that?

Yep. And she might just be the most notable actress from Michigan that you’ve never heard of.

Her name is Jackie Swanson, and she was a 1981 graduate of Cadillac High School, where she sang in the choir and, yes, was a member of the cheerleading squad as a sophomore. In the last five seasons of “Cheers,” she played Kelly Gaines, the sweet and dim-witted rich girl who becomes Woody Boyd’s girlfriend and eventually his wife.

Kelly was only supposed to be in one episode, but she was such a hit with audiences that the producers decided to make her a regular. She became one of the most beloved members of the cast and even landed on the cover of TV Guide when she and Woody got married. More than 20 million viewers watched the Cadillac girl in that episode.

Jackie was born in Grand Rapids, and the family moved up north to Cadillac when she was 10. They lived right in town at 410 Stimson Street. Her father Scott sold insurance, and her mother Ruth was a legal secretary. Jackie has two sisters and a brother, and all of them were quite popular and involved at Cadillac High School.

As a side note, Jackie would have been in middle school when the biggest event in Cadillac history took place—when the rock band KISS came to town in the fall 1975 for the high school’s homecoming, because they heard the Viking football players were big fans.

KISS stayed for two days, rode in a parade through town, and played at the homecoming dance. Even for someone who would one day be getting romantic letters from Prince, it had to be a pretty big deal for Jackie Swanson to have KISS in her hometown.

When she graduated in 1981, she went off to Northern Michigan University, where she studied communications and French, but she left after three years because she wanted to go to Hollywood to try and make it big.

“I was always fascinating with film and acting,” she told a reporter in 1992. “I was antsy in college. I always thought that Los Angeles was a very creative place. My dad and I joke about it now. He wasn’t too pleased, but he was very supportive.”

It didn’t take her long. In 1985, just a year after landing in Hollywood, she landed a role in the music video for Prince’s new song, “Raspberry Beret.”

“I ended up playing this little raspberry beret girl,” she said. “I was sitting on a little platform with Prince, and I gave him the guitar. I thought, ‘This is exciting. I’m going to be on MTV.’ ”

Yeah, pretty cool. Just four years out of Cadillac High School and she’s making music videos with Prince.

She certainly made an impression on him, too. Prince was so taken with Jackie he started writing her letters (“Please send me pictures of u. I miss your smile. I am very happy now and I hope u are 2”) and he even wrote a song for her (which he never recorded) called “Palomino Pleasure Ride.”

Her acting career got another big bump in 1987, when she landed a role in the blockbuster Mel Gibson film “Lethal Weapon.” Jackie plays a topless, drugged-out prostitute who leaps to her death in the film’s opening scene.

Her parents drove to Grand Rapids to see the film, and her dad wasn’t too thrilled to see his little girl up there on the screen naked.

“My mother said my father sat there with his eyes wide open, his mouth hanging,” Jackie said. “He didn’t really say anything to me. He told me he liked the movie and sort of tiptoed around it.”

Her next role—her biggest role, and the one that would define her career—was much more wholesome. In 1989, she was cast as Kelly Gaines, the dim-witted rich girl that the equally dim-witted Woody Boyd falls in love with. When Jackie read with him, their chemistry was perfect, and she got the part. “I read for it twice, and the third time was with Woody,” she said. “I thought we had a good reading together. I went home to pack and got the call from my agent that I got the job. I was so happy, I was crying when I called my sister.”

For the next five seasons, Jackie was a regular on “Cheers,” and America loved her. Her growing fame was huge news back home in Cadillac, and Jackie came home all the time to see her family and friends.

“I have a real love for my hometown,” she said in 1992. “Things that you do in your childhood always mean something to you.”

Scott and Ruth Swanson lived in Cadillac the rest of their lives, so Jackie always had plenty of reasons to come home. She came back to see her dad right before he passed away on New Year’s Day in 2025.

When “Cheers” ended in 1993, Jackie took a few more acting roles but eventually stepped away from Hollywood altogether. She married a professional volleyball player named Andrew Smith, and they live a quiet life together in Beverly Hills.

She still has plenty of childhood friends in Cadillac, though, so she’s always welcome back—back to the place in Michigan where everybody knows her name.