Annie Foster Freedland

After growing up in San Marino, California, and attending USC, Annie's professional modeling and acting career spanned more than four decades.  In 1971, she began her career as a top model at the legendary Wilhelmina Agency and was later recruited to join Eileen Ford's agency, The Fords.  

Annie has starred in over 50 national commercial campaigns, from the iconic Coppertone billboard and ad (she was the "green bathing suit") to replacing Pam Austin as the Dodge spokesperson to serving as the original Hertz spokesperson (before OJ).  She is fond of saying "I have sold you everything but a coffee!" when asked why she looks so familiar.  Along the way, Annie appeared in several TV series, including Starsky & Hutch (as Hutch's girlfriend Abby), Happening!, and Barnaby Jones.

It is less well known that Annie’s ancestors played an important role in settling New England.  Her direct descendant, Reverend Ralph Wheelock, founded the towns of Dedham and Medfield, Massachusetts, and was the first public school teacher in America.  Reverend Ralph Wheelock helped raise the initial funding to found Harvard College in 1653, and his great-grandson, Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, founded Dartmouth College in 1769. 

She is equally proud that her cousin Leolyn Everett Spelman, who donated the family's Villa Spelman in Florence, Italy, to Johns Hopkins University, which used it for over 25 years to host the Johns Hopkins Center for European Studies.  Annie is currently researching Leolyn's life story as part of a plan to film a documentary on her amazing life.

Everyone who knows Annie has experienced her commitment to any number of charities to which she has lent her time and considerable fundraising efforts.  And she is most proud that she has accomplished all of this while raising a wonderful family, including three children and one granddaughter. 

Most of all, they remember Annie's warmth, her smile, and her interest in everyone she meets.