Power's pre-acting career included a runner-up prize in the Miss Teenage America pageant, and many modelling jobs. At nineteen, she briefly dated Elvis Presley

She was spotted on a magazine cover by film director Peter Bogdanovich, who selected her to play a small town heartbreaker in his prestigious 1971 film, 'The Last Picture Show'. Shepherd was praised for her cinematic debut, though the reviews devoted more space to her diving-board striptease than her lines.

Except for a part in 'The Heartbreak Kid', Shepherd did most of her early film work for Bogdanovich, her lover as well as her mentor. Reviewers were barely tolerant of her performance in 'Daisy Miller', but she recovered, and did well in Martin Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver'.

With her starring role in the popular detective/comedy weekly 'Moonlighting', Shepherd made up for lost time and attained star status. Shepherd, and co-star Bruce Willis played the reluctant partners in a failing detective agency, but the plotlines were secondary to the banter and witticisms between the stars.

An instant success, 'Moonlighting' was plagued with production problems, almost from the outset. Shepherd and Willis made no secret of their distaste for one another, and both behaved badly to those around them. Firings and tantrums were almost everyday occurrences on the set.

Soon it became an event if 'Moonlighting' ran something other than a repeat. In 1987, Shepherd became pregnant with twins, which forced a speedup in production and some wildly convoluted scripts to accommodate the actress' condition. Power struggles continued between Shepherd and producer Glenn Caron. 'Moonlighting' was finally cancelled in 1989.

Since that time, Shepherd has continued to appear in films and TV movies of variable quality, also becoming a favoured and most entertaining guest on the talk-show circuit, and writing her autobiography.