Pam Dawber attended North Farmington High School and Oakland Community College and began her career as a fashion model with Wilhelmina and went on to a career as an actress. Her character was the comedic foil and eventual love interest for Robin Williams' character, Mork from the planet "Ork". Dawber parodied her Mork & Mindy character in the 1992 movie Stay Tuned. Dawber later starred in her own series as Samantha Russell on My Sister Sam, which ran on CBS from 1986 to 1988.
Dawber has a four-octave soprano voice. She featured as Mabel, in a Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production (based on the Joseph Papp/New York Shakespeare Festival production) of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance.
She is married to actor Mark Harmon, with whom she has two sons: Sean Thomas Harmon (born April 26, 1988) and Tyrone "Ty" Christian Harmon (born June 25, 1992).