Early life Pelikan was born July 12, 1954 in
Berkeley, California, the daughter of Helen L., a psychologist, and Robert G. Pelikan, an international
economist who served as the minister-counselor from the United States at the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in
Paris. She is of
Czech descent. While attending high school in Maryland, Pelikan took an interest in
ballet, but was unable to pursue it after the tumor in her leg recurred, requiring a second surgery that left her unable to walk for the entirety of her senior year of high school. Her first regular television work was as maid Kate Mahaffey on the
CBS soap opera Beacon Hill (1975). After, she made her
Broadway debut as Rosaline in a 1977 production of
Romeo and Juliet. Pelikan portrayed the title character of the horror film
Jennifer (1978), starring opposite
Nina Foch and
John Gavin, and subsequently appeared as the lusty Lucy Scanlon in the television miniseries
Studs Lonigan (1979), co-starring with
Harry Hamlin,
Colleen Dewhurst, and
Brad Dourif. Pelikan was married to actor
Robert Harper from 1981 to 1984. In 1984, she had a supporting role in
Jonathan Demme's
Swing Shift, starring
Goldie Hawn and
Kurt Russell. She subsequently married actor
Bruce Davison in 1986, and had one son, Ethan, born in 1996. Pelikan appeared in a leading role in the horror film
Ghoulies (1985), and starred as the widowed mother Sarah Hargrave in the film sequel
Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991). She won a
Drama-Logue Award for her role in a Los Angeles-based production of
Only a Broken String of Pearls (1995), a one-woman play about
Zelda Fitzgerald by Willard Simms. In 1998, she had a minor part in the thriller film
Shadow of Doubt. In 2018, Pelikan earned a
Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from
California State University, Long Beach. As of 2022, she taught "Acting with the Camera" at
HB Studio in New York City. In August 2025, Pelikan married Russian internet personality and streamer Ilya Davydov, known professionally as Maddyson. The couple was married in a private ceremony, which was first reported by the
Moscow Star Tribune. == Filmography ==