P.J. (Pamela Jayne) Soles was born on July 17, 1950, in Frankfurt, Germany. Her father came from Holland and her mother from New Jersey. Because her father was working for an international insurance company, the family moved all over the world. P.J. lived in Casablanca, Morocco, and Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish, and then Brussels, Belgium, where she went to high school at the International School of Brussels. When she was at Briarcliff College, she wanted to become the first woman ambassador to the Soviet Union. This career goal changed when she visited the Actors' Studio in New York City. She moved to Manhattan and began acting in commercials and modeling for fashion magazines. She was married to J. Steven Soles during her years in New York, but then made the move to Los Angeles to work in TV and movies. At this time, she and Soles' got divorced, but she decided to keep her name as P.J. Soles. She was among the hundreds of actors auditioning for Brian De Palma and George Lucas in their joint casting session for Carrie and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. After "Carrie", she went to Georgia to film Our Winning Season and met actor Dennis Quaid. They were married in 1978 in Texas on a dude ranch.

P.J. starred in Rock 'n' Roll High School with The Ramones. Next she filmed Private Benjamin and then Stripes. She and Quaid were divorced in 1983. P.J. continued doing numerous television and film roles, and then married Skip Holm, who was the stunt pilot on The Right Stuff. They have a son named Skye (born in 1983) and a daughter named Ashley (born in 1988). She and Skip were divorced in 1998.
Was injured during the filming of her movie Rock 'n' Roll High School. She has one son and one daughter In her death scene in Carrie she is knocked unconscious by a wild water hose; in actuality the hose tore her eardrum and she really IS unconscious for that scene. John Carpenter, wanted her for his film Halloween after seeing Carrie. He wrote the part of Lynda especially for her because of the way she said the word "totally." Sang "Rock 'N Roll High School" with the Ramones at one of their concerts. Is multilingual. Lived in several foreign countries while growing up. Favorite food is Moroccan. Originally wanted to be Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Has one son, Sky (born in 1983) and one daughter, Ashley (born in 1988), with Skip Holm. Did her screen test for Carrie with John Travolta. He loved her performance so much, he made sure she got a part in his TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. Father is from the Netherlands. Mother is from New Jersey. She wore a red baseball cap to her audition for Carrie, which director Brian De Palma loved. He told her to bring it with her when they started shooting. The first thing he said to her on the set was, "Did you bring your red baseball hat?" She ended up wearing that hat for the majority of the film. Rock group Local H named their latest album, "Whatever Happened To PJ Soles?" after her. It includes a song about her cult celebrity status titled simply, "PJ Soles."