Nicollette Sheridan to her at age 16. When Sheridan was less than a year old her father left the family, and she has never seen him since. In 1969, her mother Sally (billed as Dani Sheridan) featured in the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" as one of Blofeld's "Angels of Death". There Sally met Blofeld actor Telly Savalas, who eventually became her de facto husband and Sheridan's stepfather. Sally became known as Sally Savalas. Nicollette emigrated to the United States from England in 1973, when she was ten years old. Sheridan began her career as a fashion model, appearing
Telly Savalas sweet tooth, Savalas also smoked heavily onscreen—cigarettes, cigarillos and cigars—throughout the first season's episodes. The lollipops, which Savalas later admitted had given him three cavities, were also part of an (unsuccessful) effort by Kojak (and Savalas himself) to curb his smoking. The critic Clive James explained the lead actor's appeal as Kojak: "Telly Savalas can make bad slang sound like good slang and good slang sound like lyric poetry. It isn't what he is, so much as the way he talks, that gets you tuning in." David Shipman later wrote: "Kojak was sympathetic to outcasts and ruthless with social predators.