Karin Jan Smithers (born July 3, 1949) is an American television and film actress.

Smithers grew up in Woodland Hills, California. She attended William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills. She played the character Bailey Quarters on the popular television series WKRP in Cincinnati. She first reached the public eye as a teenager, when she was featured on the March 21, 1966 cover of Newsweek, seated on a motorcycle. As a result of that exposure, she landed some commercial modeling work while pursuing studies at the California Institute of the Arts.

As a teen, Smithers was involved in a car accident which left a permanent scar on her chin. To avoid another car that had run a stop sign, Jan swerved and hit a telephone pole. The impact smashed her face into the steering wheel, causing the injury. This scar cost her some roles and, according to Jan, made her feel insecure about her looks.

From 1987 through 1995 she was married to actor James Brolin. They had one daughter together. Although she had been living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and had retired from show business, she is now living in Ojai, California, and is reported to be considering a return to acting.

In 2001 Jan appeared on "Entertainment Tonight" specifically to quash the rumor that Barbra Streisand had stolen Brolin away from her. She said that she and Brolin had broken up years before Brolin met Streisand.

One of four girls, Smithers was raised in the comfortable San Fernando Valley suburb of Woodland Hills just north of Los Angeles, CA. Her father was an attorney. While studying art at Taft High School, Smithers swerved her automobile to avoid hitting another driver and ran into a telephone pole. The accident left a permanent scar on her chin. A couple of years later, Smithers was interviewed by Newsweek reporter David Moberg for a story about typical American teenagers in the 1960s. She was photographed happily riding the back of a friend's motorcycle by Julian Wasser. That carefree looking shot made the cover of the March 21, 1966 issue of the magazine. The shot led to work in commercials while she was continuing her art studies at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. After a few years as a working actress, she won the role of pretty but shy Bailey Quarters in "WKRP in Cincinnati" (1978), a CBS sitcom about a midwestern radio station. After the show ended its run, she worked on occasion and in 1987, married actor James Brolin. She became a stepmother to his two sons and had a daughter with Brolin. Her marriage to Brolin ended in 1995.