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- Actress
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Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on October 1, 1935, in England. Her mother, Barbara Ward (Morris), and stepfather, both vaudeville performers, discovered her freakish but undeniably lovely four-octave singing voice and immediately got her a singing career. She performed in music halls throughout her childhood and teens, and at age 20, she launched her stage career in a London Palladium production of "Cinderella".
Andrews came to Broadway in 1954 with "The Boy Friend", and became a bona fide star two years later in 1956, in the role of Eliza Doolittle in the unprecedented hit "My Fair Lady". Her star status continued in 1957, when she starred in the TV-production of Cinderella (1957) and through 1960, when she played "Guenevere" in "Camelot".
In 1963, Walt Disney asked Andrews if she would like to star in his upcoming production, a lavish musical fantasy that combined live-action and animation. She agreed on the condition if she didn't get the role of Doolittle in the pending film production of My Fair Lady (1964). After Audrey Hepburn was cast in My Fair Lady, Andrews made an auspicious film debut in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (1964), which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Andrews continued to work on Broadway, until the release of The Sound of Music (1965), the highest-grossing movie of its day and one of the highest-grossing of all time. She soon found that audiences identified her only with singing, sugary-sweet nannies and governesses, and were reluctant to accept her in dramatic roles in The Americanization of Emily (1964) and Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Torn Curtain (1966). In addition, the box-office showings of the musicals Julie subsequently made increasingly reflected the negative effects of the musical-film boom that she helped to create. Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) was for a time the most successful film Universal had released, but it still couldn't compete with Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music for worldwide acclaim and recognition. Star! (1968) and Darling Lili (1970) also bombed at the box office.
Fortunately, Andrews did not let this keep her down. She worked in nightclubs and hosted a TV variety series in the 1970s. In 1979, Andrews returned to the big screen, appearing in films directed by her husband Blake Edwards, with roles that were entirely different from anything she had been seen in before. Andrews starred in 10 (1979), S.O.B. (1981) and Victor/Victoria (1982), which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
She continued acting throughout the 1980s and 1990s in movies and TV, hosting several specials and starring in a short-lived sitcom. In 2001, she starred in The Princess Diaries (2001), alongside then-newcomer Anne Hathaway. The family film was one of the most successful G-Rated films of that year, and Andrews reprised her role as Queen Clarisse Renaldi in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). In recent years, Andrews appeared in Tooth Fairy (2010), as well as a number of voice roles in Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), Enchanted (2007), Shrek Forever After (2010), and Despicable Me (2010).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lisa Gaye was born on 6 March 1935 in Denver, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), Hawaiian Eye (1959) and How to Marry a Millionaire (1957). She was married to Bently Clyde Ware. She died on 14 July 2016 in Houston, Texas, USA.- A native of Flint, Michigan, Nancy Kovack was a student at the University of Michigan at 15, a radio deejay at 16, a college graduate at 19 and the holder of eight beauty titles by 20. Her professional acting career began on television in New York, first as one of Jackie Gleason's "Glea Girls" and then, more prominently, on The Dave Garroway Show (1953), Today (1952) and Beat the Clock (1950). A stage role opened Hollywood doors for Kovack, who signed with Columbia. She later racked up an impressive list of episodic television credits, and was Emmy-nominated for a 1969 guest shot on Mannix (1967). The wife of world-renowned maestro Zubin Mehta of New York Philharmonic fame, Kovack publicly alleges that she was recently bamboozled (to the tune of $150,000) by Susan McDougal, a central figure in the Whitewater scandal.
- Actress
- Producer
- Director
The amazingly gifted and versatile, Ms. Diane Ladd, received immense praise for her dramatic efforts throughout the course of her electric and unique seventy-year career. Her timeless offbeat charm and beauty reminiscent of a lamented Hollywood Golden Era actress gleam in the most understated roles and continue to make her a sought-after unconventional performer.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lee Remick was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Gertrude Margaret (Waldo), an actress, and Francis Edwin Remick, a department store owner. She had Irish and English ancestry. Remick was educated at Barnard College, studied dance and worked on stage and TV, before making her film debut as a sexy Southern majorette in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957). Her next role was also southern: Eula Varner in The Long, Hot Summer (1958). She emerged as a real star in the role of an apparent rape victim in Anatomy of a Murder (1959). And she won an Academy Award nomination for her role as the alcoholic wife of Jack Lemmon in Days of Wine and Roses (1962). After more work in TV and movies, she moved to England in 1970, making more movies there. In 1988 she formed a production company with partners James Garner and Peter K. Duchow.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Of regal bearing and imposing stance, flame-haired British classical actress Judy Parfitt is the possessor of the chilliest blue orbs in all of London and has used them to her advantage over the years with her clever portrayals of haughty, bossy, imperious, deliciously malevolent patricians. Born Judy Catherine Claire Parfitt on November 7, 1935, in South Yorkshire, England, she was educated at Notre Dame High School for Girls before enrolling for acting training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA)
She made her stage debut with "Fools Rush In" in 1954, and continued to impress with such pieces as "Things Remembered" (1955) and "A Likely Talk" (London debut, 1956). She moved to TV and in the early 1960s was spotted in a number of TV guest appearances on such BBC programs as "The Plane Makers," "The Odd Man," "Queen and the Rebels," "Dr. Finlay's Casebook," "Public Eye," "Front Page Story," "Undermind," "Londoners," "Z Cars," "The Saint," "Emergency-Ward 10," "The Avengers" and played the embittered Rosa Dartle in the David Copperfield (1966) TV series. Judy also was a regular on the crime series A Man Called Harry Brent (1965) and portrayed Madame Thenardier in the mini-series Les Misérables (1967).
She drew acclaim on the stage with such roles as "The Daughter-in-Law" at the Royal Court, "The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd (title role) (1967), "The Hotel in Amsterdam" (1968), and her portrayal of Gertrude in "Hamlet" in 1969. A year later she recreated the Shakespearean role in the lauded film version of Hamlet (1969) directed by Nick Richardson starring Nicol Williamson in the title role, Anthony Hopkins as Claudius and pop singer Marianne Faithfull as Ophelia. Judy continued to impress on the stage with "The Double Dealer" (1969), the title role in "The Duchess of Malfi" (1971), "Vivat! Vivat Regina! (as Mary, Queen of Scots) (1971), "The Apple Cart" (1973), "Echoes from a Concrete Canyon" (1975), "The Family Dance" (1976) and "The Cherry Orchard" (1978).
In later years the veteran actress appeared on stage in a production of "An Inspector Calls" (1993) and made her Broadway debut co-starring with Matthew Broderick in the revival of "Night Must Fall" (1999). Sporadic film credits would include featured roles in The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970) starring Terence Stamp as a man who awakens from a 30-year coma; the biopic Galileo (1975) starring Topol; a doctor in a biopic about steeple chase jockey and cancer patient Bob Champion entitled Champions (1984); the social comedy The Chain (1984) the gay romantic drama Maurice (1987); the romantic comedy Getting It Right (1989); the psychological thriller Diamond Skulls (1989); as Queen Katherine in the John Goodman comedy vehicle King Ralph (1991); and the war drama Silent Cries (1993).
Outside of Gertrude in "Hamlet," Judy earned her finest role on film with the gloomy-styled thriller Dolores Claiborne (1995), nearly stealing the thunder from stars Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Bates' wealthy, dictatorial employer. Her clever and utterly gripping performance was surprisingly overlooked come Oscar time. Elsewhere, she was lauded for her sterling work in several TV mini-series, including her Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities (1980); her Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice (1980); her Mildred Layton The Jewel in the Crown (1984), for which she earned a BAFTA nomination; her Hilda Spearpoint in The Gravy Train (1990); her Martha in Eye of the Storm (1993) her Mercy Woolf in Funland (2005); her Mrs. Clennam in Little Dorrit (2008); her Hester Waterhouse in The Game (2014). In America she was a recurring presence for a time on the medical series ER (1994). Other popular films she has graced are Wilde (1997), Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998) (as Queen Marie), and Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), for which she earned a BAFTA nomination,
Judy was long married to actor Tony Steedman, who made a guest appearance as Santa Claus on her short-lived '80s sitcom The Charmings (1987) in which she played the Queen. He died in February of 2001. Since then she has ventured on, an always fascinating character presence especially in elegant and period settings. She has recently been seen in a regular role as Sister Monica Joan in the historical TV series drama Call the Midwife (2012).- Actress
- Soundtrack
One of television's premier African-American series stars, elegant actress, singer and recording artist Diahann Carroll was born Carol Diann (or Diahann) Johnson on July 17, 1935, in the Bronx, New York. The first child of John Johnson, a subway conductor, and Mabel Faulk Johnson, a nurse; music was an important part of her life as a child, singing at age six with her Harlem church choir. While taking voice and piano lessons, she contemplated an operatic career after becoming the 10-year-old recipient of a Metropolitan Opera scholarship for studies at New York's High School of Music and Art. As a teenager she sought modeling work but it was her voice, in addition to her beauty, that provided the magic and the allure.
When she was 16, she teamed up with a girlfriend from school and auditioned for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show using the more exotic sounding name of Diahann Carroll. She alone was invited to appear and won the contest. She subsequently performed on the daily radio show for three weeks. In her late teens, she began focusing on a nightclub career and it was here that she began formulating a chic, glamorous image. Another TV talent show appearance earned her a week's engagement at the Latin Quarter.
Broadway roles for black singers were rare but at age nineteen, Diahann was cast in the Harold Arlen/Truman Capote musical "House of Flowers". Starring the indomitable Pearl Bailey, Diahann held her own quite nicely in the ingénue role. While the show itself was poorly received, the score was heralded and Diahann managed to introduce two song standards, "A Sleepin' Bee" and "I Never Has Seen Snow", both later recorded by Barbra Streisand.
In 1954 she and Ms. Bailey supported a riveting Dorothy Dandridge as femme fatale Carmen Jones (1954) in an all-black, updated movie version of the Georges Bizet opera "Carmen." Diahann later supported Ms. Dandridge again in Otto Preminger's cinematic retelling of Porgy and Bess (1959). During this time she also grew into a singing personality on TV while visiting such late-nite hosts as Jack Paar and Steve Allen and performing.
Unable to break through into the top ranks in film (she appeared in a secondary role once again in Paris Blues (1961), a Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward vehicle), Diahann returned to Broadway. She was rewarded with a Tony Award for her exceptional performance as a fashion model in the 1962 musical "No Strings," a bold, interracial love story that co-starred Richard Kiley. Richard Rodgers, whose first musical this was after the death of partner Oscar Hammerstein, wrote the part specifically for Diahann, which included her lovely rendition of the song standard "The Sweetest Sounds." By this time she had already begun to record albums ("Diahann Carroll Sings Harold Arlen" (1957), "Diahann Carroll and Andre Previn" (1960), "The Fabulous Diahann Carroll" (1962). Nightclub entertaining filled up a bulk of her time during the early-to-mid 1960s, along with TV guest appearances on Carol Burnett, Judy Garland, Andy Williams, Dean Martin and Danny Kaye's musical variety shows.
Little did Diahann know that in the late 1960s she would break a major ethnic barrier on the small screen. Though it was nearly impossible to suppress the natural glamour and sophistication of Diahann, she touchingly portrayed an ordinary nurse and widow struggling to raise a small son in the series Julia (1968). Despite other Black American actresses starring in a TV series (i.e., Hattie McDaniel in "Beulah"), Diahann became the first full-fledged African-American female "star" -- top billed, in which the show centered around her lead character. The show gradually rose in ratings and Diahann won a Golden Globe award for "Best Newcomer" and an Emmy nomination. The show lasted only two seasons, at her request.
A renewed interest in film led Diahann to the dressed-down title role of Claudine (1974), as a Harlem woman raising six children on her own. She was nominated for an Oscar in 1975, but her acting career would become more and more erratic after this period. She did return, however, to the stage with productions of "Same Time, Next Year" and "Agnes of God". While much ado was made about her return to series work as a fashionplate nemesis to Joan Collins' ultra-vixen character on the glitzy primetime soap Dynasty (1981), it became much about nothing as the juicy pairing failed to ignite. Diahann's character was also a part of the short-lived "Dynasty" spin-off The Colbys (1985).
Throughout the late 1980s and early 90s she toured with her fourth husband, singer Vic Damone, with occasional acting appearances to fill in the gaps. Some of her finest work came with TV-movies, notably her century-old Sadie Delany in Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999) and as troubled singer Natalie Cole's mother in Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story (2000). She also portrayed silent screen diva Norma Desmond in the musical version of "Sunset Blvd." and toured America performing classic Broadway standards in the concert show "Almost Like Being in Love: The Lerner and Loewe Songbook." She then had recurring roles on Grey's Anatomy (2005) and White Collar (2009).
Diahann Carroll died on October 4, 2019, in Los Angeles, California.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ruta Lee was born on 30 May 1935 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. She is an actress, known for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Funny Face (1957). She was previously married to Webster Bernard Lowe Jr..- Actress
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- Additional Crew
She started as a model, and in 1955 became an actress. She acted under her birth name, Marjorie Hellen, until 1959. Afterwards she was known as Leslie Parrish. She appeared in more than 100 TV shows. She is known as one of the first women producers. She's always had a passion for music. She was involved in social causes such as the Vietnam war. She met the airplane pilot/writer Richard D. Bach during the making of Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973), and they married in 1981. They divorced in 1999.- Today, sexy Lee Meriwether is best remembered for her roles in a few science fiction/fantasy cult productions made between 1966 and 1969. Batman: The Movie (1966), Star Trek (1966), The Time Tunnel (1966) and Land of the Giants (1968).
Firstly Batman: The Movie (1966), in which she played both evil Catwoman and not-so-evil Kitka, who has a romance with Bruce Wayne (Adam West).
Then came 30 episodes of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel (1966) series, in which she played a scientist named Dr. Ann MacGregor, where she mostly performed with Whit Bissell (General Kirk), both attempting to help two time travelers who were lost in time. In one episode, The Kidnappers (1967), Ann was taken away from her normal setting and transported into the distant future.
However, Meriwether once reported that she spent a lot of the series acting to a screen in the Time Tunnel complex, a screen that was meant to feature the two time travelers, but in reality featured nothing at all. So she was reacting to nothing a lot of the time.
Then came the Star Trek (1966) episode, That Which Survives (1969), where she played Losira, an alien being who stalks the Enterprise crew and attempts to kill them.
And finally, she was back with Irwin Allen again with the Land of the Giants (1968) episode, Rescue (1969). In this, she played the concerned "giant" mother of kids who were trapped underground and needed to be rescued by the Earth "little people".
Then she appeared as Betty Jones, daughter-in-law and secretary to Barnaby Jones from 1973 t0 1980 (178 episodes) in the series of the same name, "Barnaby Jones."
Meriwether is still working in television to this day. - Actress
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- Director
Lovely, red-headed Pippa Scott is the daughter of noted stage actress Laura Straub and playwright/screenwriter Allan Scott, who wrote most of the Astaire/Rogers musical films. She is also the niece of the writer/producer Adrian Scott, one of the legendary "Hollywood Ten" of the Hollywood Blacklist.
Educated at Radcliffe and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London, Scott debuted in Jed Harris' last Broadway production, "Child of Fortune" (1956), based upon Henry James' Wings of the Dove. That same year she had a featured role as Lucy in John Ford's classic western film The Searchers (1956). The following year she returned to Broadway with a brief run of "Miss Lonelyhearts" and added a couple of films to her résumé when she co-starred as a novice schoolteacher who is harassed in the low-budget, highly obscure drama As Young as We Are (1958) and portrayed young love interest Pegeen Ryan in the iconic comedy hit Auntie Mame (1958) starring Rosalind Russell in the title role.
TV took a strong focus from the late '50s on with recurring parts on the series Mr. Lucky (1959) and The Virginian (1962), plus a host of guest parts in "Maverick," "The Twilight Zone," "Thriller," "Have Gun - Will Travel," "United States Steel Hour," "Dr. Kildare," "The Fugitive," "Gomer Pyle," "Wagon Train," "The Rogues," "Ben Casey," "Perry Mason," "Wagon Train," "The Dick Van Dyke," "F Troop," "Tarzan, "I Spy," "Family Affair," "Medical Center," "Gunsmoke," "The Mary Tyler Moore," "Mission: Impossible," "Love, American Style," "Barnaby Jones," "Columbo," "The Waltons," "Ironside," "The Streets of San Francisco," "Mannix," "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" and "Remington Steele." She also had a regular role in the short-lived series Jigsaw John (1976) as a love interest for star Jack Warden.
Sporadic stage and film roles came about in between all the TV work. On stage she appeared in the New York company of "Look Back in Anger" and a national tour of "Mary, Mary." She also collaborated with John Houseman at UCLA in preparation for the start of the Center Theater Group and performed in scores of episodic television productions in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. The few films she appeared in included My Six Loves (1963), The Confession (1964), For Pete's Sake! (1966), Petulia (1968), Cold Turkey (1971) (co-starring with Dick Van Dyke), The Sound of Murder (1982).
Along with her then-husband, producer Lee Rich, Pippa was a founding partner of Lorimar Productions, an Emmy-award winning television company and the single largest provider of programming to the networks for two and a half decades. They produced such classics as the Emmy-winning "The Waltons," "Dallas," "Falcon Crest," "Knots Landing," "Eight is Enough" and "The Blue Knight." Lorimar produced many films as well including Oscar and Emmy-winning films Moonstruck (1987), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Sybil (1976) and Being There (1979).
In the 1980s a long-standing concern caused Ms. Scott to focus on humanitarian issues. She founded The International Monitor Institute (IMI), a non-profit dealing with the prosecution of war crimes. IMI was requested by the War Crimes Tribunal to locate, collect and provide visual evidence for prosecutors to use in the trials for the conviction of war criminals. IMI concentrated on the Balkans, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Congo, Cambodia, Iraq and Child Soldiers. IMI assisted many organizations both nationally and internationally, in the investigation of human rights violations and in documenting the circumstances that produced such conditions. The work of the Institute was intended to help nations remove the impediment which block respect for individual rights, civil society and development. The International Monitor continues to be in use today, residing in the Human Rights department at Duke University.
Ms. Scott also began Linden Productions to develop and produce documentaries related to international conflict and human rights violations. Linden has made numerous films for organizations such as the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and the International Rescue Committee to name only a few. A feature documentary, King Leopold's Ghost, based on the bestselling book by Adam Hochschild is about colonial greed and its ravages past and present in the Congo. Scott's film won Best Documentary at seven film festivals and today is playing on Amazon Prime and other online platforms. Another documentary, PBS Frontline's, "The Most Wanted Man, the Hunt for Radovan Karadzic" [a Serbian War Criminal] won at the Berlin Film Festival.
Away from the film camera for over two decades, Pippa returned for a couple parts into the millennium -- Footprints (2009) and Automotive (2013).- Actress
- Script and Continuity Department
- Soundtrack
American character actress Madlyn Rhue was one of television's most prolific actresses and has starred in everything from sitcoms to soap operas to drama series and films for nearly 40 years. Her beautiful looks, natural red hair and brown eyes got her the attention of television producers and she found herself guest starring on such series as Rawhide (1959), Cheyenne (1955), Star Trek (1966), Hawaii Five-O (1968), Charlie's Angels (1976) and Fantasy Island (1977). She did several theatrical motion pictures, most notably Operation Petticoat (1959), He Rides Tall (1964), Kenner (1968) and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). In 1977, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which she battled for nearly 25 years. However, the disease never got her down; she continued to work in numerous television films and was co-starring on such series and soap operas as Executive Suite (1976), Fame (1982) and Days of Our Lives (1965) and had a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote (1984). By 1997, Rhue was unable to work, and she spent her last years at the Motion Picture and Television Country Home retirement center in Woodland Hills, California. She passed away from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis there at age 68 on December 16, 2003.- Highly accomplished American stage and screen actress, director, dancer and musician. Hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she is the daughter of builder/farmer Arnold John Jens and his Polish-born wife Salomea Szujeuska (after whom she was named). Her sister Arnette Jens is married to the well-known character actor Anthony Zerbe.
Jens attended the University of Wisconsin and later majored in drama at Northwestern University. Her first foray into acting was with the Swan Theatre in her home town (now the Milwaukee Repertory Theater). Already an accomplished pianist by the time she moved to New York, Jens was at first undecided as to which branch of the arts to pursue. She thus went on to study dance under Martha Graham, as well as acting with Stella Adler and at Herbert Berghof's studio in Greenwich Village. Having decided on the acting profession, Jens moved on to Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio (of which she became a Lifetime Member in 1962), while at the same time making ends meet working as a secretary. Her Broadway stage debut duly followed in 1956 with a part in Sixth Finger in a Five Finger Glove.
This was the beginning of a prolific and critically acclaimed theatrical career, both on and off-Broadway in famous plays like Jean Genet 's The Balcony and (as Josie) in Eugene O'Neill 's A Moon for the Misbegotten. Her other performing highlights on the Great White Way have included roles in A Far Country (as Sigmund Freud 's wife, Martha Bernays Freud), Tartuffe (as Elmire) and the title role of Mary Stuart in 1971. For the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center, Jens appeared in Arthur Miller's After the Fall. In addition to larger West Coast venues like the Mark Taper Forum, Jens has more recently acted on the smaller stages in Los Angeles. Besides her busy performing career, she has also taught for many years at UCLA's theater department. Surprisingly, she found time for a substantial career in films and television as well.
On screen from 1956, Jens has often played off-beat characters, none more so than her inscrutable Female Changeling, head of the despotic Dominion and a primary antagonist in TV's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) (her daily make-up for the role took two hours to apply). Earlier in her career, she had starred in the torrid southern drama Angel Baby (1961) (credited as 'Miss Salomé Jens) which marked the film debut of Burt Reynolds, and played the romantic interest of the surgically altered, 'reborn' Rock Hudson in the powerful psychological thriller Seconds (1966). She said in an interview "I was never an ingénue. I've always been fortunate to be somebody who could never be pigeonholed. I was able to do a lot of different things." Those 'different things' have included appearances in Tales from the Crypt (1989), The Outer Limits (1963), The Untouchables (1959), Superboy (1988) (as Clark Kent's mother, Martha) and the voice of the female Guardian in DC's Green Lantern (2011), among a host of others shows and TV movies. She has had recurring roles in the spoof series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976), as well as in Falcon Crest (1981), L.A. Law (1986) and Melrose Place (1992).
Salome Jens was twice married, first to tough guy actor Ralph Meeker and later to radio and TV personality Lee Leonard. In her private life she keeps fit by walking and doing weights. She has latterly attended Comic Con events in the U.S. and abroad. - Actress
- Producer
Hailing from an English theatrical family, Christina Pickles is a beloved stage-trained actress who has enjoyed a rich and varied career that has allowed her to show her incredible range and great depth of character in her performances. She sets the bar for all at an entirely new height with this year's "Outstanding Actress, Short Form, Comedy or Drama, Short Form" for her critically lauded performance in "Break a Hip" earning a remarkable seventh Emmy nomination for a superior performance. Earlier, Christina earned an Emmy nod for her hilarious role on "Friends" as 'Ross' and 'Monica Geller's' mom adding to five nominations for her historic role on precedent-setting "St. Elsewhere."
Probably best known for her portrayal of "Nurse Helen Rosenthal" on the NBC hit hospital drama "St. Elsewhere" and "Judy Geller," the dysfunctional mother of Monica (Courtney Cox) and Ross (David Schwimmer), on the NBC smash comedy hit "Friends," Christina was Emmy-nominated five times for "St. Elsewhere" and once for her indelible role on "Friends."
Christina just added her seventh Emmy nomination this summer for her hilarious and touching performance as "Biz" in the short-form comedy series "Break A Hip." Guest stars and riveting performances surround her indelible character including those from Oscar winners Allison Janey, Octavia Spencer and Jim Rash as well as a laugh-out-loud turn from Peri Giipin. It was Christina five years ago that learned about the infectious storyline of "Break A Hip" and its protagonist, 'Biz,' insisting producer/director Cameron Watson turn this into the Short Form hit series you see today. It's the best in its space at a time when all of us are living longer and know a 'Biz' in our lives.
Christina trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London before moving to New York where she was a member of The APA Repertory Company and enjoyed a luminous career starring on and Off-Broadway. After moving to Los Angeles for "St. Elsewhere," she worked consistently in film and television establishing herself as a versatile actress able to perform both comedy and drama deftly. Film credits include "The Wedding Singer," Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet," "Grace of My Heart," and "Legends of the Fall." As a voice-over artist, Christina can be heard in classic episodes of "The Family Guy" and as the spokesperson for Pavilions supermarket.- Actress
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Anne was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne but the family moved to Redcar when the WWII started. She was educated at White House School where she acted in a school play of Romeo and Juliet with June Laverick, who when older would also take to the stage. When Anne got older she was sent to a boarding school, Penrose College, in North Wales and at 11 was in a choir. Her father became a special correspondent for the Daily Telegraph following in the footsteps of her grandfather, an uncle and 3 brothers who were all journalists. Anne took elocution lessons and did bits in plays with a teacher who recognising her talent helped her to get into RADA after which she worked as as a stage manager and some work in repertory. Her first work in television involved sketches with Benny Hill but gave up acting in 1974 before returning in 1986 eventually making her name in the part of Valerie Barlow in the television soap Coronation Street.- Actress
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Flashy, leggy, bouffant blonde Dorothy Provine was a solid screen representation of the Kennedyesque era when life seemed so full of fun, so innocent and so optimistic. This sparkling beauty also gave TV audiences a double dose blast to the past via her popular co-starring roles on late 50s/early 60s series TV. A talented girl whose comedic gifts were never sufficiently tapped into by Hollywood, Dorothy nevertheless secured a dedicated fan base merely on her sunny smile, creamy good looks and carefree radiance alone.
Graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in Theater Arts. Hollywood folklore has it that the South Dakota-born (but raised in San Francisco) actress landed the role of the notorious femme bank robber in the low-budget "B" film The Bonnie Parker Story (1958) just three days after arriving in Hollywood. It certainly proved to be a lucky break, although it didn't clinch the movie stardom she might have expected. On the contrary, Dorothy was forced to languish in such predicable programmers as Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959) and Live Fast, Die Young (1958), while playing the gigantic, radiation-exposed love interest in the poorly-executed The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959) opposite rolypoly comedian Lou Costello in his only film effort after breaking up with partner Bud Abbott. Fortunately, TV made up for her lack of success on film.
Signed up by Warner Bros. and seemingly better suited for the small screen, Dorothy became one of the more visible female faces on TV and would be best remembered for her period roles as 1890s saloon singer Rocky Shaw, the friend of "Gold Rush" fortune seekers Roger Moore and Jeff York in The Alaskans (1959) and, better yet, as Pinky Pinkham, the Charleston-dancing flapper in the Warner Bros. adventure series The Roaring 20's (1960).
A vivacious guest on scores of other TV shows, Dorothy occasionally reappeared in lightweight 1960s films wherein she generally projected a squeaky-clean image playing various sparkly housewives, girlfriends and sisters. She was part of the all-star zaniness in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) as Milton Berle's wife; appeared as Jack Lemmon's bright-eyed better half in the suburban comedy Good Neighbor Sam (1964); played Hayley Mills's beleaguered older sis in the feline caper That Darn Cat! (1965); had a slam-bang cameo as Lily Olay the barroom singer who belts out the memorable "He Shouldn't-A, Hadn't-A, Oughtn't-A Swang on Me" in the slapstick farce The Great Race (1965); showed up as the true-blue gal pining for Jim Hutton in the bank heist comedy Who's Minding the Mint? (1967); and made her last silver screen appearance alongside Dick Van Dyke in the comedy Never a Dull Moment (1968), which did not live up to its title.
During this time Dorothy occasionally made use of her vocal talents on the live stage, and appeared briefly as a duo with George Burns in a 1963 Las Vegas nightclub act, replacing Burns' ailing wife Gracie Allen, who by this time had fully retired due to serious heart problems. Eventually, however, she lost interest in her career.
Dorothy abruptly left the business in 1969 after marrying director Robert Day, who was involved in several of the Tarzan movies. She showed up a couple of times on TV in the 70s but, for the most part, found her self-imposed retirement completely to her liking. The couple moved permanently to Bainbridge Island, Washington in 1981, and there she found contentment simply gardening and tending to her animals. They had one son, Robert Day Jr., who became a musician. Dorothy battled emphysema in her last years and died at a nearby hospice on April 25, 2010, at age 75.- A beautiful auburn-haired lass with blue/grey eyes, Andra Martin was born Sandra Hildur Rehn (pronounced 'Wren') in Rockford, Illinois, of Swedish ancestry. She grew up on her parent's farm, attended high school in her home town and harboured dreams of becoming a star. Andra's first step on that projected career path was to spend two years studying speech and drama at Northwestern University. Her next stop was New York where she finagled her first job as a model while continuing part-time acting studies under the personal tutelage of Lee Strasberg. Strasberg was suitably impressed, considered her 'a natural' and recommended her to Joshua Logan to screen test for the female lead in Sayonara (1957) (opposite Marlon Brando). Alas, that fell through as did another audition at Warner Brothers for the part in Marjorie Morningstar (1958) which had already been earmarked for Natalie Wood. Universal-International eventually took up the option and signed the budding starlet under contract.The publicity machine went rapidly into top gear, comparing Andra to Hollywood's biggest and brightest, a melding of the attributes of Elizabeth Taylor and Betty Grable with the brains of a Katharine Hepburn. Sadly, her subsequent casting would tend to emphasize her beauty rather than her talent.
Andra only appeared in three pictures for Universal, none of them particularly good. The first was a second lead in a so-so romantic drama (The Lady Takes a Flyer (1958)) as the 'other woman', competing with Lana Turner for the affections of Jeff Chandler. Her character, a pilot, gets killed towards the end. Her other outing was a second-billed role in The Big Beat (1958), a youth-oriented musical which featured no less than fifteen musical numbers. Unsurprisingly, with just 81 minutes of screen time, there was little room for the semblance of a plot (or acting, for that matter). Number three was one of Universal's quota quickies, a lame horror film (The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958)) which cast Andra as a water diviner with telepathic abilities (!). She also made a few of films under contract to Warners, notably the submarine drama Up Periscope (1959) (as the perfunctory female lead) and the Clint Walker western Yellowstone Kelly (1959) (as the love interest, a captive Arapaho girl). By the end of the 50s, the newly minted Deb Star was earning $200 per week.
While her movie career was going nowhere, Andra managed quite well in securing spots as featured leading lady on many popular TV shows on the Warners roster, including Bronco (1958), Cheyenne (1955), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), The Alaskans (1959), Bourbon Street Beat (1959) and Hawaiian Eye (1959). In August 1958, she married Bronco star Ty Hardin (over the objections of their respective managers and Warner Brothers TV execs, who argued that such a union would ruin their romantic appeal to the public). The marriage ended in divorce in 1962. Andra left the film business following her second marriage to a department store heir which lasted six years. A third marriage, however, endured from 1970 until Andra's passing on May 3 2022 at the age of 86. - Actress
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Sue Randall was an actress who was born in 1935. Her primary roles were television instead of motion pictures with Desk Set (1957) being her only silver screen appearance. Sue's TV appearances were mostly guest roles in programs such as The Twilight Zone (1959), The Fugitive (1963), Bonanza (1959) and Gunsmoke (1955). Perhaps Sue is best remembered as the grade school teacher "Miss Landers" in Leave It to Beaver (1957). She appeared on the series, occasionally, from 1958-1962. This beautiful actress contracted lung cancer and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 26, 1984. Sue was 49 years old.- Wanda Ventham was born on 5 August 1935 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK. She is an actress, known for UFO (1970), Invasion: UFO (1974) and Sherlock (2010). She has been married to Timothy Carlton since April 1976. They have one child. She was previously married to James Tabernacle.
- A native Californian of Swedish descent, Sigrid Valdis (the professional stage name of Patricia Annette Olson) was raised in the Westwood and Brentwood neighborhoods of Los Angeles, and attended exclusive private schools, including Marymount High School. Upon graduation, she moved to Europe, then to New York City to continue the modeling career she had begun as a teenager. While working as a designer's showroom and runway model, she met and married a businessman in the fashion industry.
After the birth of her first child, Melissa, she began studying at Stella Adler's Theatre School while working on her first feature film. Her natural talent and on-screen demeanor were impressive, and she found herself back in California in 1964 in pursuit of a promising acting career. Over the next 18 months, she would accumulate an impressive list of credits and on-camera time: Her first film, Two Tickets to Paris (1962) starring Joey Dee of "Peppermint Twist" fame, was followed by big screen roles in Marriage on the Rocks (1965) (alongside Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin), Our Man Flint (1966) (starring James Coburn and Lee J. Cobb), and The Venetian Affair (1966) (with Robert Vaughn).
The exposure of appearing in films brought her a plethora of work in television and opportunities to work with TV legends such as Phil Silvers, Steve Allen, Red Skelton and Sid Caesar. She shared the small screen with the likes of Allan Sherman, Dennis Hopper, Henry Silva, Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. Her numerous credits include Kraft Mystery Theater (1961), Arrest and Trial (1963), and The Wild Wild West (1965).
She also performed on stage, most notably during the summer of 1968 when, with Bob Crane and Abby Dalton, she starred in a touring production of the comedy "Cactus Flower". In addition to the exposure and the opportunity to work with Hollywood's biggest names, she was becoming recognized for her ability to perform effectively in various types of roles in multiple genres and settings. She succeeded in movies and television, comedy and drama, commercials, sitcoms and skits, and was equally successful in lead and supporting roles. She was widowed in 1967, just a short time after she had begun to gain exposure on a weekly network television show.
Valdis caught the eye of Hogan's Heroes (1965) producer Edward Feldman in 1965, leading to her guest appearance as Gretchen in Episode 10. When the second season began, Feldman brought her under contract as a regular cast member, playing the role of Hilda, Col. Klink's secretary. On October 16, 1970, Sigrid and Crane were married on the set of the show. At that time, theirs was the first reported "actual" marriage to be performed on a sound stage. A year later they had a son, Robert Scott Crane. Sigrid retired from acting following Scott's birth so that she could devote herself to her husband and family.
Although the Cranes were separated during part of 1977, they reconciled in 1978. However, Sigrid met with tragedy again a few months later when Crane was murdered. Amid this turmoil and fear, she moved from the Los Angeles area to protect her family from the constant media scrutiny invited by the case. - Actress
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Nancy Malone was born on 19 March 1935 in Queens Village, Long Island, New York, USA. She was an actress and director, known for Naked City (1958), Merlene of the Movies (1981) and The Long, Hot Summer (1965). She died on 8 May 2014 in Duarte, California, USA.- Actress
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Actress Collin Wilcox extended her given name twice over the duration of her professional acting career -- billing herself as Collin Wilcox-Horne and Collin Wilcox Paxton, to be exact. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Highlands, North Carolina, and her interest in theater was sparked by her parents, Jack H. and Virginia Wilcox, who founded the Highlands Community Theatre (now known as the Highlands Playhouse) in 1939. She made her acting debut there as a young girl and appeared in various productions, including "Our Town". In later years, Collin would dutifully return from time to time and perform at her theater alma mater in appreciation.
She attended high school in Knoxville, Tennessee and became the resident ingénue at the regional Carousel Theatre. She majored in drama at the University of Tennessee and studied performing at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, Illinois, as well as improv at The Compass (a forerunner of the Second City troupe) where Paul Sills was the director. There, she worked alongside up-and-coming talents Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Barbara Harris, Severn Darden and Shelley Berman. She eventually migrated to New York in 1957 and earned membership with Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio, who saw great potential in her. She worked there for eight years.
Collins' Broadway debut came a year later with "The Day the Money Stopped", starring Richard Basehart and Mildred Natwick, which earned her the Clarence Derwent Award for "Best Supporting Actress". Slowly garnering notice for her growing quirks and interesting, edgy performances, Collin went on to work with the crème de la crème of Broadway eccentrics including Tallulah Bankhead in "Crazy October", Geraldine Page in "Strange Interlude" and Ruth Gordon in "La Bonne Soup". Neurotic Southern plays such as Tennessee Williams off-Broadway productions of "Camino Real" and "Suddenly, Last Summer" fit her like a glove. In Los Angeles, she appeared in "The Sea Gull" under the direction of John Houseman, "Period of Adjustment" with William Windom and "Getting Out" with Susan Clark. Williams, himself, chose Collin to repeat her leading role as "Isabel" in "Period of Adjustment", when the play went to London.
Collin's film debut came with her brilliant, award-worthy role as young "Mayella", whose Southern white trash teenager, under the duress of her racist father, falsely accuses black man Brock Peters of rape in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Her cross-examination courtroom sequence with Peters' hired attorney, Gregory Peck, is unforgettable. No other film role would have the same impact as that once-in-a-lifetime part. Prior to this, "Mockingbird" director Robert Mulligan personally selected the classically-trained Collin as his TV "Frankie" in a strong presentation of The Member of the Wedding (1958). It was her first television role. For such a strong start, her later film career would prove strangely erratic, with a number of offbeat roles in The Baby Maker (1970), arguably her best post-Mockingbird part, opposite Barbara Hershey and Sam Groom, Catch-22 (1970), September 30, 1955 (1977), Jaws 2 (1978), Marie (1985), The Journey of August King (1995) and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), among them.
While Collin graced a number of quality TV programs, such as the mini-movies The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), Foxfire (1987) and Wildflower (1991) along with such established series as Gunsmoke (1955), The Twilight Zone (1959), The Fugitive (1963) and The Waltons (1972), it was the live stage that kept her fiery passion for acting alive. In the late seventies, she returned to her hometown, met and married third husband Scott Paxton, and founded the multi-arts center, "The Highlands Studio for the Arts", in 1981. She served as its artistic director for nine years as well as its resident playwright and improv teacher. She and her husband (who has been president of the Board of Directors) formed a troupe called "The Instant Theatre Company" (ITC) which reaffirmed her family's name in the commitment to its town's local theater. The company lasted for close to a decade before resurrecting again in 2003 with Collin and Rex Reed performing in a presentation of "Love Letters".
Married three times, she has two children, Kimberley and William, from her former husband, British actor Geoffrey Horne, and one child, Michael, from the marriage to Scott Paxton. She died of brain cancer at her North Carolina home in Highlands on October 14, 2009. She was 74.- Actress
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Her artistic dreams came early in life and were further supported by her older sister Gerd Andersson who became a ballet dancer at the Royal Opera and made her acting debut in 1951. Bibi, on the other side, had to make do with bit parts and commercials. She debuted in Dum-Bom (1953), playing against Nils Poppe. Eventually, she was able to start at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school in 1954. A brief relationship with Ingmar Bergman made her quit school and follow him to the Malmö city theatre, where he was a director, performing in plays by August Strindberg and Hjalmar Bergman. Bergman also gave her a small part in his comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), and larger roles in his Wild Strawberries (1957) and The Seventh Seal (1957). From the the 1960s she got offers from abroad, with best result in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977). During the civil war in Yugoslavia she has worked with several initiatives to give the people of Sarajevo theatre and other forms of culture.- Actress
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Elsa Martinelli was born in the central Tuscan city of Grosseto into a struggling family, one of eight siblings. She had to earn her keep from the age of twelve, delivering groceries in Rome. Looking older than her years suggested, she then did some part-time work as a barmaid. Aged sixteen and ambitious, she moved on to modeling and was soon promoted by well known designers, and, in particular, by a New York magazine editor who suggested a move to the Big Apple. While employed with the Eileen Ford Agency, she was spotted on a Life magazine cover by none other than Kirk Douglas (or by Douglas' wife, according to another version of the story) who, incidentally, happened to own a fashion company. In any case, Elsa soon found herself in Hollywood to co-star opposite Douglas in The Indian Fighter (1955) (despite some as yet unresolved problems with her command of English). Her sojourn in tinseltown was short-lived, however, and the contract she had signed with Douglas was quietly annulled -- and thus she famously spurned an opportunity to appear in the lucrative blockbuster Spartacus (1960). There were to be no further American pictures at this time. Instead, she returned to Italy, married Count Franco Mancinelli Scotti di San Vito, joined the glitterati, attended lavish parties and created an image for herself which rivaled those of Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. She counted Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas among her close friends.
Taken under the wing of Carlo Ponti, Elsa was able to eventually make a success of her screen career not merely because of her exotic good looks, but by deliberately varying the type of parts she took on and thereby avoid typecasting. Those included the titular Stowaway Girl (1957) who bewitches an embittered steamboat captain played by Trevor Howard. In stark contrast, she was also Carmilla, possessed by her vampiric ancestor Millarca in the unsatisfactorily filmed Blood and Roses (1960), an 'arthouse' horror movie, though artlessly directed by Roger Vadim, based on Sheridan Le Fanu's Gothic novella. Encumbered by excessive bathos, neither scary nor original, the only saving grace of the picture was derived from Claude Renoir's evocative camera work.
In Hatari! (1962) -- which might aptly be described as a good-looking travelogue -- Elsa co-starred as a freelance wildlife photographer on a Tanganyika game farm, torn between affections for baby elephants and 'bring-'em-back-alive' trapper John Wayne. With character development sorely lacking, the animals, the scenery (and two exquisitely ornamental ladies -- the other being Michèle Girardon) pretty much stole the show. Likewise, in her next outing, the wartime comedy The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962), Elsa was the romantic (mostly decorative) interest of Charlton Heston's army guy smuggled into Nazi-occupied Rome in 1944 to extract and send back secret military information via carrier pigeon. For the remainder of the '60s, Elsa appeared in a number of international co-productions which included a segment in The Oldest Profession (1967) as a Roman Emperor's wife discovered in a brothel; and as a gangster's daughter helping a bumbling American treasury agent in Rome (played by Dustin Hoffman in his first starring role) to recover Madigan's Millions (1968).
In 1968, Elsa married Paris Match photographer and furniture designer Willy Rizzo. Having already invested some of her earnings from film work into Roman and Parisian real estate, Elsa began to diversify into designing avant garde furniture with apparently mixed success. By the 1980s, she was active as an interior designer in Rome while still making sporadic screen appearances, primarily in TV series. Described by the newspaper La Repubblica as "an icon of style and elegance", Elsa Martinelli died on July 8, 2017 in Rome at the age of 82.- Actress
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Brunette, blue-eyed Joyce Meadows was one of three siblings, born of German ancestry as Joyce Johanna Burger in Alberta, Canada, to Joseph Henry Burger (1908-1989) and Johanna Louise Schelske (1913-1972). Being raised on a farm, she learned to ride from early childhood, a skill which later served her well during many appearances in television western series like Tombstone Territory (1957), The Texan (1958), Cheyenne (1955) and Tales of Wells Fargo (1957). After the family moved to California, Joyce went to school in Sacramento. There, she formed a song-and-dance act with a girlfriend, won Miss Sacramento and Miss Hollywood beauty pageants back- to-back and made her stage debut as Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet at the Little Eaglet Theater. Joyce completed her musical training in San Francisco at the Geary Conservatory (since 2006, known as the American Conservatory Theater). She also taught herself to play the guitar.
Joyce subsequently pursued further acting studies under Jeff Corey in Hollywood and Stella Adler in New York. She acted on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse and later in Glendale, where she was spotted by an agent during a performance and signed under contract. Her first film appearance was opposite John Agar in the AIP low budget western Flesh and the Spur (1956). She later co-starred with Agar again in the independently-produced (cultish) sci-fi The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) and in the western Frontier Gun (1958). For the most part, Joyce was gainfully employed in television, where she enjoyed recurring or semi-regular roles as the assistant to George Nader's scientist in The Man and the Challenge (1959) and as a saloon owner in Two Faces West (1960). Between 1958 and 1965, she was a frequent guest actress in shows like Markham (1959), Sea Hunt (1958), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and Perry Mason (1957).
Said to have been 'disillusioned with Hollywood', Joyce took a lengthy hiatus from the screen in the mid-60s to go on tour in classic theatrical plays like King Lear, The Glass Menagerie, Richard III and The Rainmaker. Additionally, she did some instructional work at drama workshops in different states. A comeback to screen acting followed in the early 90s which included repeat appearances on the soaps Santa Barbara (1984) and Days of Our Lives (1965).- A classy, smart-looking African-American actress who broke racial barriers in 1970s Hollywood but suffered greatly in her private life years after her TV glory days, award-winning actress Gail Fisher was born on August 18, 1935, in Orange, New Jersey, the youngest of five children. Her father, a carpenter, died when she was only two years old and the family was destitute, living in the slums ("Potters Crossing") with their widowed mother Ona Fisher. Gail was a cheerleader as a teen and found some joy performing a leading role in one of her Metuchen High School plays in Metuchen, New Jersey. Beauty pageants became a source of pride during this period, earning distinction on the beauty-pageant circuit and becoming the first African-American semifinalist in the New Jersey State Fair beauty contest. A multiple pageant winner, among her titles were "Miss Transit," "Miss Black New Jersey" and "Miss Press Photographer."
Thanks to a contest sponsored by Coca-Cola, Gail won the chance to study acting at New York's American Academy of Arts for two years. She trained under Lee Strasberg for a time and subsequently became a member (the first African-American accepted) of the Repertory Theater at Lincoln Center, where she worked with Elia Kazan and Herbert Blau. The young serene beauty also worked as a model at the time and even worked in a factory to pay bills. In 1964 she married John Levy (1912-2012), a bassist and pioneer jazz talent manager whose clients included some of the jazz world's biggest names (Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams, Cannonball Adderley, Betty Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Abbey Lincoln, Shirley Horn, Les McCann, Wes Montgomery). He also managed Gail's acting career. John and Gail, who was his second wife, had two children, Samara and Jole.
In 1965, teacher Herbert Blau cast Gail in a classical stage production of "Danton's Death" in 1965. Gail also understudied Ruby Dee in "Purlie Victorious" on Broadway and toured with a production of "A Raisin in the Sun". The 25-year-old broke into TV years earlier in 1959, appearing in the syndicated program "Play of the Week" entitled "Simply Heavenly," a musical starring Mel Stewart and Claudia McNeil, and also played a singer in the series "The Defenders" and a judge on daytime's "General Hospital". During the early part of the 1960s, she made history when she appeared in a nationally televised commercial for All laundry detergent and became the first black performer to be given dialogue.
The crime series Mannix (1967) starring Mike Connors was revamped in its second season due to mediocre ratings and Gail was added to the mix as Peggy Fair, Mannix's widowed secretary whose murdered husband, a cop, was a friend to the detective and who was now raising their small son alone. Sometimes Peggy would go undercover as a housekeeper or prostitute to help him solve crimes. The public immediately took to the dusky-voiced actress and the ratings soared. Any slight hint of romance between the Peggy Fair and Joe Mannix characters was never acted upon as CBS (who initially was hesitant in hiring a black woman in this role), or any other network for that matter, would not allow an interracial romance. Gail went on to win an Emmy (the first black actress to do so -- besting Susan Saint James of "McMillan and Wife" and Barbara Anderson of "Ironside") and two Golden Globe trophies (the first black actress to win this award) in the process. In between she made amiable guest appearances on such popular TV series as "My Three Sons," "Love, American Style" and "Room 222."
Once "Mannix" was canceled in 1975, however, acting offers slowed down considerably and chaos rose beneath her usually calm and controlled exterior. Not in keeping with her public image, she flew into a series of marriages and divorces and developed a major drug problem. She made tabloid headlines in 1978 when she was busted for possession of marijuana and cocaine and for using an illegal phone device. She entered rehab and eventually recovered but her career was irreparably damaged. Sporadic acting roles came in such series as "Medical Center," "Fantasy Island," "Knight Rider" and "Hotel," and the TV movie Donor (1990) and the grade-Z crime film Mankillers (1987) co-starring Edd Byrnes, but they were very few and far between. Fisher was married at least twice and had two daughters, Samara and Jole, from her marriage to John Levy, which ended in divorce in 1972 during the run of "Mannix". She briefly married second husband Robert A. Walker the following year.
Gail's battle with drug addiction contributed to her health decline. A diabetic as well, she was later diagnosed with emphysema. Gail died of renal failure in Los Angeles in 2000 at age 65 and was cremated. News of her death did not surface until four months later. Survived by brother Herbert and sister Ona, another brother, Clifton, died of heart failure twelve hours after Gail's passing. Gail was such a class act on TV. - Actress
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Barbara Harris began acting while still a teenager in Chicago, playing small parts in the Playwrights Theatre Club (whose other players included such youngsters as Edward Asner, Mike Nichols and Elaine May). She was also in "The Compass Players", the first ongoing improvisational theater troupe in America, directed by her then-husband Paul Sills (who founded the theater based on principles created by his mother, Viola Spolin , the author of "Improvisation for the Theatre"). A more polished version of the Compass, called "The Second City", was an enormous hit in Chicago and was moved to Broadway, where she was nominated for a Tony. She starred in a series of notable stage productions, including "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever"; "Oh Dad Poor Dad"; "The Apple Tree" (Tony Award, 1967) and "Mother Courage". Her film credits include major roles in A Thousand Clowns (1965), Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad (1967), Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971), The War Between Men and Women (1972), Nashville (1975), Freaky Friday (1976), Family Plot (1976), Plaza Suite (1971), Movie Movie (1978), The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979), The North Avenue Irregulars (1979), Second-Hand Hearts (1980), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) and Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), and TV appearances included episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) and Middle Ages (1992).- Actress
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Although she was presented in 1969 the first Film Star of Tomorrow by The Motion Picture Exhibitors of Canada, the status of Sharon Acker as a star never materialized. Not that she was inactive, quite the opposite, but she worked almost only for TV and appeared only in a few undistinguished movies. She will, nevertheless, remain remembered for her role as Lee Marvin's ex-wife in John Boorman's classic Point Blank (1967). The victim of Marvin's rough manners, Acker as Lynne left a deep impact on male brains. Born in 1935, the Canadian-born actress started her film career in England when the play she was in, "Lucky Jim", Kingsley Amis' classic, was made into a movie. But she was not seen in many movies, except during the sixties, either in Canada or in the U.S. Meanwhile, she was very active on TV, first in Canada from the age of 19, then in the U.S. in made-for-TV movies or series like Star Trek (1966), Mission: Impossible (1966), Gunsmoke (1955), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), Barnaby Jones (1973), etc. She was a regular in the series The Bold Ones: The Senator (1970) for one year and played "Della Street" in the short-lived The New Perry Mason (1973). A talented actress seen too little in movie theaters.- Ann Wedgeworth was born January 21, 1934 in Abilene, Texas to Cortus and Elizabeth Wedgeworth, she graduated from from Highland Park High School in University Park, and later graduated from the University of Texas in 1957. After graduation, Ann moved to New York City and auditioned several times before she was admitted to The Actors Studio. Her debut film appearance was in Andy (1965), and for the past four decades she took supporting roles in several films, and earned two NSFC Award nominations for her performances in Citizens Band (1977) and Sweet Dreams (1985).
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Mylène Demongeot, one of the blond sex symbols of French cinema during the 1950s and 1960s, managed to overcome typecasting and survived a long hiatus before a stellar comeback in her 70s. She appeared in more than 70 films, including such classics as the Fantomas trilogy.
She was born Marie-Helene Demongeot on September 29, 1935, in Nice, France, into a family of actors. Her parents met in Shanghai, China, and moved to Nice, where she grew up. Her mother, Klaudia Trubnikova, was a Russian-Ukrainian émigré from Kharkiv, who escaped from the horrors of the Russian Civil War. Her father, Alfred Demongeot, was of French-Italian heritage. The family was bilingual and young Mylène was able to speak Russian and French, but eventually switched to French.
As a young girl she was an outcast: she suffered from ruthless kids making vicious comments about her eyes (she was cross-eyed until she had surgery in her teens). She was fond of music and movies, a perfect escape from the horrors of WWII that devastated Europe during her childhood. At the age of 13, she went to Paris and continued her education. She studied piano under the tutelage of Marguerite Long and Yves Nat. She then studied dramatic art with Maria Ventura at Le Cours Simon in Paris. At 15 she became a model in the atelier of Pierre Cardin.
At 17, Mylène made her film debut in the supporting role of Nicole in Children of Love (1953). Appearing in three or four feature films every year, she rose to international fame in the late 1950s. She was together with Gary Cooper for the opening of the first escalator to be installed in a cinema (at the Rex Theatre in Paris) on June 7, 1957. She had a memorable seduction scene opposite Yves Montand in The Crucible (1957). Her first notable leading role was in Be Beautiful But Shut Up (1958) (aka "Blonde for Danger") in which she played a 17-year-old jewel smuggler.
Mylène further developed her screen image of a manipulative blond mistress in her brilliant performance opposite David Niven in Bonjour Tristesse (1958), and became permanently locked in the cliché image of a humorous seductress after co-starring with Alain Delon in the 1959 comedy Three Murderesses (1959). Her chance to update her film image came in period films. She played manipulative and coquettish Andromeda opposite Steve Reeves in The Giant of Marathon (1959) and the leading role of Rea opposite Roger Moore in Romulus and the Sabines (1961). Among her best known roles are the manipulative Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers: Part I - The Queen's Diamonds (1961) and Helen in all three of the Fantomas films.
Mylène Demongeot became one of the blond sex symbols in 1950s, 60s and 70s French cinema. She co-starred with the major French actors of the time, including Jean Marais and Louis de Funès, in the Fantomas (1964) trilogy. Although she gradually phased out of the stereotypical image of a beautiful coquette, she still looked pretty convincing as a middle-aged Madame, which she developed in the 1980s and 1990s. At that time her acting career came to a pause, as she had been aging gracefully in the South of France. She was also a producer during that time and was the co-owner of Kangarou Films, a production company that she founded with her late husband Marc Simenon. After a lengthy hiatus, she made a comeback in 36th Precinct (2004). She has also appeared in Camping (2006) and La Californie (2006) by director/writer Jacques Fieschi, based on a short story by Georges Simenon.
In addition to her film work, Mylène has also written several books, the best-known of which would be "Tiroirs Secrets" and "Animalement vôtre". In the 2000s, she made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of her mother in Kharkiv, Ukraine. There she planted a commemorative tree and presented her autobiographical book, "Les Lilas de Kharkov" (The Lilacs of Kharkiv). In 2006, she was named Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters for her achievements in acting. She resides in her French hometown of Nice.- Giovanna Ralli was born on 2 January 1935 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress and writer, known for We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974), The Mercenary (1968) and A Prostitute Serving the Public and in Compliance with the Laws of the State (1971). She was previously married to Ettore Boschi.
- Barbara Leigh-Hunt trained for the theatre at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, then joined the Old Vic Company in London. After working in provincial repertory theatres she returned to the Bristol Old Vic to play Rosemary in 'A Severed Head', and transferred with the play to the West End. She returned again to Bristol to appear in 'Love's Labour's Lost' and 'Henry V', then toured Europe and Israel with them. She returned again to Bristol for further productions, then went on an American tour in 'Measure For Measure' and as Ophelia, opposite her husband Richard Pasco who was in the title role of 'Hamlet'. After her return to England she had a big success in the 1968 West End production of 'Mrs Mouse Are You Within'. Following this she made many appearances at the Old Vic, with the RSC at the Aldwych Theatre, and at the National Theatre.
She made her television debut in 1956 in a episode of The Recording Angells (1956), followed over the years by appearances in episodes of series such as Callan (1967), Special Branch (1969), 'Inspector Morse', 'The Ruth Rendell Mysteries' and 'Kavanagh Q.C.', along with mini-series including The Brontës of Haworth (1973), 'A Perfect Hero' and 'Wives and Daughters'. Her film debut was in 1972 in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972), which was quickly followed by Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972), in which she played Catherine Parr, and The Nelson Affair (1973). Subsequently her film appearances have been few, though they have included Billy Elliot (2000). - Carol Arthur was born on 4 August 1935 in Hackensack, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for Blazing Saddles (1974), Intrepid (2000) and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). She was married to Dom DeLuise. She died on 1 November 2020 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.
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Irma P. Hall was born on 3 June 1935 in Beaumont, Texas, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Ladykillers (2004), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) and Collateral (2004).- Actress
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English character actress with a penchant for genteel aristocrats and kindly mothers. The daughter of teachers, she "spent some time selling shoes in Reading" before entering the acting profession. Aged eighteen, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her debut in repertory theatre at Amersham in 1955. Rosemary Leach enjoyed a prolific and varied career in both supporting and leading roles on the screen (though, by her own account, preferred radio and the stage). She became a familiar presence, most notably in television period dramas and sitcoms. Her roles have included Queen Victoria in Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic (1978) (she also played Queen Elizabeth II on at least four occasions on both stage and screen),scatterbrained Aunt Fenny in The Jewel in the Crown (1984) (which fostered her fascination with India and resulted in several subsequent visits) , the swindled widow Joan Plumleigh-Bruce -- victim of 1930's social climbing con man Ralph Ernest Gorse -- in The Charmer (1987), one of three nannies working for wealthy families in Edwardian London's exclusive Berkeley Square (1998),the verger's wife, Mrs. Tope, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1993) and Zoë Wanamaker's habitually Martini-imbibing mother Grace in My Family (2000). She was twice nominated for BAFTA awards, latterly as Best Supporting Actress for her role as the kindly Mrs. Honeychurch in A Room with a View (1985). Her own personal favourite roles have included Miss Adelaide in a 1973 Birmingham Repertory Theatre production of "Guys and Dolls" and that of eccentric real life author Helene Hanff in "84 Charing Cross Road" (1981, Ambassador Theatre, London) for which she received an Olivier Award as Best Actress.- Actress
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Lucille Soong was born in Beijing, China and moved to Hong Kong when she was 22. Discovered by the famous English director Lewis Gilbert, Lucille was cast to play a bride in the feature Ferry To Hong Kong with Orson Welles. After moving to London during the Swinging 60's, she was chased down by an agent who offered her a role in the historical feature 55 days at Peking with Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner. During this time, she became the first Chinese fashion model in the English Models Directory. She guest starred in the long running British TV series Coronation Street, landed the leading lady in American movie One More Time with Sammy Davis Jr., directed by Jerry Lewis. After making the move to Hollywood Lucille had notable feature roles in Joy Luck Club and Freaky Friday. Her television roles have included a recurring role on Desperate Housewives, According To Jim, Dharma & Greg, Huff and Bones before landing the role of "Grandma Huang" in Fresh Off The Boat.- Victoria Shaw was born on 25 May 1935 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She was an actress, known for Westworld (1973), The Crimson Kimono (1959) and To Trap a Spy (1964). She was married to Elliott Alexander and Roger Smith. She died on 17 August 1988 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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Yvonne Lime was the daughter of a music teacher who encouraged her to study acting. After attending the Pasadena Playhouse and acting in its production of "Ah, Wilderness!," Lime attracted the notice of an agent who landed her a recurring part on TV's Father Knows Best (1954). The blonde actress appeared in many television shows and movies of the era, including Elvis Presley's Loving You (1957) and AIP's I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) (co-starring as title character Michael Landon's girlfriend). She later married TV producer Don Fedderson (The Millionaire (1955), My Three Sons (1960), Family Affair (1966)) and retired from acting. According to Lime, one of the most important (and rewarding) parts of her life is her charity work: beginning in the 1950s, while entertaining U.S. troops in Japan, she and her actress-friend Sara O'Meara became concerned with the plight of orphans and took the first steps toward founding International Orphans Inc., an organization that built and maintained four orphanages in Japan, as well as five orphanages, a hospital and a school in Vietnam. Lime and O'Meara later redirected their efforts toward abused and neglected children in the U.S. and changed their organization's name to Childhelp USA.- Actress
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Elga Andersen was born on 2 February 1935 in Dortmund, Germany. She was an actress and producer, known for Elevator to the Gallows (1958), Le Mans (1971) and Aux frontières du possible (1971). She was married to Peter Gimbel and Christian Girard. She died on 7 December 1994 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actress
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Marian Mercer was born on 26 November 1935 in Akron, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for 9 to 5 (1980), Great Performances (1971) and Out on a Limb (1992). She was married to Patrick Hogan and Martin Cassidy. She died on 27 April 2011 in Newbury Park, California, USA.- A highly photogenic blonde starlet of the 1950s, petite, buxom Vera Day was once touted as Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe. Having dropped out of school at the age of 15, she had tried her hand in retail and hospitality before finding steadier employment as a beauty parlour assistant and hairdresser's model. Modelling then became her full-time occupation, but Vera had loftier ambitions. Answering an ad for showgirls in a theatrical publication, she went on to audition for bandleader and impresario Jack Hylton. Hylton was sufficiently impressed by her looks and self-assurance to cast her in his West End stage production of Wish You Were Here at the London Casino in 1953. This was followed a year later by a small supporting part (Valerie) in Pal Joey at the Princes Theatre. That same year, Vera married pugilist and bodybuilder Arthur Mason, took on the role of his manager and made her motion picture debut in Dance Little Lady (1954).
Resisting offers for grittier, more down-to-earth roles, Vera was happy to be typecast on the screen as glamour girls and dizzy blondes: Mimi in A Kid for Two Farthings (1955), Marilyn's colleague Betty in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) (wearing a brown wig, so as not to upstage her illustrious co-star), Sheila, a local barmaid, in Quatermass 2 (1957), a hooker in The Flesh Is Weak (1957) and a singer who falls victim to Boris Karloff in The Haunted Strangler (1958). A rare leading role came her way in The Woman Eater (1958), a rather ludicrous low-budget horror offering about a carnivorous tree and (of course) a mad scientist (played by George Coulouris). Little is remembered about this film, except for Vera's tight-fitting sweater and bullet bra.
For television, Vera first appeared in an episode of Britain's first soap opera, The Grove Family (1954). Her later guest spots included Dixon of Dock Green (1955), No Hiding Place (1959), The Saint (1962) and The Bill (1984). After a hiatus of 34 years, Vera came out of retirement to play the role of Tanya in Guy Ritchie's gangster epic Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).
After divorcing Mason in 1961, Vera married fashion photographer Terry O'Neill two years later. The couple divorced in 1976, O'Neill moving on to marry American star actress Faye Dunaway. - Actress
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This feisty and very funny British comedienne and musical revue vet with the trademark 60s brunet page-boy haircut, pronounced jaw, and arguably the largest, Bette Davis-like eyes in London was born Shirley Anne Broadbent in Ashton-under-Lyne, Cheshire on September 14, 1935. The daughter of Hubert Howath Broadbent, an accountant, and wife Connie (Pyke) Broadbent, who greatly prodded her young daughter into becoming a performer, Amanda was named after the Depression-era child star Shirley Temple. Her grandfather was a theatre owner in Ashton-under-Lyne, and young Shirley made her very first appearance there at the age of 3 as a Christmas Tree Fairy.
Not long after this she began training earnestly in singing and in dance, particularly ballet. As a youngster she won a talent-judging contest singing "I'm Just a Little Girl Who's Looking for a Little Boy". She then went on to attend school at St. Anne's College in St. Anne's-on-Sea and later studied acting at the Cone-Ripman School.
After her parents' divorce, the teenager ran away from home and off to London where she lived at the Theatre Girls Club and subsequently found work as a chorus girl. By 1958 she had changed her marquee name to "Amanda Barrie" and made her TV debut with the comedy team of Morecambe and Wise in which her skirt accidentally fell off on live TV. She then took her first West End curtain call in a 1961 production of "Babes in the Wood". Eventually Amanada decided to set her sights beyond a dancing career, and moved more into musical revue work in the hopes for good comedy parts. Finding work as a dancer in cabaret shows and the revue "On the Brighter Side", she also trained at the Bristol Old Vic but did not perform in repertory.
Throughout the 1960s Amanda focused on her musical talents in the West End, and sparkled in a number of comedy shows. In the early part of the decade she hit solid notices with the revues "Six of One" (1963) with Dora Bryan and "See You Inside (1963)". Other stage work (which included occasional drama) came in the form of "Cabaret" (as Sally Bowles), "Private Lives", "Hobson's Choice, "Any Wednesday", "A Public Mischief", "She Loves Me" (replacing Rita Moreno in London), and "Little by Little". She also worked as the TV hostess on "Double Your Money" with Hughie Green and appeared in a number of comedy films: Operation Bullshine (1959), her debut in an unbilled bit, A Pair of Briefs (1962), Doctor in Distress (1963)and I've Gotta Horse (1965). She appeared to very good advantage in two of the slapstick "Carry On..." film series. She played a female cabbie in the Carry on Cabby (1963) and Cleopatra herself (with a sexy lisp) in Carry on Cleo (1964).
After her film peak Amanda continued to show resiliency on stage and TV. Theatre endeavors included "Absurd Person Singular", the musical "Stepping Out" with Julia McKenzie, "The Mating Game", "Blithe Spirit (as Elvira) and "Twelfth Night". Occasional movie work came in, including the addled comedy One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975) with Helen Hayes. Of the countless sitcoms Amanda has been involved in, she became a soap opera favorite beginning in 1981 with her participation as Alma Sedgewick in Coronation Street (1960). Her appearances were infrequent until the character became a regular in 1989. She retired the role after 11 years in 2001 in an effort to spread her wings once again and seek other work. The producers actually killed off her popular character in quick fashion with a rapid case of cervical cancer.
In 1967 Amanda married actor and theatre director Robin Hunter and the twosome appeared occasionally on stage together, including the pantomime "Aladdin" in late 1967 and 1968 in which Amanda had the title role. The couple separated in the 1980s, however, but remained good friends and never divorced. Hunter died in 2004. In 1997 Amanda battled a serious optic disease in which she eventually lost the sight of her left eye. She has continued to perform, however, and more recent work has included the pantomimes "Jack and the Beanstalk" (2006) and "Cinderella" (2007), in which she played the Fairy Godmother. In her popular and highly candid autobiography "It's Not a Rehearsal," a best seller published in 2003, Amanda opened up for the first time about her bisexuality.- Producer
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Judy Lewis was born and raised in Los Angeles, the love child of actors Loretta Young and Clark Gable. At the time of her birth, Gable was married, Young was unmarried. Young covered up the fact of her pregnancy, later announcing she had adopted the girl. Judy graduated from Marymount High School in 1953. She moved to New York and began her acting career, landing a small part on Ponds Theater (1953). She appeared on Broadway in Jean Kerr's "Mary, Mary", and became a featured performer on a number of daytime series, including The Secret Storm (1954) and General Hospital (1963). Judy had a successful career behind the camera, as well. She produced the daytime soap, Texas (1980), and also won a Writer's Guild award for her work on Search for Tomorrow (1951). In the 1980s, Judy went on to earn a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree in clinical psychology at Antioch University, Los Angeles. She took a few years off to write. Her first book, the autobiographical Uncommon Knowledge, about her parent's affair and her childhood, made her an acclaimed author. She began working in the field she always was fascinated with: psychology. She received her marriage and family - child counseling license (M.F.C.C) in the early 1990s. She now uses her talent, her love of introspection and her awareness in spirituality to help others. She has one daughter, Maria, and two grandsons, Michael and Gregory.- Actress
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Diminutive Irish-Italian Lisa Gastoni began her acting career in Britain after her family settled there in 1948. Though she had initially wanted to be an architect, she changed her mind and became a model and then an actress, making her debut screen appearance in 1954. She appeared mostly in B-movies, at one time under contract to British Lion. Her first featured role of note was in the naval farce The Baby and the Battleship (1956), followed by a few leads in comedies like Three Men in a Boat (1956) and Second Fiddle (1957), or crime thrillers like Menace in the Night (1957), Thunder Over Tangier (1957) and Prescription for Murder (1958). She also guest starred in two episodes of ITV's Danger Man (1960). She was briefly married in the mid-50s to a physics professor.
In 1961, Gastoni returned to Italy, following a second marriage to a Greek actor. She was immediately elevated to higher profile roles, beginning with that of legendary pirate Mary Read in the swashbuckling adventure Queen of the Seas (1961). She also paid her inevitable ornamental dues in a handful of sword-and-sandal spectacles. However, by the middle of the decade, Gastoni began to shed her 'good girl' image to parlay her prominence into a series of effective villainous portrayals: the nefarious Milady de Winter in I quattro moschettieri (1964), Lucrezia Borgia in L'uomo che ride (1966) and the wife of gangster Luciano Luttring ("the machine gun soloist") in Carlo Lizzani's Wake Up and Die (1966). This role won her a Best Actress Silver Ribbon, followed in 1968 with a Golden Plate at the David di Donatello Awards (the Italian equivalent of the Oscars) for her performance in the morbidly perverse drama Come Play with Me (1968).
In the 70s, Gastoni had yet more critical success playing seductive or sexually frustrated middle-class women in avant garde productions like Amore amaro (1974) (the story of two lovers separated by age, social background and irreconcilable political ideologies) and the morally ambiguous drama Submission (1976). She also played Benito Mussolini's mistress, Claretta Petacci, in The Last 4 Days (1974). Less well received (despite a famous score by Ennio Morricone) was the excessively arty erotic fantasy Maddalena (1971), a curious and belated foray into psychedelics.
Gastoni absented herself from the screen between 1979 and 2005 to pursue other muses (painting and writing). A more recent performance in the drama Sacred Heart (2005) won her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the David di Donatello Awards.- Rosenda Monteros was born on 31 August 1935 in Veracruz, Mexico. She was an actress, known for The Magnificent Seven (1960), She (1965) and Rapiña (1975). She was married to Julio Bracho. She died on 29 December 2018 in Mexico City, Mexico.
- Janet Henfrey took English prelims at St Anne's, Oxford, after which she read history followed by a graduate year at Smith, from where she went to the RADA as part of their US intake. Since then she has had a varied career in the theatre and on film and television. The latter has included 'The Singing Detective', 'The Jewel in the Crown' and 9 series of 'As Time Goes By' with Judi Dench. She has worked in theatres all over the UK, including the RSC and the Oxford Playhouse and most recently (as of November 2005) 'The Black Rider', which played at the Barbican, in San Francisco and Sydney, and will be seen in Los Angeles next year. She occasionally gives dramatic readings, alongside academic Rose Bailey and the poet herself, of the poetry of UA Fanthorpe.
- Green-eyed blonde bombshell Belinda Lee was born in Devon, England to florist Stella Mary Graham and hotel owner Robert Esmond Lee on June 15, 1935. Nicknamed "Billie," she was an incredible beauty while still a teen attending the Rookesbury Park Prep School in Hampshire and St. Margaret's boarding school in Devon. Expressing an avid interest in acting, she focused on dramatics at the Tudor Arts Academy at Surrey (1947), then gained entry via a scholarship to London's RADA, at which she made her stage debut in "Point of Departure."
Sharp-faced Belinda was noticed by Rank Studio director Val Guest while performing at the Nottingham Playhouse. She was artificially groomed in starlet parts, the first being The Runaway Bus (1954), until Guest helped her obtain a movie contract with Rank and introduced her to one of Rank's prime still photographers, Cornel Lucas. That year she married the much-older Lucas, who helped promote her as a sex goddess with thousands of glamorous photographs.
Belinda was promoted as a docile young beauty, but her parts grew sexier. She worked intently in films but became frustrated with being stereotyped as a buxom peroxide blonde. Boxed in as a second-string Diana Dors, she played a sensuous foil to Benny Hill in Who Done It? (1956) and was served up as sexy window-dressing opposite both John Gregson in Miracle in Soho (1957) and Louis Jourdan in Dangerous Exile (1957).
Now estranged from Lucas, Belinda headed off to Italy for a change of pace and atmosphere but only found more of the temptress roles she tried to avoid--Aphrodite, Messalina, and Lucrezia Borgia--in low-budget spectacles. She also became preoccupied with married men, one being Prince Filippo Orsini, whose position with the Vatican led to a major scandal. This particular turbulent romance and a dissipating relationship with the Rank Studio (her last picture for the studio was Elephant Gun (1958) with Michael Craig) triggered a near-fatal suicide attempt with pills in January 1958. She later divorced Lucas and continued her torrid affair with Prince Orsini, then others.
It all ended much too soon for the 25-year-old when she decided to join her current love, the much-older Italian playboy/journalist/film producer Gualtiero Jacopetti, on a trip to Las Vegas, where he was working on a documentary (Women of the World (1963). While she, Jacopetti, and co-producer Paolo Cavara were auto passengers on their way to Los Angeles from Vegas, their driver lost control of their speeding car and flipped. The 25-year-old actress was thrown from the car and died of a fractured skull and broken neck. The other three escaped with fairly minor injuries. She was cremated in the States and her ashes were eventually returned to Rome and placed in the Campo Cestio Cemetery. - Gitte Lee was born on 20 April 1935 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is an actress, known for Rikki og mændene (1962), Een blandt mange (1961) and London aktuell (1969). She was previously married to Christopher Lee.
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Jane Wagner was born on 26 February 1935 in Morristown, Tennessee, USA. She is a writer and producer, known for The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1991), Moment by Moment (1978) and The Lily Tomlin Special (1975). She has been married to Lily Tomlin since 31 December 2013.- Actress
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Ghita Nørby was born on 11 January 1935 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is an actress and director, known for Hamsun (1996), Freud Leaving Home (1991) and Nøgle hus spejl (2015). She was previously married to Svend Skipper, Jørgen Reenberg, Dario Campeotto, Henrik Rosing Wiehe and Mogens Garth-Grüner.