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Like many other female Italian film stars, Claudia Cardinale's entry into the business was by way of a beauty pageant. She was 17 years old and studying at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome when she entered a beauty contest, which resulted in her getting a succession of small film roles. Her earthy interpretations of Sicilian women got her noticed by Italian producers, and the combination of her beauty, dark, flashing eyes, explosive sexuality and genuine acting talent virtually guaranteed her stardom. After Careless (1962) she rose to the front ranks of Italian cinema, and became an international star in Federico Fellini's classic 8½ (1963) with Marcello Mastroianni. American audiences may best remember her from her starring role in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).- Actress
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Sharon's early life was one of constant moving as her father served in the military. When she lived in Italy, she was voted "Homecoming Queen" of her high school. After being an extra in a few Italian films, Sharon headed to Hollywood where she would again start as an extra. Her first big break came when she was cast as the shapely bank secretary, "Janet Trego", in the television series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) (1963-1965). In 1967, she would meet her future husband, director Roman Polanski, on the set of the English film The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967). Sharon's big role would be that same year when she was the starlet in Valley of the Dolls (1967). With her marriage to Roman, her life became one of parties, travel and meeting influential movie people. She would appear as a red-haired beauty in the spy spoof The Wrecking Crew (1968) working with Dean Martin and the equally beautiful Elke Sommer. Sharon was 2 months pregnant of her first child while filming in Italy and France a funny Italian comedy movie 12 + 1 (1969) in February 1969. On August 9, 1969 Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, Jay Sebring, Steve Parent, and Voytek Frykowski were murdered by 3 of Charles Manson's followers: Charles 'Tex' Watson, Susan Atkins (died in prison in 2009), and Patricia Krenwinkel. Manson died in prison in 2017. Watson and Krenwinkel are still in prison.- Marianne Gordon was born on 23 July 1946 in Athens, Georgia, USA. She is an actress, known for Rosemary's Baby (1968), How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) and The Being (1981). She was previously married to Kenny Rogers and Michael Trikilis.
- Actress
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Beautiful, vibrant-looking 60s actress Wende Wagner (her real name) was born in Connecticut in 1941. Of French, German and Native American heritage, her exotic looks would later serve her well on TV and in motion pictures. She inherited her athletic genes from her parents; her father was a former Olympic swimming/diving coach turned Naval Commander and her mother was a champion downhill skier.
The sweet-looking beauty entered the entertainment arena as a model and made her TV debut in 1959 on the Wagon Train (1957) western series. Very much a free spirit, she was more interested in surfing and traveling around the world than a career. She combined both passions when she earned work as an underwater female stunt double for Lloyd Bridges on his hit series Sea Hunt (1958) as well as the TV series The Aquanauts (1960), which took her to ideal tropical settings. She also stunted for such movies as September Storm (1960) co-starring Joanne Dru and Mark Stevens.
On that movie set, she met and subsequently married fellow stunt diver Courtney Brown (he was Mr. Stevens' double in that film), who coached her in underwater shooting. They had a daughter, Tiffany. During this time, they based their lives in the Bahamas where most of their shooting occurred. They divorced, however, after a short time and she returned to Hollywood where she won the role of an Apache girl in the movie Rio Conchos (1964) with Richard Boone, Anthony Franciosa and Stuart Whitman. A few years later, she married actor James Mitchum, Robert Mitchum's eldest son, but they too split. Wende's career continued in the 60s with a couple of movies and a role in the The Green Hornet (1966) TV adventure series but she eventually dropped out of sight. Little was heard from her until reports of her death from cancer in 1997.- Actress
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The daughter of a West Virginia druggist, Joanne Dru came to New York in 1940. In New York she worked as a model and was cast by Al Jolson as one of the showgirls in his Broadway play "Hold Onto Your Hats." When the show closed in 1941, she married popular singer Dick Haymes and went with him to Hollywood. Discovered by a talent scout while working in the theater, Joanne made her screen debut in Abie's Irish Rose (1946), and that picture almost ended her career. Two years later she "redeemed" herself with her role in the classic Howard Hawks western Red River (1948). She followed that with another western, John Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), again playing opposite John Wayne. Unfortunately, her success in those two classics resulted in the scripts being submitted to her consisting of mostly westerns, and she got typecast (this from a woman who said, "I simply hated horses...").
In 1950 she was cast in another John Ford western, Wagon Master (1950), which became the basis for the Ward Bond TV series Wagon Train (1957). Even though she played in films other than westerns--All the King's Men (1949), The Pride of St. Louis (1952) and Hell on Frisco Bay (1955), for example--it was the westerns for which she was remembered. By the late 1950s westerns were running out of steam and so was her screen career, so she turned to TV, where she appeared on shows such as Playhouse 90 (1956).
In 1960 Joanne was cast in the role of the Eastern owner of a dude ranch in the comedy series Guestward Ho! (1960). Perhaps even funnier is that she would play an Easterner after all those westerns is the fact that her character name was Babs. The show ended in 1961.- Thordis Brandt was born in Germany of Norwegian and German parents. She moved to Canada as a young girl and was raised there. After school, where she completed a University degree in nursing, she moved to Santa Monica, California. As she pursued acting and dancing as careers, she continued to practice her nursing in private duty. One of her jobs in private duty was serving actress Patricia Neal. Ms. Neal recommended Thordis to other actors and actresses, thus Thordis became known as the "actor's nurse." After retiring from acting, she continued nursing in Beverly Hills.
- Stunning Italian actress Virna Lisi, a brief but lovely Hollywood import in the 1960's, was merely one of a plethora of European movie beauties who proved over the course of their long careers, that they were capable of more than just visual performances.
Born Virna Lisa Pieralisi on November 8, 1936, she began her film career as a 17-year-old teen with a co-starring part with the musical drama ...e Napoli canta! (1953) (Naples Sings!). Cast initially for her photographic beauty, she gained more experience in such early pictures as Lettera napoletana (1954) and La corda d'acciaio (1954) before earning her first top-billed movie lead in Piccola santa (1954) opposite Rosario Borelli. Other late 50's/early 60's films that helped steam up her image included Luna nova (1955), Le diciottenni (1955), La rossa (1955), The Doll That Took the Town (1957), Lost Souls (1959) opposite Jacques Sernas, Don't Tempt the Devil (1963) (Don't Tempt the Devil), Sua Eccellenza si fermò a mangiare (1961) (His Excellency Stayed to Dinner], the Italian-made spectacle, Duel of the Titans (1961) and an innocent role in the French-made Eva (1962) starring the scheming Jeanne Moreau in the title role.
The pert and sexy star later made a decorative dent in late 1960's Hollywood as a tempting blue-eyed blonde opposite the likes of Jack Lemmon in How to Murder Your Wife (1965), Frank Sinatra in Assault on a Queen (1966) and Tony Curtis in Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966). Confined once again to the same type of glamour roles (she turned down the title role of "Barbarella"), she returned to Europe within a couple of years but hardly fared better with such nothing special movies as Anyone Can Play (1967), The Girl Who Couldn't Say No (1968), The Christmas Tree (1969), The Statue (1971), Bluebeard (1972) and White Fang (1973) and its sequel Challenge to White Fang (1974).
Come middle age, however, a career renaissance occurred for Virna. She began to be perceived as more than just a tasty dish and was given a wide variety of quality mature performances. As the stature of her films improved, she began winning foreign awards right and left for such European pictures as Beyond Good and Evil (1977), The Cricket (1980), Time for Loving (1983), Buon Natale... Buon anno (1989) and Va' dove ti porta il cuore (1996) (Follow Your Heart). It all culminated in the lifetime role of the malevolent "Caterina de Medici" in Queen Margot (1994) for which she captured both the César and Cannes Film Festival awards, not to mention the Italian Silver Ribbon award.
Virna continued reigning supreme on TV as a character lead and support player into the millennium with parts in such TV movies as the title role in Anna's World (2004) and Donne sbagliate (2007) (Steel Women) as well as Italian TV series work. Starring as the matriarch in the excellent family film drama Il più bel giorno della mia vita (2002), Virna would find her last excellent movie role in the award-winning dramedy Latin Lover (2015). Having passed away on December 14, 2014, at age 78, of lung cancer, the actress received a couple of award nominations posthumously for her work here. Survived by her son Corrado, her longtime husband (from 1960), architect Franco Pesci (1934-2013), died a year earlier. - Actress
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Born in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario-born New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight. Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father's trade, she was prompted by Joshua Logan to appear with her father in the 1954 Omaha Community Theatre production of "The Country Girl". Her interest in acting grew after meeting Lee Strasberg in 1958 and joining the Actors Studio. Her screen debut in Tall Story (1960) (directed by Logan) marked the beginning of a highly successful and respected acting career highlighted by two Academy Awards for her performances in Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978), and five Oscar nominations for Best Actress in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Julia (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), The Morning After (1986) and On Golden Pond (1981), which was the only film she made with her father. Her professional success contrasted with her personal life, which was often laden with scandal and controversy. Her appearance in several risqué movies (including Barbarella (1968)) by then-husband Roger Vadim was followed by what was to become her most debated and controversial period: her espousal of anti-establishment causes and especially her anti-war activities during the Vietnam War. Her political involvement continued with fellow activist and husband Tom Hayden in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the 1980s she started the aerobic exercise craze with the publication of the "Jane Fonda's Workout Book". She and Hayden divorced, and she married broadcasting mogul Ted Turner in 1991.- Actress
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Veronica Lake was born as Constance Frances Marie Ockleman on November 14, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the daughter of Constance Charlotta (Trimble) and Harry Eugene Ockelman, who worked for an oil company as a ship employee. Her father was of half German and half Irish descent, and her mother was of Irish ancestry. While still a child, Veronica's parents moved to Florida when she was not quite a year old. By the time she was five, the family had returned to Brooklyn. When Connie was only twelve, tragedy struck when her father died in an explosion on an oil ship. One year later her mother married Anthony Keane and Connie took his last name as her own. In 1934, when her stepfather was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the family moved to Saranac Lake, where Connie Keane enjoyed the outdoor life and flourished in the activities of boating on the lakes, skating, skiing, swimming, biking around Moody Pond and hiking up Mt Baker. The family made their home in 1935 at 1 Watson Place, (now 27 Seneca Street) then they moved to 1 Riverside Drive,(now Lake Kiwassa Road). Both Connie and Anthony benefited from the Adirondack experience and in 1936 the family left the Adirondacks and moved to Miami, FL., however, the memories of those carefree Saranac Lake days would always remain deeply rooted in her mind.
Two years later, Connie graduated from high school in Miami. Her natural beauty and charm and a definite talent for acting prompted her mother and step-father to move to Beverly Hills, California, where they enrolled her in the well known Bliss Hayden School of Acting in Hollywood. Connie had previously been diagnosed as a classic schizophrenic and her parents saw acting as a form of treatment for her condition. She showed remarkable abilities and did not have to wait long for a part to come her way.
Her first movie was as one of the many coeds in the RKO film, Sorority House (1939). It was a minor part, to be sure, but it was a start. Veronica quickly followed up that project with two other films. All Women Have Secrets (1939) and Dancing Co-Ed (1939), were again bit roles for the pretty young woman from the East Coast, but she did not complain. After all, other would-be starlets took a while before they ever received a bit part. Veronica continued her schooling, while taking a bit roles in two more films, Young as You Feel (1940) and Forty Little Mothers (1940). Prior to this time, she was still under her natural name of Constance Keane. Now, with a better role in I Wanted Wings (1941), she was asked to change her name, and Veronica Lake was born. Now, instead of playing coeds, she had a decent, speaking part. Veronica felt like an actress. The film was a success and the public loved this bright newcomer.
Paramount, the studio she was under contract with, then assigned her to two more films that year, Hold Back the Dawn (1941) and Sullivan's Travels (1941). The latter received good reviews from the always tough film critics. As Ellen Graham, in This Gun for Hire (1942) the following year, Veronica now had top billing. She had paid her dues and was on a roll. The public was enamored with her. In 1943, Veronica starred in only one film. She portrayed Lieutenant Olivia D'Arcy in So Proudly We Hail! (1943) with Claudette Colbert. The film was a box-office smash. It seemed that any film Veronica starred in would be an unquestionable hit. However, her only outing for 1944, The Hour Before the Dawn (1944) would not be well-received by either the public or the critics. As Nazi sympathizer Dora Bruckmann, Veronica's role was dismal at best. Critics disliked her accent immensely because it wasn't true to life. Her acting itself suffered because of the accent. Mediocre films trailed her for all of 1945. It seemed that Veronica was dumped in just about any film to see if it could be salvaged. Hold That Blonde! (1945), Out of This World (1945), and Miss Susie Slagle's (1946) were just a waste of talent for the beautiful blonde. The latter film was a shade better than the previous two. In 1946, Veronica bounced back in The Blue Dahlia (1946) with Alan Ladd and Howard Da Silva. The film was a hit, but it was the last decent film for Veronica. Paramount continued to put her in pathetic movies. After 1948, Paramount discharged the once prized star, and she was out on her own. In 1949, she starred in the Twentieth Century film Slattery's Hurricane (1949), which, unfortunately, was another weak film. She was not on the big screen again until 1952 when she appeared in Stronghold (1951). By Veronica's own admission, the film "was a dog". From 1952 to 1966, Veronica made television appearances and even tried her hand on the stage. Not a lot of success for her at all. By now alcohol was the order of the day. She was down on her luck and drank heavily. In 1962, Veronica was found living in an old hotel and working as a bartender. She finally returned to the big screen in Footsteps in the Snow (1966). Another drought ensued and she appeared on the silver screen for the last time in Flesh Feast (1970) - a very low budget film.
On July 7, 1973, Veronica died of hepatitis in Burlington, Vermont. The beautiful actress with the long blonde hair was dead at the age of 50.- Actress
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Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was born on September 29, 1931 in Malmo, Sweden. Growing up with seven brothers and sisters was not an adventure, but Anita's adventure began when she was elected Miss Sweden in 1950. She did not win the Miss Universe contest but she got a modeling contract in the United States. She quickly got a film contract with Howard Hughes's RKO that did not lead anywhere (but Anita herself has said that Hughes wanted to marry her). Instead, she started making movies with Universal, small roles that more often than not only required her to look beautiful. After five years in Hollywood, she found herself in Rome, where Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) meant her breakthrough. She stayed in Italy and made around 20 movies during the next ten years, some roles memorable, some to be forgotten. Her two marriages gave her a great deal of attention from the press. During the 1970s, the roles became less frequent, but she made a marvellous comeback with Fellini's Intervista (1987).
Anita Ekberg retired from acting in 2002 after 50 years in the motion picture industry. In December 2011, she was destitute following three months in a hospital with a broken thigh in Rimini, during which her home was robbed of jewelry and furniture, and her villa was badly damaged in a fire. Ekberg applied for help from the Fellini Foundation, which also found itself in difficult financial straits. She died at age 83 from complications of an enduring illness on January 11, 2015 at the clinic San Raffaele in Rocca di Papa, Italy. Ekberg had a new film project with exclusively female Italian producer "Le Bestevem", in which her character, as movie star, should have been recovered again as an icon of the silver screen, a project that was interrupted by her death.
Her funeral was held on January 14, 2015, at the Lutheran-Evangelical Christuskirche in Rome, after which her body was cremated and her remains were buried at the cemetery of Skanor Church in Sweden.- 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.
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A new reigning 1960s international sex symbol took to the cinematic throne as soon as Raquel Welch emerged from the sea in her purposely depleted, furry prehistoric bikini. Tantalizingly wet with her garb clinging to all the right amazonian places, One Million Years B.C. (1966), if nothing else, captured the hearts and libidos of modern men (not to mention their teenage sons) while producing THE most definitive and best-selling pin-up poster of that time.
She was born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois, the first of three children of Bolivian-born Armando Carlos Tejada, an aerospace engineer, and his wife, Josephine Sarah (Hall). The family moved to San Diego, California (her father was transferred) when Raquel was only two. Taking dance lessons as a youngster, she grew up to be quite a knockout and nailed a number of teen beauty titles ("Miss Photogenic," "Miss La Jolla," "Miss Contour," "Miss Fairest of the Fair" and "Miss San Diego").
With her sights set on theater arts, she studied at San Diego State College on a scholarship starting in 1958 and married her first husband, high school sweetheart James Welch, the following year. They had two children: Damon Welch (born 1959), who later became an actor/production assistant, and actress Tahnee Welch (born 1961). Tahnee went on to take advantage of her own stunning looks as an actress, most notably with her prime role in Cocoon (1985).
Off campus, she became a local TV weather girl in San Diego and eventually quit college. Following the end of her marriage in 1962 (although Raquel and James Welch didn't divorce until 1964), she packed up her two children and moved to Dallas, Texas, where she modeled for Neiman-Marcus and worked as a barmaid for a time.
Regrouping, she returned to California and made the rounds of film/TV auditions. She found work providing minor but sexy set decoration on the small screen (Bewitched (1964), McHale's Navy (1962) and The Virginian (1962)) as well as the large screen (Elvis Presley's Roustabout (1964) and Doris Day's Do Not Disturb (1965)). Caught in the midst of the "beach party" craze, it's not surprising to find out that her first major film role was A Swingin' Summer (1965), which concentrated more on musical guests The Righteous Brothers and Gary Lewis & The Playboys than on Welch's outstanding assets. But 20th Century-Fox certainly took notice and signed her up.
With her very first film under contract (actually, she was on loan out to Britain's Hammer Studios at the time), she took on One Million Years B.C. (1966) (the remake of One Million B.C. (1940), in the role originated by Carole Landis), and the rest is history. Welch remained an international celebrity in her first few years of stardom. In England, she was quite revealing as the deadly sin representing "lust" for the comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their vehicle Bedazzled (1967), and as the title secret agent in the spy spoof Fathom (1967). In Italy, she gained some exposure in primarily mediocre vehicles opposite such heartthrobs as Marcello Mastroianni.
Back in the U.S., however, she caused quite a stir in her groundbreaking sex scenes with black athlete Jim Brown in the "spaghetti western" 100 Rifles (1969), and as the transgender title role in the unfathomable Myra Breckinridge (1970). Adapted from Gore Vidal's novel, she created some unwelcome notoriety by locking horns with septuagenarian diva Mae West on the set. The instant cult movie certainly didn't help Welch's attempt at being taking seriously as an actress.
Box office bombs abounded. Try as she might in such films as Kansas City Bomber (1972) and The Wild Party (1975), which drew some good reviews for her, her sexy typecast gave her little room to breathe. With determination, however, she partly offset this with modest supporting roles in larger ensemble pieces. She showed definite spark and won a Golden Globe for the swashbuckler The Three Musketeers (1973), and appeared in the mystery thriller The Last of Sheila (1973). She planned on making a comeback in Cannery Row (1982), even agreeing to appear topless (which she had never done before), but was suddenly fired during production without notice. She sued MGM for breach of contract and ultimately won a $15 million settlement, but it didn't help her film career and only helped to label her as trouble on a set.
TV movies became a positive milieu for Welch as she developed sound vehicles for herself such as The Legend of Walks Far Woman (1980) and Right to Die (1987), earning a Golden Globe nomination for the latter project. She also found a lucrative avenue pitching beauty products in infomercials and developing exercise videos (such as Jane Fonda).
Welch took advantage of her modest singing and dancing abilities by performing in splashy Las Vegas showroom acts and starring in such plausible stage vehicles as "Woman of the Year" and "Victor/Victoria". She spoofed her own image on occasion, most memorably on Seinfeld (1989). Into the millennium, she co-starred in the Hispanic-oriented TV series American Family (2002) and the short-lived comedies Welcome to the Captain (2008) and Date My Dad (2017), along with the movies Tortilla Soup (2001), Legally Blonde (2001), Forget About It (2006) and How to Be a Latin Lover (2017).
Her three subsequent marriages were to producer/agent Patrick Curtis (who produced her TV special, Raquel (1970)), director André Weinfeld (who directed her in several fitness videos), and pizza parlor owner Richie Palmer, who was 14 years her junior. All these unions ended in divorce.
She died at 2:25 a.m. on February 15, 2023, aged 82, at her Los Angeles home after suffering a cardiac arrest. She had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.- Actress
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Brunette bombshell and second-string goddess Jamaican actress Martine Beswick(e) was born on September 26, 1941, to a British father and Portuguese/Jamaican mother in Port Antonio, Jamaica. Some brief modeling and pageant entering came to be before seeking a career in films. She allegedly once won a "Miss Autoville" contest and won a car only to sell it in order to move to and study acting in London.
While finding roles on such British TV series as "Secret Agent," "Love Story" and "Court Martial," a minor break occurred for Martine in the James Bond "007" film series. Director Terence Young cast her twice -- as the gypsy girl Zora in From Russia with Love (1963) and then as the doomed spy Paula in Thunderball (1965). After playing in the well-tanned minority ranks for years, Martine finally got noticed after cat-fighting with Raquel Welch in the cult prehistoric saga One Million Years B.C. (1966), which also starred handsome caveman John Richardson. She also starred in her own back-in-time Neanderthal low-budget Prehistoric Women (1967).
Transporting herself to Hollywood in the late 1960's, Martine guested on such shows as "It Takes a Thief," "Mannix," "The Name of the Game" and "Longstreet." She then made an infamous mark as the distaff evil incarnate in the Hammer Studio horror cult hit Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971). Other films during that time usually had her in various stages of sexy undress, including Ultimo tango a Zagarol (1973), The Kiss of Death (1974) and Seizure (1974).
She later focused on TV with such mini-movie entries as Crime Club (1975), Strange New World (1975), Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978), My Husband Is Missing (1978) and The Tenth Month (1979), plus the mini-series Aspen (1977) and episodes of "The Six Million Dollar Man," "Baretta," "Quincy," "The Fall Guy," "Fantasy Island," "Hart to Hart," "Buffalo Bill" and "Sledge Hammer." In the mid-1980's, Martine also found back-to-back daytime work on the soap operas Days of Our Lives (1965) and Santa Barbara (1984).
On film, she would quicken pulses as Xaviera Hollander as The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980), but not return until the early 1990's with the horror films Evil Spirits (1991) and Trancers II (1991), the comedy Life on the Edge (1992) and the drama Wide Sargasso Sea (1993). After filming Night of the Scarecrow (1995), Martine retired from films.
Since then, she has mainly participated in film documentaries, providing commentary and relating her experiences on the many films in which she has appeared. She owned a removals business in London and is semiretired except for guest appearances at James Bond conventions. She did, however, more recently return (after 25 years) to star with fellow Hammer actors Caroline Munro and Veronica Carlson in a horror "tribute" to Hammer entitled House of the Gorgon (2019).- Actress
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Leggy, brunette-maned pin-up actress Caroline Munro was born in Windsor, Berkshire, England, and lived in Rottingdean near Brighton where she attended a Roman Catholic convent school. By chance, her mother and a photographer entered her picture in a "Face of the Year" competition for the British newspaper The Evening News and won. This led to modeling chores, her first job being for Vogue Magazine at age 17. She moved to London to pursue top modeling jobs and became a major cover girl for fashion and television commercials while there.
Decorative bit parts came her way in such films as Casino Royale (1967) and Where's Jack? (1969). One of her many gorgeous photo ads earned her a screen test and a one-year contract at Paramount where she won the role of Richard Widmark's daughter in the comedy/western A Talent for Loving (1973). She first met husband/actor Judd Hamilton filming this movie but they later divorced. Also in 1969, she became the commercial poster girl for "Lamb's Navy Rum", a gig that lasted ten years. She had no lines as Vincent Price's dead wife in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) which, in turn, led to a Hammer Studios contract and such low-budget spine-tinglers as Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974). More noticeable roles came outside the studio as the slave girl/love interest in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), the princess in At the Earth's Core (1976), and a lethal Bond girl in the top-notch The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Her voluptuous looks sustained her for a bit longer but the quality of her roles did not improve with higher visibility. Later 70's and 80's roles included the lowergrade Starcrash (1978), Maniac (1980) and Slaughter High (1986), the last-mentioned written and directed by second husband George Dugdale, whom she married in 1990. He died in 2020.
Following her marriage, she was less seen. The septuagenarian continued to perform sporadically on camera, primarily in England and often in the horror genre. Subsequent lead and supporting movie roles have included Heaven's a Drag (1994), Domestic Strangers (1996), Flesh for the Beast (2003), Vampyres (2015), Cute Little Buggers (2017) and House of the Gorgon (2019) which also featured her daughter, actress Georgina Dugdale.- Actress
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Martha Hyer was born on August 10, 1924 in Fort Worth, Texas. Once she finished her formal schooling, Martha played a bit role in 1946's The Locket (1946). Slowly, Martha began picking up roles with more and more substance. The best years for the beautiful actress began in 1954 when she played in films such as Down Three Dark Streets (1954), Showdown at Abilene (1956) and Battle Hymn (1957). Perhaps the best role of her long career was as "Gwen French" in 1958's Some Came Running (1958) in which she starred opposite Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. As a result of her stellar role, Martha received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress, but she lost out to Wendy Hiller in Separate Tables (1958). Afterwards, Martha's stint on the US silver screen's trailed off some. She did make a handful of foreign films, returning to appear in the US from time to time, but nothing compared to the pace she had in the fifties. Her last film was in 1973 in the film The Day of the Wolves (1971). In 1966, she married producer Hal B. Wallis and remained with him until his death in 1986.- Actress
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Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome on September 20, 1934. Her father Riccardo was married to another woman and refused to marry her mother Romilda Villani, despite the fact that she was the mother of his two children (Sophia and her younger sister Maria Scicolone). Growing up in the slums of Pozzuoli during the second World War without any support from her father, she experienced great sadness in her childhood. Her life took an unexpected turn for the best when, at age 14, she entered into a beauty contest and placed as one of the finalists. It was here that Sophia caught the attention of film producer Carlo Ponti, some 22 years her senior, whom she later married. Perhaps he was the father figure she never experienced as a child. Under his guidance, Sophia was put under contract and appeared as an extra in ten films beginning with Le sei mogli di Barbablù (1950), before working her way up to supporting roles. In these early films, she was credited as "Sofia Lazzaro" because people joked her beauty could raise Lazzarus from the dead.
By her late teens, Sophia was playing lead roles in many Italian features such as La favorita (1952) and Aida (1953). In 1957, she embarked on a successful acting career in the United States, starring in Boy on a Dolphin (1957), Legend of the Lost (1957), and The Pride and the Passion (1957) that year. She had a short-lived but much-publicized fling with co-star Cary Grant, who was nearly 31 years her senior. She was only 22 while he was 53, and she rejected a marriage proposal from him. They were paired together a second time in the family-friendly romantic comedy Houseboat (1958). While under contract to Paramount, Sophia starred in Desire Under the Elms (1958), The Key (1958), The Black Orchid (1958), It Started in Naples (1960), Heller in Pink Tights (1960), A Breath of Scandal (1960), and The Millionairess (1960) before returning to Italy to star in Two Women (1960). The film was a period piece about a woman living in war-torn Italy who is raped while trying to protect her young daughter. Originally cast as the more glamorous child, Sophia fought against type and was re-cast as the mother, displaying a lack of vanity and proving herself as a genuine actress. This performance received international acclaim and was honored with an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Sophia remained a bona fide international movie star throughout the sixties and seventies, making films on both sides of the Atlantic, and starring opposite such leading men as Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck, and Charlton Heston. Her English-language films included El Cid (1961), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), Arabesque (1966), Man of La Mancha (1972), and The Cassandra Crossing (1976). She gained wider respect with her Italian films, especially Marriage Italian Style (1964) and A Special Day (1977), both of which co-starred Marcello Mastroianni. During these years she received a second Oscar nomination and won five Golden Globe Awards.
From the eighties onward, Sophia's appearances on the big screen came few and far between. She preferred to spend the majority of her time raising sons Carlo Ponti Jr. (b. 1968) and Edoardo Ponti (b. 1973). Her only acting credits during the decade were five television films, beginning with Sophia Loren: Her Own Story (1980), a biopic in which she portrayed herself and her mother. She ventured into other areas of business and became the first actress to launch her own fragrance and design of eyewear. In 1982 she voluntarily spent nineteen days in jail for tax evasion.
In 1991 Sophia received an Honorary Academy Award for her body of work, and was declared "one of world cinema's greatest treasures." That same year, she experienced a terrible loss when her mother died of cancer. Her return to mainstream films in Ready to Wear (1994) was well-received, although the film as a whole was not. She followed this up with her biggest U.S. hit in years, the comedy Grumpier Old Men (1995), in which she played a sexy divorcée who seduces Walter Matthau. Over the next decade Sophia had plum roles in a few independent films like Soleil (1997), Between Strangers (2002) (directed by Edoardo), and Lives of the Saints (2004). Still beautiful at 72, she posed scantily-clad for the 2007 Pirelli Calendar. Sadly, that same year she mourned the death of her 94-year-old spouse, Carlo Ponti. In 2009, after far too much time away from film, she appeared in the musical Nine (2009) opposite Daniel Day-Lewis. These days Sophia is based in Switzerland but frequently travels to the states to spend time with her sons and their families (Eduardo is married to actress Sasha Alexander). Sophia Loren remains one of the most beloved and recognizable figures in the international film world.- Actress
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The quintessential jet-set Euro starlet, Ursula Andress was born in the Swiss canton of Berne on March 19, 1936, one of six children in a strict German Protestant family. Although often seeming icily aloof, a restless streak early demonstrated itself in her personality, and she had an impetuous desire to explore the world outside Switzerland. (For instance, she was tracked down by Interpol for running away from boarding school at 17 years old.) The stunning young woman found work as an art model in Rome and did walk-on parts in three quickie Italian pictures before coming to Hollywood in 1955 and getting nowhere professionally; a four-month fling with rising star James Dean brought her good publicity but not much else. That same year, still just 19, she met and had an affair with fading matinée idol John Derek, who left his wife Pati Behrs and two kids for Ursula even though she spoke almost no English at the time. In 1957 they eloped to Las Vegas, and the new bride put her acting aspirations on hold for a few years thereafter.
1962 saw the relatively unknown Swiss beauty back on the set, playing opposite Sean Connery in the first movie version of Ian Fleming's fanciful "James Bond" espionage novels, Dr. No (1962). Andress' role as bikini-clad Honey Ryder was somewhat brief, and her Swiss/German accent so thick that her entire performance had to be dubbed by a voiceover artist. Nevertheless, her striking looks and smoldering screen presence made a strong impression on moviegoers, immediately establishing her as one of the most desired women in the world and as an ornament to put alongside some of the most bankable talent of the era, such as Elvis Presley in Fun in Acapulco (1963) and Dean Martin in 4 for Texas (1963). In 1965, she was one of several European starlets to co-star in What's New Pussycat (1965) -- a film that perhaps sums up mid-'60s pop culture better than any other -- written by Woody Allen, starring Allen and Peter Sellers, with music by Burt Bacharach, a title song performed by Tom Jones and much on-screen sexual romping.
Andress appeared in many more racy-for-their time movies in both the United States and Europe, including The 10th Victim (1965), in which she wore a famously ballistic bra, and The Blue Max (1966), where she was aptly cast as the sultry, insatiable wife of an aristocratic World War I German general. She was also featured in Casino Royale (1967), a satirical foray into the world of James Bond, and gave a sparkling performance in the T&A-filled crime caper Perfect Friday (1970). Roles as a prostitute kidnapped by outlaws in Red Sun (1971), a stewardess living on the edge in Loaded Guns (1975), and a bombshell nurse hired to titillate a doddering millionaire to death in The Sensuous Nurse (1975) all provided plenty of excuses to throw her clothes to the wind. In Slave of the Cannibal God (1978), she was notoriously stripped and slathered in orange paint by a pair of nubiles. Then she took on the sophisticated role of Louise de la Valliere, slinky, conspiratorial mistress of King Louis XIV (Beau Bridges) in The Fifth Musketeer (1979).
As for her personal life, Andress separated from Derek in 1964 and got divorced two years later, after falling in love with French superstar Jean-Paul Belmondo on the Malaysian set of Up to His Ears (1965). (Ron Ely, John Richardson and Marcello Mastroianni kept her company during the interim.) The relationship with Belmondo hit a wall in 1972, and she was next attached to her leading man from Stateline Motel (1973), Italian heartthrob Fabio Testi. When that didn't work out, Andress jumped into the dating pool, sporadically involved with a host of Lotharios including (but by no means limited to) Dennis Hopper, Franco Nero, John DeLorean and Ryan O'Neal. In 1979, she began what would be a long-term romance with Harry Hamlin, her handsome young co-star from Clash of the Titans (1981) (in which she was cast, predictably, as "Aphrodite"). While subsequently traveling in India, Andress' belly began to swell out of her clothing, and she felt very nauseous. What at first seemed a severe case of "Delhi Belly" turned out to be pregnancy, her first and only, at age 43. Hamlin encouraged her to have the baby, and on May 19, 1980, the international sex symbol gave birth to a boy named Dimitri Hamlin amid much hoopla.
After the birth of her son, Andress scaled back her career, which now focused on slight European productions, as she was raising Dimitri in Italy. This meant turning down a big-budget Mel Brooks film in lieu of Red Bells (1982) (starring old flame Nero). Occasional television stints on the soap opera Falcon Crest (1981) and critically lauded miniseries Peter the Great (1986) helped maintain her visibility as an actress. Dumped by Hamlin in 1983, she started seeing Fausto Fagone, a Sicilian student three decades her junior, in 1986. In 1991, she met a new man when things dwindled with Fagone -- karate master Jeff Speakman. Since the breakup of that relationship, her love life has gone undocumented. She last worked on a film in 2005. Apparently retired from acting, Ursula makes the rounds of charity events and pops up on foreign talk shows every now and then. She divides her time between family in Switzerland, friends in Virginia and Spain, and her properties in Rome and L.A.- Actress
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Judi Bowker was born on 6 April 1954 in Shawford, Hampshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Clash of the Titans (1981), Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972) and Count Dracula (1977). She has been married to Harry Meacher since 1979.- Gila Golan's career started as an Israeli fashion model, which led to appearances as a film actress. She was apparently born in Krakow, Poland, for she was discovered there in a train station during the German occupation in 1940. She was adopted by a Roman Catholic couple and later sent to a boarding school in France before emigrating to Israel after World War II where she changed her name from Zusia Sobetzcki to Miriam Goldberg. She became interested in fashion and her being spotted by an American photographer led to appearing in the Israeli magazine La'isha. It was a natural step for her to extend her fashion activities into the 1960 competition which led to her being crowned "Na'arat Israel" - Israel's Maiden of Beauty (IMB) - or using international usage, "Miss Israel." For this competition she changed her name to Gila Golan. Such a change of names to one more typically Israeli was common at the time, but she may have done this to prevent any embarrassment to her religiously conservative family and friends. She went on to place second in the Miss World competition held later that year in London where she met the Columbia Pictures executive William Cohan and his wife. This led to her entrance into films with a debut in Ship of Fools (1965). Cohen and his wife came to view her as sort of a foster daughter. She married three times and has several children and reportedly she now runs an investment business.
- Carmen Phillips was born on 10 January 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Easy Rider (1969), One Step Beyond (1959) and It Started with a Kiss (1959). She was married to David Morin. She died on 22 September 2002 in Hollywood, California, USA.
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Bo Derek (born Mary Cathleen Collins) is an American actress and model. Her breakthrough film role was in the romantic comedy 10 (1979). Her first husband John Derek directed her in Fantasies; Tarzan, the Ape Man (both 1981); Bolero (1984) and Ghosts Can't Do It (1989), all of which received negative reviews. Widowed in 1998, she married actor John Corbett in 2020. Now semi-retired, she makes occasional film, television, and documentary appearances.- Actress
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Jane Seymour was born as Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg in 1951 in Middlesex, England, to a nurse mother and gynaecologist/obstetrician father. She is of Polish Jewish (father) and Dutch (mother) descent. She adopted the acting name of "Jane Seymour" when she entered show business as it was easier for people to remember (and the name of one of King Henry VIII's wives). She attracted the attention of the James Bond film producers when they saw her on British television. She was cast as the main Bond girl, "Solitaire", in Live and Let Die (1973). The role gained her international recognition but she was in danger of losing it all like the previous Bond girls, so she came to the U.S.
A casting director advised her to lose her English accent and acquire an American accent to land roles on American television. She did and started getting roles, earning five Emmy nominations, resulting in one win for Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988) for playing Maria Callas. She won Golden Globe awards for both East of Eden (1981) and the American television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993), where she played the title role for 5 years. She occasionally appeared in feature films, memorably in Somewhere in Time (1980) and in Wedding Crashers (2005).
Married and divorced four times, she gave birth to four children and is a stepmother to two. They have children of their own, making her a grandmother. As of 2018, she has been acting in television movies and making guest-appearances.- Actress
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Born Helen Luella Koford on January 7, 1929, the Los Angeles, California native worked as a model before she made her film debut at age 11 in 20th Century-Fox's Maryland (1940). Through the 1940s, she worked under a variety of names (her own, Judy Ford and January Ford) before settling on Terry Moore in 1948. Placed under contract by Columbia Pictures, Moore was loaned out to RKO Radio Pictures for one of her most famous films, Mighty Joe Young (1949). By that time, Columbia studio boss Harry Cohn had changed her Swedish name Helen Koford to the Irish-sounding Terry Moore. In 1953, she received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Paramount Pictures' Come Back, Little Sheba (1952). In the 1970s, she was in the news more than she was in films, asserting that she was the secret wife of the late billionaire Howard Hughes. She has starred in 77 feature films and listed among her leading men are such Hollywood legends including Burt Lancaster, John Wayne, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, Glenn Ford, Mickey Rooney and Robert Wagner. Since she was a pilot herself, Terry played a major role in preparing Leonardo DiCaprio for his portrayal of Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004). In 1964, Terry published a memoir of her life with Howard Hughes, entitled 'The Beauty and the Billionaire'.- Actress
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The third of four children born to Anthony Alt and Muriel Alt, Carol Alt was raised in East Williston, NY. She began her modeling career after she was spotted waiting tables during her freshman year at Hofstra University, which she attended on an ROTC scholarship. She dropped out of school to move to Manhattan, where she became one of the top models of the 1980s. When her modeling career ended after eight years, she turned to acting, and has appeared in more than 45 European films. She starred as "Karen Oldham" on the TV series, Amazon (1999).- Actress
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Her father was a Prussian count (Count von Lehndorff-Steinort) who was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944 and hanged that year, when Vera was three. Her mother was arrested, and Vera and her sisters spent the rest of the war in Gestapo camps. They were reunited with their mother after the war, but the family was destitute, and ostracised by other Germans for their father's treachery. She ended up studying textile design in Florence, where a fashion designer first asked her to model. She had first travelled to New York in 1961 as plain old Vera, but failed to secure a single booking. After retreating to Milan for a spell, she returned to take Manhattan under her new name.... Veruschka!- Actress
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Karin Kernke was born on 19 October 1938 in Stuttgart, Germany. She is an actress and writer, known for Meine Frau erfährt kein Wort (1970), Hinter diesen Mauern (1966) and The Head (1959). She was previously married to Karl Maurer.- Actress
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Actress and singer Ann-Margret is one of the most famous sex symbols and actresses of the 1960s and beyond. She continued her career through the following decades and into the 21st century.
Ann-Margret was born Ann-Margret Olsson in Valsjöbyn, Jämtland County, Sweden, to Anna Regina (Aronsson) and Carl Gustav Olsson, who worked for an electrical company. She came to America at age 6. She studied at Northwestern University and left for Las Vegas to pursue a career as a singer. Ann-Margret was discovered by George Burns and soon afterward got both a record deal at RCA and a film contract at 20th Century Fox. In 1961, her single "I Just Don't Understand" charted in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 Charts. Her acting debut followed the same year as Bette Davis' daughter in Frank Capra's Pocketful of Miracles (1961). She appeared in the musical State Fair (1962) a year later before her breakthrough in 1963. With Bye Bye Birdie (1963) and Viva Las Vegas (1964) opposite Elvis Presley, she became a Top 10 Box Office star, teen idol and even Golden Globe nominated actress. She was marketed as Hollywood's hottest young star and in the years to come got awarded the infamous nickname "sex kitten." Her following pictures were sometimes ripped apart by critics (Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965) and The Swinger (1966)), sometimes praised (The Cincinnati Kid (1965)). She couldn't escape being typecast because of her great looks. By the late 1960s, her career stalled, and she turned to Italy for new projects. She returned and, by 1970, she was back in the public image with Hollywood films (R.P.M. (1970) opposite Anthony Quinn), Las Vegas sing-and-dance shows and her own television specials. She finally overcame her image with her Oscar-nominated turn in Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge (1971) and succeeded in changing her image from sex kitten to respected actress. A near-fatal accident at a Lake Tahoe show in 1972 only momentarily stopped her career. She was again Oscar-nominated in 1975 for Tommy (1975), the rock opera film of the British rock band The Who. Her career continued with successful films throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s. She starred next to Anthony Hopkins in Magic (1978) and appeared in pictures co-starring Walter Matthau, Gene Hackman, Glenda Jackson and Roy Scheider. She even appeared in a television remake of Tennessee Williams's masterpiece play "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1983. Another late career highlight for her was Grumpy Old Men (1993) as the object of desire for Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. She continues to act in movies today.- Glamorous, svelte, ash blonde Camilla Margareta Sparv briefly courted the international limelight in the mid-60s. The stunning Swedish high-fashion model arrived in Hollywood in 1965, courtesy of Columbia Pictures. Following a third-billed role (Sister Constance) in The Trouble with Angels (1966), she was awarded a Golden Globe as Most Promising Newcomer in 1967 for her performance (Inger Knudson) opposite James Coburn in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966). This seems to have set the tone for her subsequent casting as exotic European belles in several action films: the alluringly named Coco Duquette, mistress of chief antagonist Karl Malden in the Matt Helm thriller Murderers' Row (1966); kidnap victim Toni Peters and love interest of British spy Stephen Boyd in Assignment K (1968); the spunky girlfriend of a U.S. marshal (Gregory Peck) searching for Mackenna's Gold (1969); and the girl a champion skier (Robert Redford) has a brief fling with in Downhill Racer (1969). After a six-year hiatus, Camilla segued into television guest roles, decorating a number of (mostly) crime shows, including The Rockford Files (1974), Hawaii Five-O (1968), Barnaby Jones (1973) and Simon & Simon (1981).
Camilla was married three times: her exes included former Paramount production chief Robert Evans and vacuum cleaner millionaire Herbert Hoover III. Her third husband (of 22 years) was hedge fund founder and real estate company owner Fredric Kolber (1939-2016). - Actress
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This lovely, fresh-faced Lincoln, Nebraska native was born Janine Loraine Gauntt on December 6, 1962, to stalwart Texans Turner and Janice Gauntt. The younger of two children, she grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and trained, while a child, in ballet, tap, theater, and modeling (from age 3).
A cheerleading beauty into her teens, she moved with her mother to study at New York's Professional Children's School and was lucky enough to be picked up by the famed Wilhelmina Agency as a model (at 15 she was the youngest at the time to ever be signed). After some commercial work, however, she returned to school in Texas and happened by chance to find some minor work on various episodes of Dallas (1978).
This led to a Hollywood attempt at age 17 and a major TV break two years later when she won the role of Laura Templeton on TV's popular daytime soap General Hospital (1963), a role that required her long tresses to go from brunette to blonde. This, in turn, fed into another 1980s regular part on Another World (1964).
Janine subsequently made her film debut in the daytime parody Young Doctors in Love (1982) that featured her along with other soap stars in cameos. In between, she managed find time to attend Pepperdine University but left when she earned a film role in the movie Tai-Pan (1986). At this stage of the game, she tended to specialize in cute and flighty roles, but all that changed when Janine won the role of spunky, crop-haired Alaskan air taxi pilot Maggie O'Connell opposite Rob Morrow on the eccentric prime-time series Northern Exposure (1990). It was role of her career, a meaty, delightfully quirky star turn that made her a household name. The show lasted six seasons.
Since then, she has been able to subsist on a fairly full plate of TV-movie and film assignments. She's top-lined such women's mini-pictures as Stolen Women, Captured Hearts (1997) and A Secret Affair (1999), while in film playing a lady-in-distress co-star to Sylvester Stallone in the action thriller Cliffhanger (1993), "perfect Mom" June Cleaver in a film remake of Leave It to Beaver (1997) and one of Richard Gere's "women" in Dr. T & the Women (2000). She found another series regular role with Strong Medicine (2000) that lasted two years.
Into the millennium, Janine has been featured in such films as Birdie & Bogey (2004), The Night of the White Pants (2006), Maggie's Passage (2009), The Ivy League Farmer (2015), Solace (2015), Occupy, Texas (2016) and a prime role in Runnin' from My Roots (2018). She also appeared for a the 2008 season of the TV series Friday Night Lights (2006).
Janine also moved into directing, writing, and producing on the side, while also dabbling in singing. Janine's daughter, former child actress Juliette Gauntt, who appeared in her mother's film The Night of the White Pants (2006), was born from a relationship with Jerry Jones Jr., the Dallas Cowboys' Vice President and General Counsel.- Actress
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Ornella Muti was born on 9 March 1955 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Oscar (1991) and The Most Beautiful Wife (1970). She was previously married to Federico Fachinetti and Alessio Orano.- Franca Bettoia was born on 14 May 1936 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress, known for The Last Man on Earth (1964), Day by Day, Desperately (1961) and Sandokan alla riscossa (1964). She was previously married to Ugo Tognazzi.
- Marion Michael was born as Marion Ilonka Michaela Delonge in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1940. Her father was a doctor. The last months of the war she spent together with her mother and her four-year older brother on Hiddensee, a small island in the Baltic Sea. After the war, the family moved to Berlin where Marion attended a secondary school. As a ten-year-old, she made her stage debut in little theatre and was taught classical dance in the ballet school of Tatjana Gsovsky. When she was only 15, she was selected out of allegedly 12,000 entries for the lead in Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald/Liane, Jungle Goddess (Eduard von Borsody, 1956). This adventure film was largely shot on location in Africa.
The story is about a girl who is discovered in the African jungle by an expedition group which includes Hardy Krüger. A tribe adores her as a goddess. It turns out that she is Liane, the long lost granddaughter of a rich shipowner in Hamburg. Her dark hair was dyed blonde and she was promoted as the 'German Brigitte Bardot'. Michael appeared topless during the first half of the film and this was part of the success of the film. However, she was acceptable for family audiences as the nature child with no obvious erotic suggestiveness.
The film was a huge box office hit, and producer Gero Wecker offered her a seven-year-contract. The press loved her, she was constantly photographed, and at the age of 18 she already owned a sports car. Unfortunately this success of her debut film would not be matched by any of her later films.
Marion Michael played next in the comedy Der tolle Bomberg/The Mad Bomberg (Rolf Thiele, 1957) opposite Hans Albers, an adaptation of the 1923 novel of the same title by Josef Winckler based on a real historical Westphalian aristocrat of the nineteenth century.
Then followed the sequel Liane, die weiße Sklavin/Jungle Girl and the Slaver (Hermann Leitner, 1957), this time opposite Adrian Hoven. Set in North Africa, this story concerns Arab slave traders who abduct Liane and members of her tribe. Later, the two Liane films were edited together and re-marketed as Liane - die Tochter des Dschungels/Liane - The Daughter of the Jungle.
In order to break away from the Liane image, Marion took dance and acting lessons and then appeared opposite Christian Wolff in Es war die erste Liebe/First Love (Fritz Stapenhorst, 1958) in which a Catholic theology student falls in love with a country girl. Tragedy came about when, during the shooting of the crime film Bomben auf Monte Carlo/Bombs on Monte Carlo (Georg Jacoby, 1960) with Eddie Constantine, she had a car accident that left her face temporarily scarred. However, she recovered and returned to acting in Schlußakkord/Festival (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1960), the Schlagerfilm Davon träumen alle Mädchen/That's What All The Girls Dream About (Thomas Engel, 1961), and Jack und Jenny/Jack and Jenny (Victor Vicas, 1963) with Senta Berger and Ivan Desny.
The following decade, Marion Michael mainly worked for love theatre and television. For six years she worked at the Städtischen Bühnen Köln and In 1970 gave birth to a son, Benjamin, allegedly fathered by an American director, with whom she lived in a commune and with whom she also did some street theatre. Afterwards, she suffered severe depression after a short marriage to actor Marcel Werner ended, and retired from acting in 1976. For a while she then worked as a saleswoman. In 1979 she took the unusual step of moving from West to East Germany, where she worked as a synchronisation assistant for TV.
She still occasionally acted in TV-films such as In Hassliebe Lola/In Hate Love Lola (Lothar Lambert, 1995) and Blond bis aufs Blut/Blonde Till Blood (Lothar Lambert, 1997), and in 1996 her life became the topic of a TV musical, Liane (Horst Königstein, 1996). She also played a small role in the production. The film was nominated for the Adolf Grimme award and the Prix Europa 1997.
In her later years, she still remained a well known German film icon and with her second husband, Freimut Patzner, lived in an old house in Oderbruch. In 2007 Marion Michael died of heart failure in a hospital in Gartz an der Oder. It was four days before her 67th birthday. - Actress
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Karyn Lucy O'Bryan was born and raised in Overland Park, Kansas. She came to Hollywood in pursuit of a career in politics but fell into acting when she went on her first audition for Private Resort with Johnny Depp. She then pursued an acting career landing roles on The A-Team, Family Ties, and Josie & the Pussycats. As a single mom, she chose to make the switch to commercial actress, enabling her to be more available to her kids. Karyn then went on to do over 50 National spots for Coca Cola, Michelob, Nabisco, Black Angus, Kelloggs, etc.
Eventually she was able to set the acting aside and follow her greatest passion: Photography and Human Rights issues. She found her calling in the refugee camps of the Kosovo War in 1999. Since then her photography has taken her to some of the worlds most dangerous places, including Haiti, Bosnia, Albania, and Cuba. Now she dedicates all of her energy to exposing Human Rights abuses, in particular, modern day slavery and human trafficking. She is the mother of three wonderful children and loves to travel with them off the beaten path.- Robyn Hilton was born on 13 July 1944 in Twin Falls, Idaho, USA. She is an actress, known for Blazing Saddles (1974), Malibu Express (1985) and The Single Girls (1973). She was previously married to Alan Mihoces and William Hilton.
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Emmanuelle Béart was born August 14, 1963, in Gassin, France. She lived with her mother, brothers, and sister on a farm not far from Saint-Tropez in Provence (southern France), because her father, singer and poet Guy Béart, did not want his children to be affected by the glamour world of Paris. When Emmanuelle was thirteen, she saw Romy Schneider in the movie Mado (1976). From that time on, she wanted to be an actress. In Emmanuelle's teens, her parents sent her to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for four years, so she could learn English. There, she was engaged for a Robert Altman movie that was never made. After returning to France, she took drama classes and got her first TV role, in Raison perdue (1984). David Hamilton, the photographer/director, was impressed by her beauty and gave her a role in First Desires (1983). She met her spouse-to-be, Daniel Auteuil, while making Love on the Quiet (1985). The film that made her famous in France was Manon of the Spring (1986), in which she played the role of a blonde shepherd dancing nude in the fields. Director Tom McLoughlin chose her out of 5,000 candidates for her first Hollywood picture, Date with an Angel (1987). Emmanuelle is a very sensitive and a perfectionist. For the part of Camille in the film A Heart in Winter (1992), she took violin lessons for a whole year. Her biggest success was as a nude model in the art film La Belle Noiseuse (1991), which starred Michel Piccoli and was directed by Jacques Rivette.- Actress
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Cathy Podewell was born on 26 January 1964 in Evanston, Illinois, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Night of the Demons (1988), Dallas (1978) and Dallas (2012). She has been married to Steven Glueck since 28 May 1989. They have three children.- Actress
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Born on the east coast of Canada and raised in the mountains of British Columbia, Brittaney Bennett fell in love with movies as a young child while watching classic black and white films with her grandfather. She grew up as a competitive downhill skier, and trained in both Shotokan Karate and kickboxing. After winning local pageants as a teen, and placing as a finalist in the Miss Interior BC pageant, Brittaney attended the University of Victoria. She then went on to graduate from Studio 58 Theatre School in Vancouver. Brittaney spent two years studying Buddhism with a Buddhist Monk, has traveled across Canada doing theatre tours, and continues training and performing as a Middle Eastern Dancer. Ms Bennett now resides in Toronto.- Actress
Ava Fabian was born on 4 April 1962 in Brewster, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Dragnet (1987), Ski School (1991) and Three Sisters (2001).- Actress
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Dana Kimmell was born on 26 October 1959 in Texarkana, Arkansas, USA. She is an actress, known for Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982), Days of Our Lives (1965) and Lone Wolf McQuade (1983). She has been married to John Anderson since 18 September 1982. They have four children. She was previously married to Mark Plambeck.- Actress
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Tracie Savage was born on 7 November 1962 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982), Little House on the Prairie (1974) and Friendly Persuasion (1975).- Actress
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Gloria Charles was born on 3 March 1955 in the USA. She was an actress, known for Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982), Brewster's Millions (1985) and National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985). She died on 8 December 2016 in Marina Del Ray, California, USA(undisclosed).- She was born in Madrid in a family of actors, the daughter of the actor Adolfo Marsillach and the actress and model María Teresa del Río Martínez del Cerro, who was also Miss Spain, 1960. Her sister Blanca is also an actress.
She took piano, body expression and ceramics classes. She began to enter the world of cinema at the age of thirteen, with a small role in "Mrs. Garcia Confesses". Later, she was making some short films, where she worked as a script and lighting technician. Her first important film was in "El Poderoso Influjo de la Luna", "Crime in the Family", "The Sea and Time", and "Last Days with Teresa". She also appeared in such television shows as "High School" and the second season of "Chronicle of the Sunrise".
She is the artistic director of the Marsillach Acting Academy in Madrid, Spain.
Her best known film is 1986's Every Time We Say Goodbye, in which she starred opposite Tom Hanks. - Actress
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Julia Nickson was born on the beautiful island city of Singapore. Her early years were spent in the vales of Wiltshire, England, followed by the red rock canyons of the Zambezi river in Africa, but she returned to Singapore after her father's death, when she was six. From the age of seven to seventeen, she watched Singapore transition from an unsophisticated British colony to a prosperous independent nation. After her Chinese mother remarried an American, she attended the Singapore American School.
Excelling in both studies as well as athletics, she competed in field hockey and track. Other pursuits included equestrian activities: dressage, show- jumping, cross country, and polo as well as gaining her license at 15 as an amateur jockey which entitled her to race at Pro Am Meets in both Singapore and Malaysia. She was a top competitor in all events, winning numerous three day shows and lower division polo tournaments. At 14, she even received a first place trophy from Sir Run Run Shaw, a most unexpected and rewarding moment of victory, having been raised on Shaw Brother epics; However, her greatest satisfaction came during her last two outs as a jockey in 1976, when at 17, she placed and then won her final two races at the Singapore Turf Club.
Graduating early from school, Nickson left a modeling career in Singapore to attend the University of Hawaii. Although intending to study Hotel Management, while passing the Drama Department, she gate crashed an audition, and won a role in her first play, Shakespeare's, "Winter's Tale." All desire to be in the hotel industry made a prompt departure, and Nickson's stage debut was followed with voice, dance and acting classes and attendant small roles in community theater and on Magnum PI.
In 1984, a search was conducted in New York, Los Angeles and Hawaii for a key role in an upcoming Sylvester Stallone film. After numerous auditions, Ms. Nickson was flown to LA for an old fashioned Hollywood screen test, resulting in her first international film, Rambo: First Blood, Part II, which became the second largest grossing film of 1985. To this day, Rambo, First Blood, Part II is still the most widely viewed action film nationwide on US television and the most successful and popular of all the Rambo sequels.
Following Rambo, Julia moved to Los Angeles. She became known for portraying beautiful, glamorous women starring in numerous television and film productions in the 1980s and '90s. She was cast in Harry's Hong Kong by Aaron Spelling, guest-starring opposite David Soul, whom she later married, But it was James Clavell's Noble House that caused audiences and particularly NBC to take note. Nickson played Orlanda Ramos, the seductive Eurasian mistress, with such beauty, grace and glamour that she was given a second starring role on NBC opposite Pierce Brosnan, in Around the World in 80 Days. Merely a month after the birth of her child, China Alexandra Soul, Nickson packed a suitcase of disposable diapers and trekked from the crystal caves in Serbia to the jungles of Thailand, playing the Indian Princess Aouda to Brosnan's, Phileas Fogg. When they reached Hong Kong, Julia stood awe struck as the company filmed on the famous Shaw Brothers lot.
After that, Nickson traveled fast, and in 1990 starred in China Cry, the true story of evangelist, Nora Lam, the young girl who risked her life to defend her faith during the Communist Revolution. By the time China Cry was released in 1990, along with critical acclaim, she was considered one of the top Asian American actors in the U.S.
Nickson then co-starred in Paramount's adventure film, K-2 with Michael Biehn and New Line's, Sidekicks, with Chuck Norris, and Beau Bridges. In 1994, she played Bortei, first and most beloved wife to Genghis Khan, and mother of the Mongol Empire. Aging from 18 to 55, and filming in the desolate regions of Central Asia, a year after the coup in the Soviet Union, became a life changing experience for Nickson.
Over the course of her career, Nickson has appeared on numerous television productions including Babylon 5, Walker, Texas Ranger, Nash Bridges, One West Waikiki, The Marshall, Seaquest, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Chicago Hope and more recently Castle and Rex is Not Your Lawyer.
Over the years, Nickson guested on talk shows with David Letterman, Regis Philbin, Good Morning America, as well as affiliate news and entertainment shows, both in the US and abroad. Julia has been a huge supporter of independent film makers and two of her films, Life Tastes Good, and Half Life, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Her recent films, Dim Sum Funeral, which played the Singapore Film Festival in 2009, and Half Life, winner of numerous festival awards, have just been released on DVD. Nickson has just completed filming the feature, One Kine Day, filmed on the windward side of Oahu.
Nickson took some time off from her career to focus on her daughter, China Soul,who has just graduated with honors from the University of London, Royal Holloway, where in 2009, Ms. Soul received a first in play writing. Ms. Soul is also a singer songwriter, and her first album is available on Amazon UK presently. Her are available on ITunes.- Actress
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Alison Sweeney was born on 19 September 1976 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Days of Our Lives (1965), Murder, She Baked: A Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery (2015) and Open by Christmas (2021). She has been married to David Alan Sanov since 8 July 2000. They have two children.- Lisa Marie Caruk was born on June 7, 1980 in Canada, she has a older sister and Caruk had her first daughter born in November 2009. Lisa got her first theatrical movie role as Linda Rose in Ronnie & Julie (1997) at 16 years old. After that, Lisa then got her role as Christa Marsh at 18 years old in Final Destination (2000); she was 18 years old but turning 19 that summer in 1999. She has also starred in Smallville (2001) as Mary the Cheerleader at 23-24 years old in 2003-2004. Since then; she has her Candy & Party Decorations Shop with her older sister Jennifer Montague in Canada. She has also appeared in numerous other productions since Final Destination and Smallville.
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Mathilda May (born Karin Haïm) is a French actress and dancer from Paris. She is primarily known to English-speaking audiences for playing the alien vampire Space Girl, the main villain of the cult horror film "Lifeforce" (1985). The role required her to appear naked for most of the film, though her character remained mysterious and menacing. In France, May's breakthrough role was that of Juliette, the suicidal young woman whose love life was at the center of the psychological thriller "The Cry of the Owl" (1987). For this role, May won the "César Award for Most Promising Actress".
In 1965, May was born in Paris. Her father was the playwright Victor Haïm (1935-) . Her paternal ancestors were Sephardic Jews from the city of Thessaloniki in Greek Macedonia. May's mother was the Swedish ballet teacher and choreographer Margareta Hanson. May herself was trained as a dancer in early life. In 1981, May won the "Premier Prix du Conservatoire de Danse de Paris" (First Prize of the Paris Dance Conservatory). At the time, she was only 16-years-old.
May pursued an acting career in the early 1980s. She made her film debut in the fantasy film "Nemo" (1984), where a boy from New York City is transported to an alternate reality. She became known to international audience with "Lifeforce" (1985), and had some success in France during the late 1980s. Following "The Cry of the Owl", May played the romantic lead in the controversial musical "Three Seats for the 26th" (1988). In the film, an aging actor falls in love with Marion de Lambert (played by May), the daughter of his former lover. He is relatively unfazed when he learns that his new love interest is his own illegitimate daughter.
May's first significant film in the 1990s was the biographical drama "Isabelle Eberhardt" (1991), where she had the lead role. May played the Swiss author and explorer Isabelle Eberhardt (1877 - 1904), and also portrayed Eberhardt''s accidental death in a flash flood. The film was nominated for three AACTA Awards, without ever winning. The film was negatively received by critics for overemphasizing Eberhardt's femininity and sexuality, while mostly ignoring the political context of her activities in North Africa, and her status as a social outcast.
That same year, May played the female lead in the erotic drama "Naked Tango". The film depicted the life of an Eastern European young woman who was forced into prostitution in 1920s Buenos Aires. The film was largely inspired by the activities of the Zwi Migdal (1867-1939), an international sex trafficking organization which controlled about 2,000 brothels in Argentina during the interwar period.
May also had the lead role in "Becoming Colette" (1991). The film dramatized the early life of the actress, journalist, and novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954). The real Colette is primarily remembered for her vivid depictions of the French demimonde of elite courtesans, and for her lesbian affairs with the fellow writer Natalie Clifford Barney and the aristocratic artist Mathilde de Morny.
May next had the female lead role in the crime drama "Toutes peines confondues" (1992). She played Jeanne Gardella, the wife of a shady businessman. She genuinely loves her husband, but fails to inform him that she is an Interpol agent who was assigned to spy on him. The film was an adaptation of a novel by Andrew Coburn (1932-2018).
May had the female lead in the romantic comedy "The Tit and the Moon" (1994), playing the beautiful French dancer Estrellita. In the film a preadolescent boy is fascinated with Estrellita and her breasts, but finds himself competing for her attention with Estrellita's husband and with an adolescent singer.
In 1996,. May had her first role in a video game, cast in the space flight simulation "Privateer 2: The Darkening". The main plot featured an amnesiac man who chose a new life as a privateer, while trying to find out why there was no record of his past life. The game was introduced as a spin-off of the space combat series "Wing Commander" (1990-2007), but had little resemblance to its predecessors.
May had her final major role in the 1990s in the action thriller film "The Jackal" (1997). She played Isabella Celia Zancona, a retired member of the Basque terrorist organization ETA. Zancona becomes a key witness for the FBI, as she is thought to be the only person able to identify the wanted assassin "The Jackal" (played by Bruce Willis). The assassin is an old foe of Zancona, who wounded her during a past encounter and caused her to miscarry their unborn child. She agrees to help, partly because she is promised safe haven, and partly because she wants revenge. The film was a minor box office hit.
During the early 2000s, May regularly appeared in television films and television series. Her theatrical roles were few in this period. She was eventually cast in a supporting role in the comedy thriller "A Girl Cut in Two" (2007). The film depicts a love triangle which results in the murder of one suitor by the other one. May's next significant film role was in the anthology film "The Players" (2012), which depicted various tales of male infidelity. The film attracted controversy for the sexually suggestive posters of its release, which were seen as violating France's regulations for advertising.
May continued regularly appearing in television roles throughout the 2010s, and was part of the main cast in the television series "Access" She resumed playing in theatrical films in 2019, initially cast in the World War II-themed drama "An Irrepressible Woman". By 2022, May was 57-years-old. She has never retired, and remains a well-known face in the European film market.- Actor
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Lori is a Golden Globe winning actress for her role as cast member in Robert Altman's " Shortcuts". She won 'ShoWest Newcomer of the Year' for her role as Ariel Moore in the film "Footloose", and was nominated for best supporting actress for an Indie Spirit Award for "Trouble in Mind." Lori 's documentaries have won 5 Emmys, a Peabody, been short-listed for an Oscar, and have won well over twenty film festivals, including Toronto Hot Docs.
After the huge success of Herb Ross' "Footloose", Singer went on to act in such films as Robert Altman's "Short Cuts," John Schlesinger's "The Falcon and the Snowman," "Warlock," "The Man with One Red Shoe," with Tom Hanks, Alan Rudolph's "Trouble in Mind," and "Equinox," to name a few. In 2015, Lori enjoyed a cameo in Michael Almereyda's "Experimenter" about the Stanley Milgram experiment. Lori substantially contributed to, and went on to Executive Produce " Mea Maxima Culpa; Silence in the House of God", directed by the highly acclaimed Alex Gibney, which won four Prime Time Emmys, a Peabody, and the London Documentary Film Festival. Lori went on to play the title vocal role as Linda Bishop in " God Knows Where I Am" which won Toronto Hot Docs, an Emmy and 20 film festivals. Lori Singer recently starred in "Rachel Hendrix" which is to be released in 2024 and won the Woodstock Film Festival in Fall of 2023. She also acted in a film written and directed by Mary Bronstein to be released in Spring 2025.- Producer
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Devin Renee DeVasquez (born June 25, 1963 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is an American model and actress. She was chosen as Playboy's Playmate of the Month in June 1985, after being featured in the October 1981 issue's college pictorial. Her centerfold was photographed by Richard Fegley Her father was from Madrid, Spain and her mother is of Irish descent.
To help those who were affected by Hurricane Katrina, DeVasquez created Devin's Kickass Cajun Seasoning and offered it through her business, DevRonn Enterprises.
DeVasquez won $100,000 on the television talent show, Star Search in 1986 and this win led to her being one of the first Hispanic Playmates featured on the cover of the November 1986 Playboy. DeVasquez went on to an acting career. She played the virgin in House 2. She had a supporting role in the high school film, Can't Buy Me Love. She played Clarissa Carlin in the thriller Society. In 1989 DeVasquez guest starred in "Her Cups Runneth Over", a third season episode of the FOX series, Married...With Children. She appeared in the film, A Low Down Dirty Shame, Busted, and Guns.
DeVasquez authored the book The Naked Truth About A Pinup Model, True Age, Timeless Beauty, My Husband's A Dog, My Wife's A Bitch, and The Day It Snowed In April.
DeVasquez writes for various magazines for Westlake magazine, Splash magazine and Primo magazine for Belgium. She is an active blogger for her website which chronicles her life and travels.
DeVasquez garnered three Emmys as a producer on the Amazon Prime series, The Bay.
Devin dated rock star Prince in 1985 and Sylvester Stallone in 1988 before she married Ronn Moss, who played Ridge Forrester on the CBS series The Bold and the Beautiful on September 25, 2009.- Actress
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Claudia Gerini was born in Rome, where she did classical studies and dance training. Her acting career began when an advertising agency cast her in several commercials.
Claudia Gerini has had a long movie career in Italy and abroad, working with actors and directors like Sergio Castellito, Giuseppe Tornatore, Mel Gibson, acting both in comedic and dramatic roles. Her first star-making role was in "Viaggi di nozze" with comedian Carlo Verdone, with whom she will still works from time to time.
In theater, Claudia Gerini appeared in the show "Angelo e Beatrice" by Francesco Apolloni. She recently returned to the stage with the one-woman show "Storie di Claudia," written and directed by Giampiero Solari, a musical which highlights all her skills: dance, singing and acting.
She has acted in some of the most interesting projects of contemporary Italian cinema, such as "La Sconosciuta" by Giuseppe Tornatore, "Non ti muovere" by Sergio Castellitto, "Una famiglia perfetta" by Paolo Genovese, "Diverso da chi" by Umberto Carteni and many others.
Claudia Gerini has two daughters (Rosa and Linda ) and never stops studying and training. In addition to Italian, she fluently speaks English, French and Spanish.- Actress
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Katharine Juliet Ross was born January 29, 1940, in Hollywood, CA, to Katherine (née Mullen) and Dudley Tying Ross. Her father, who had also worked as a reporter for the Associated Press, was a commander in the US Navy when she was born. His navy career shuttled the family around to Virginia, then Palo Alto, and finally to Walnut Creek, outside of San Francisco, where Ross grew up.
Ross graduated from Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek in 1957 and attended Santa Rosa Junior College and Diablo Valley College in the Bay Area, where she took part in her first onscreen work in a student film. Moving to San Francisco, into an apartment on Stockton Street above a grocery store, she began her acting career as an understudy in Actor's Workshop productions, and was soon auditioning for roles. She was also married in 1960 to college sweetheart Joel Fabiani, the first of five husbands.
Work came steadily for Ross, at first mainly in television westerns, and indeed Westerns would make up the majority of her best-known work, her natural beauty being a strong asset in that genre. She made her TV debut in an episode of Sam Benedict (1962), and her first film role was in the Civil War era Shenandoah (1965) starring James Stewart. Ross' career as a leading actress began in earnest in 1967, with her strong turn co-starring with James Caan and Simone Signoret in Games (1967), and with The Graduate (1967). Ross' performance as Elaine earned her a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
A disappointing, formulaic John Wayne vehicle, Hellfighters (1968), followed but she soon returned to form with two films with Robert Redford. As Etta Place in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Ross was part of the most memorable scene from that hit film, precariously perched barefoot on the bumper of that newfangled contraption, the bicycle, as Paul Newman's Butch Cassidy takes her for a ride. The compelling Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969) was less of a box office success but more highly regarded by the critics, and Ross won a BAFTA Award for her work as Lola, a Paiute Indian who flees with her boyfriend, played by Robert Blake, after he kills her father in self-defense.
Swept up into a whirlwind of fame, widely idealized as the symbol of beauty for the Woodstock generation, Ross had accomplished so much so quickly that it seemed her entire career had happened almost all at once, in that frenzy of activity between 1967 and 1969. Sure enough, there followed a long dry spell in which she was mostly cast in forgettable roles; her next strong film wasn't for another six years. In The Stepford Wives (1975), an intriguing black comedy-cum-horror film, Ross plays a independent, free-spirited wife newly relocated to a suburb where the other wives all seem to be just a little too perfect, too submissive; it was arguably her strongest performance to date, but Stepford Wives would prove to be but a temporary resurgence for Ross, and her work in the decade and a half to follow would include such star-studded duds as The Betsy (1978), and a return to TV, including a part in primetime soap opera The Colbys (1985). Along the way, however, Ross found love. After four failed marriages (the second, third and fourth were to John Marion, Conrad L. Hall and Gaetano Lisi respectively), she met her current husband Sam Elliott, while working on The Legacy (1978). They married in May 1984; that September, just four months short of her 45th birthday, Ross gave birth to a daughter, Cleo Rose.
In 1991, Ross and Elliott adapted the Louis L'Amour novel, Conagher (1991), for television in a remarkably affecting Western tale which showcases both actors' remarkable talents. Ross continues to take roles on occasion and, as usual, her work is strong -- something that was sometimes overlooked in her youth due to her famous beauty. For instance, Ross turned up in Donnie Darko (2001), in a solid performance as Donnie's psychiatrist.
Ross and Elliott live on their ranchito in Malibu.- Actress
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Sophie Ward was born on 30 December 1964 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Book of Blood (2009) and Jane Eyre (2011). She has been married to Rena Brannan since 2000. She was previously married to Paul Hobson.- Stunts
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At 9 years old, Shanna Lynn was introduced to stunts and the Industry while staying at Burt Reynolds and Hal Needam's home in the Hollywood Hills. Burt and Maralyn Teare (Shanna's mom) were high school sweethearts...fast forward in time 20 years, Burt is reading Smokey and the Bandit in 1976 which becomes his breakout film. Ten years later, Shanna became a member of SAG as a professional Hollywood stunt woman working alongside many notable actors, directors and producers for over two decades on more than fifty film projects, a dozen TV shows and many National commercial spots. As Stunt coordinator on Law Abiding Citizen, Shanna discovered a strong desire to continue coordinating action scenes and ultimately plans to produce creative content.- Actress
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Nastassja Kinski was born Nastassja Aglaia Nakszynski on January 24, 1961 in Berlin, Germany, the daughter of German actor Klaus Kinski. In 1976, she met director Roman Polanski, who urged her to study method acting with Lee Strasberg in the United States. Kinski starred in the Italian romantic drama Stay as You Are (1978) with Marcello Mastroianni, gaining her recognition in the United States after the film's release on December 21, 1979. She played the title character in Polanski's romantic drama Tess (1979), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" (1891).
Kinski starred in Francis Ford Coppola's romantic musical One from the Heart (1981), her first film made in the United States. The film became a box office bomb and was a major loss for Coppola's production company Zoetrope Studios. She also starred in the erotic horror movie Cat People (1982) with Malcolm McDowell, a remake of the 1942 classic of the same name. She appeared in Wim Wenders' drama movie Paris, Texas (1984) with Harry Dean Stanton and Dean Stockwell. One of her most acclaimed films, the film won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival.
During the 1990s, Kinski appeared in a number of American films, including the action movie Terminal Velocity (1994) opposite Charlie Sheen, One Night Stand (1997), Your Friends and Neighbors (1998), John Landis' Susan's Plan (1998), and The Lost Son (1999). She has appeared in more than 60 films in Europe and the United States.- Actress
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Tuesday Knight was born in Brentwood, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), The Theory of the Leisure Class (2001) and Mistress (1992). She has been married to Paul Gregory since 2016.- Heidi Mark was born on 18 February 1971 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She is an actress, known for Rock Star (2001), The Young and the Restless (1973) and Thunder in Paradise (1994). She was previously married to Vince Neil and Terry Mark.
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FYI: I've written my own BIO. To be honest it felt more sincere than pretending like I hired some journalist to do a ton of research and come up with a non biased presentation. So here it goes.
Nia Peeples- What others have said: is an American actress, singer, dancer. For more than 30 years Nia has graced the screen with her talent and intelligence, her fearlessness and compassion, and her beauty. (Why thank you) Most known for her roles in the hit TV series Fame, Walker Texas Ranger, and Pretty Little Liars as well as her jaunt through the music industry with her number 1 record Trouble and the 3 music shows she hosted in that era, Nia is one of the first multi-racial performers to cross all genres and all platforms helping to lay the groundwork for bridging the gap between ethnic performers and leading roles in Hollywood.
Recently, with her son well on his music path, her daughter heading off to college, and her 4th marriage ending, Nia sold everything and went on "walk about" to realign with her greater purpose. After three years of wandering, Nia has returned with one book under her belt, The Little Apple Tree, and is in the middle of writing her second, "Confessions of a Serial Monogamist, Journey Through the Men I loved to the Me I Love, for which she interviewed all her significant others.
Nia's passion is empowering women and students. She is also a keynote speaker, works very closely with My Saint My Hero creating and launching empowering lines of jewelry, and continues to perform live.
(2018) Nia currently lives in Topanga, CA when she's not fasting at an ashram or studying quantum physics and sacred geometry:)- Actress
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Kristen Dalton was born on 14 February 1973 in San Diego County, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Departed (2006), Jack Reacher (2012) and Steel Rain (2017). She was previously married to Darren Dalton.- Actress
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The second daughter of manufacturing executive Oscar Blum and his wife Dorothy, Tanya Roberts was born 1949 in Manhattan and grew up in the elite Westchester County suburbs Scarsdale and Greenburgh. Tanya reportedly dropped out of high school, got married and hitchhiked around the country until her mother-in-law had the marriage annulled. She met psychology student Barry Roberts while waiting in line to see a movie. A few months later, she proposed to him in a subway station, and they were married. She studied acting under Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen. In her early years in New York, she supported herself as an Arthur Murray dance instructor and by modeling. She appeared in off-Broadway productions of "Picnic" and "Antigone", and in television commercials for Ultra Brite, Clairol and Cool Ray sunglasses.
In 1977, Tanya and her husband -- by then a scriptwriter -- moved to Hollywood. She began appearing in made-for-TV films including Pleasure Cove (1979), Zuma Beach (1978), and Waikiki (1980). Her film debut was in The Last Victim (1976). After appearing in several minor films, her first big break came when she was selected as the last Angel on the final season of Charlie's Angels (1976), and was featured on the cover of People magazine (02/09/1981). The attention she garnered helped secure her most significant film roles: The Beastmaster (1982) (and posed for the cover and an inside spread in Playboy magazine to promote the film), the title role in Sheena (1984) and as a Bond girl in A View to a Kill (1985). She continued to appear in films, though mainly direct-to-video and direct-to-cable features. She was featured in the CD computer game The Pandora Directive (1996) and had a recurring lead role in the television series That '70s Show (1998). Widowed in 2006, Tanya Roberts died of sepsis from a urinary tract infection in 2021.- Actress
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Blonde Pamela Austin was born Pamela Joan Akert in Omaha, daughter of Chester William Akert (1918-90) and his wife Virginia May (née Moon). She spent her pre-teens in Europe, where her father was stationed with the Air Force. Pamela studied singing and ballet in Hungary and Germany. Once her family returned to the United States, she continued to attend further dance classes at Sacramento State College. As a 17-year old, Pamela made her stage debut in the Broadway musical revue La Plume de Ma Tante (billed as a 'light soprano'). In 1961, she got her first gig in Hollywood in a nightclub act with Tony Martin. This expanded into a six months-long nationwide tour.
That same year, she began acting in films and is perhaps best remembered in that medium for her two appearances opposite Elvis Presley (both as girls named Selena, in Blue Hawaii (1961) and Kissin' Cousins (1964)). Her career gained momentum thanks to a series of TV and newspaper commercials for the automobile manufacturer Dodge. Dubbed the "Dodge Rebellion Girl", she featured in some twenty ads until her replacement by a 23 year-old in 1967. During the remainder of the 60s and 70s, Pamela made guest appearances in TV shows of diverse genres. She was featured several times in comedy skits, as well as song-and-dance routines on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967). The peak of her career was a starring role as the perennial damsel-in-distress in the zany slapstick comedy The Perils of Pauline (1967). It was based on the classic 1914 cliffhanger serial with Pearl White and inspired by the over-the-top antics of the 1960s Batman (1966) series. Intended as a TV pilot, it failed to gain traction, either commercially or with critics. Pamela had another lead, as amiable schoolmarm Betsy Potter in the cultish comedy western Evil Roy Slade (1972).
Pamela was briefly married (1963-64) to NFL defensive player Charley Britt of the Los Angeles Rams. Her second, also short-lived (1965-67), husband was Hollywood press agent Guy McElwaine. From 1974 until his death in 2019, she was married to the aeronautical engineer, MIT graduate and founder of Tre Corporation Leopold S. Wyler.- Actress
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Lovely, indefatigable Connie Stevens added sparkle to a number of films and TV shows in the late 50s and 60s Hollywood. Brooklyn born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingolia is of Italian/Sicilian and Irish descent, the daughter of Eleanor McGinley and Teddy Stevens (born Peter Ingolia). She was subsequently raised by her grandparents when her mother and father (a band singer and jazz musician, respectively) filed for divorce. Connie attended Catholic boarding schools in her formative years. Inheriting her parents' love and talent for music, she formed a vocal quartet called "The Foremost" which was comprised of Connie and three men. Those men later became part of The Lettermen.
In Hollywood from 1953, Connie formed yet another vocal group "The Three Debs" while trying to break into films doing extra work. Moving up to the co-star ranks in a few mediocre teen dramas such as Young and Dangerous (1957), Eighteen and Anxious (1957), The Party Crashers (1958), and Dragstrip Riot (1958), it was comedian Jerry Lewis who set things in motion by casting her in his comedy Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958). As such, Warner Bros. signed her up for their hot detective series Hawaiian Eye (1959) and she was off. As pert and pretty "Cricket Blake", a slightly flaky and tomboyish singer/photographer, Connie became an instant teen idol -- trendy and undeniably appealing. A couple of record offers (and hits) came her way as a result including "Sixteen Reasons" and the novelty song "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb" (in tribute to Edd Byrnes' hip, teen idol character on the popular detective series 77 Sunset Strip (1958)).
Adored for her sexy effervescence, Connie tried to broaden her "sex kitten" image in the 60's with serious attempts at adult film drama, including the title role in Susan Slade (1961), as well as co-leads in Parrish (1961), Palm Springs Weekend (1963), and Two on a Guillotine (1965), but they were modestly received. For the most part, she remained a comfy TV presence in musical variety shows ("The Red Skelton Show," "Kraft Music Hall"), westerns ("Cheyenne," "Maverick") and game shows ("Hollywood Squares"). She also appeared opposite George Burns in a second series, the sitcom Wendy and Me (1964), and co-starred in a couple of lightweight films, Never Too Late (1965) and Way... Way Out (1966), again with Jerry Lewis.
In the 1970s, she refocused on her voice and started lining up singing commercials (Ace Hardware) while subsisting in nightclubs and hotels. Connie eventually built herself up as a Las Vegas headlining act. She also starred on Broadway with "The Star-Spangled Girl" and won a Theatre World Award for her performance in 1967. Comedian Bob Hope's made her one of his regular entertainers on his USO tours. Sporadic films came her way every now and then. A TV-movie The Sex Symbol (1974) had her playing a tragic Marilyn Monroe type goddess. There was also innocuous fun in such sporadic films as Grease 2 (1982) and Back to the Beach (1987) with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. TV episodic work on "Murder, She Wrote," "The Love Boat," "Baywatch," "Ellen," the revamped "Burke's Law," "It's Garry Shandling Show," "Baywatch" and "8 Simple Rules," plus a regular role on the short-lived series Starting from Scratch (1988) also kept her afloat.
Once wed to actor James Stacy, Connie later married and divorced singer Eddie Fisher. From her union with Fisher came two daughters, Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher, both of whom became actors. Single with two daughters, and completely out of sync with Hollywood, Connie started experiencing severe financial woes. In the 1990s, the never-say-die personality began a new lucrative career in the infomercial game with skin-care and make-up products, and turned her financial woes around. Now a self-made tycoon with her own successful beauty line to boot, Connie is living proof that anything can happen in that wild and wacky world called show biz.
She resurged briefly in films with featured roles in Love Is All There Is (1996), James Dean: Race with Destiny (1997), Returning Mickey Stern (2002), Double Duty (2009), Just Before I Go (2014) and Search Engines (2016) which starred daughter Joely. She also was seen on TV with episodic work on "s, The recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Connie was elected secretary-treasurer of the Screen Actors Guild in 2005. Since suffering a stroke in 2016, she has remained out of the limelight for the most part. In 2019, she made a brief return to films with By the Rivers of Babylon, again with Joely.- Actress
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Nancy Sandra Sinatra was born the first child of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Barbato Sinatra on June 8, 1940 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Her first television appearance was with her father and Elvis Presley in 1959. She first appeared as a film actress in For Those Who Think Young (1964) and Get Yourself a College Girl (1964). Nancy appeared alongside Elvis in the musical comedy Speedway (1968). She also had a successful career as a singer with two United States chart-toppers ("These Boots Are Made for Walking" and the duet with her father called "Somethin' Stupid") as well as numerous other chart entries including the John Barry / Leslie Bricusse penned theme song to the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967). Lee Hazlewood wrote many of her songs and sang with her on some of them. By the early 1970s, she was covering new ground by recording songs from other writers such as Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, Lynsey de Paul and Roy Wood. In recent years, Nancy has made a comeback also not hindered by the recent successful re-recording of "Somethin' Stupid" by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman.- Actress
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Gina Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, Italy. Destined to be called "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", Gina possibly had St. Brigid as part of her surname. She was the daughter of a furniture manufacturer, and grew up in the pictorial mountain village. The young Gina did some modeling and, from there, went on to participate successfully in several beauty contests. In 1947, she entered a beauty competition for Miss Italy, but came in third. The winner was Lucia Bosè (born 1931), who would go on to appear in over 50 movies, and the first runner-up was Gianna Maria Canale (born 1927), who would appear in almost 50 films. After appearing in a half-dozen films in Italy, it was rumored that, in 1947, film tycoon Howard Hughes had her flown to Hollywood; however, this did not result in her staying in America, and she returned to Italy (her Hollywood breakout movie would not come until six years later in the John Huston film Beat the Devil (1953)).
Back in Italy, in 1949, Gina married Milko Skofic, a Slovenian (at the time, "Yugoslavian") doctor, by whom she had a son, Milko Skofic Jr. They would be married for 22 years, until their divorce in 1971. As her film roles and national popularity increased, Gina was tagged "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", after her signature movie Beautiful But Dangerous (1955). Gina was nicknamed "La Lollo", as she embodied the prototype of Italian beauty. Her earthy looks and short "tossed salad" hairdo were especially influential and, in fact, there's a type of curly lettuce named "Lollo" in honor of her cute hairdo. Her film Come September (1961), co-starring Rock Hudson, won the Golden Globe Award as the World's Film Favorite. In the 1970s, Gina was seen in only a few films, as she took a break from acting and concentrated on another career: photography. Among her subjects were Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí and the German national soccer team.
A skilled photographer, Gina had a collection of her work "Italia Mia", published in 1973. Immersed in her other passions (sculpting and photography), it would be 1984 before Gina would grace American television on Falcon Crest (1981). Although Gina was always active, she only appeared in a few films in the 1990s. She retired from acting in 1997 after 50 years in the motion picture industry. In June 1999, she turned to politics and ran, unsuccessfully, for one of Italy's 87 European Parliament seats, from her hometown of Subiaco. Gina was also a corporate executive for fashion and cosmetics companies. As she told Parade magazine in April 2000: "I studied painting and sculpting at school and became an actress by mistake". (We're glad she made that mistake). Gina went on to say: "I've had many lovers and still have romances. I am very spoiled. All my life, I've had too many admirers."- Actress
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Romy Schneider was born on 23 September 1938 in Vienna, Austria into a family of actors. Making her film debut at the age of 15, her breakthrough came two years later in the very popular trilogy Sissi (1955). Her mother, supervising her daughter's career, immediately approved Romy's participation in Christine (1958), the remake of Max Ophüls's Playing at Love (1933), where Magda Schneider once starred herself. During the shooting, she fell in love with her co-star Alain Delon and eventually moved with him to Paris. At that time, she started her international career collaborating with famous directors such as Luchino Visconti and Orson Welles. After Delon had broken up with her in 1964, she married Harry Meyen shortly after. Although she gave birth to a boy, David-Christopher, their relationship was difficult, so they divorced in 1975. Being unsatisfied with her personal life, she turned to alcohol and drugs, but her cinematic career -especially in France- remained intact. She was the first actress, receiving the new created César Award as "Best Actress" for her role in That Most Important Thing: Love (1975). Three years later, she was awarded again for A Simple Story (1978). After a short marriage to her former secretary Daniel Biasini, being the father of her daughter Sarah Biasini, she suffered the hardest blow of her life when her son was impaled on a fence in 1981. She never managed to recover from this loss and died on 29 May 1982 in Paris. Although it was suggested she committed suicide caused by an overdose of sleeping pills, she was declared to have died from cardiac arrest.- Actress
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Susan Ker Weld was born on August 27, 1943 (Friday), in New York City. When her father, Lathrop Motley Weld, died three years later at the age of 49, the cute little girl, whose name by then had somehow been transmogrified into "Tuesday", took over the role of the family breadwinner. She became a successful child model, posing for advertisements and mail-order catalogs. Her work and the burden of responsibility estranged her from her mother Aileen, her two elder siblings, and catapulted the preteen girl into adulthood. At nine years of age, she suffered a nervous breakdown; at ten, she started heavy drinking; one year later, she began to have love affairs, all of which led to a suicide attempt at age twelve. In 1956 she debuted in the low-budget exploitation movie Rock Rock Rock! (1956) and decided to become an actress. After numerous TV appearances in New York she went to Hollywood in 1958 and was cast for Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), something of a breakthrough for her. Over the next few years Tuesday became Hollywood's queen of teen, playing mainly precocious sex kittens. Her wild private life added to the entertainment of her fans. Critics acknowledged her talent, directors approved of her professionalism, and in the mid-1970s she even managed to grow out of her child/woman image and find more demanding roles - she had been "sweet little 16" for about 16 years. However, Tuesday Weld didn't achieve first-magnitude stardom. Maybe she was just unlucky with her selection of jobs (she turned down Lolita (1962), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), True Grit (1969), Cactus Flower (1969), among others); maybe her independence-loving mind made her instinctively shrink back from the restraints of super stardom. In any case, she kept on performing well in films that had either not much flair or not much success. From the early '80s on she focused more and more on made-for-TV movies, which was ironic in that the best (Once Upon a Time in America (1984)) and the most successful (Falling Down (1993)) films that came her way happened as her big-screen career was already petering out.- British actress Pamela Franklin has worked with many notable actors and directors throughout her career. A somewhat underrated actress, she had a wide range of emotions that she brought to her many versatile characters. Franklin was born in Yokohama, Japan, and her father was an importer/exporter. She initially studied dance at the Elmhurst School of Ballet in England (now the Elmhurst School for Dance). She made her film debut at age 11 as "Flora" in The Innocents (1961) alongside Deborah Kerr and a year later appeared as "Tina" in The Lion (1962) with William Holden and Trevor Howard. She has worked with many directors including Ronald Neame, Jack Clayton, and John Huston. Franklin is most remembered for her performance as the rebellious "Sandy" in the The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) which starred Maggie Smith and also as the hapless kidnap victim in The Night of the Following Day (1969) in which she appeared with Marlon Brando and Rita Moreno.
Franklin later carved out a niche as a "scream queen" in a handful of 1970s horror features. She portrayed the psychic medium in The Legend of Hell House (1973) which also featured Roddy McDowall. For many years, Franklin made several guest appearances on hit TV shows. In the early 1970s, she married actor Harvey Jason whom she met on the set of Necromancy (1972) and had two children. Franklin retired from acting in the early 1980s. - Actress
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Beautiful, auburn-haired Virginia Gayle Hunnicutt was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the daughter of Sam Lloyd Hunnicutt, an army colonel, and his wife Mary (née Dickerson). Already in her teens, Gayle was determined to become a serious actress. She attended Texas Christian University in her home town and then won a scholarship to study theatre arts at the University of California. One of her visiting lecturers was the noted French film director Jean Renoir who further encouraged her acting ambitions. Gayle made her first appearances on the stage in college productions and at the Cahuenga Playhouse while supporting her studies financially, working at an advertising agency. Also at the same time, she began to shed her Texan drawl by attending a speech clinic.
Having been 'discovered' by a Warner Brothers talent scout, Gayle was offered a small part in an episode of the TV navy comedy Mister Roberts (1965) and then had a minor role in the Roger Corman-produced and directed outlaw biker counterculture classic The Wild Angels (1966). After that, she attracted attention as a featured guest star on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) (as a con artist) and in Get Smart (1965) (as Octavia, an alluring KAOS agent). The actor George Peppard was sufficiently impressed by her to persuade director John Guillermin to co-star her as the femme fatale in his private eye thriller P.J. (1967). Another glamour part was to follow as leading lady to James Garner in the neo film noir Marlowe (1969), in which Gayle played a TV star involved with a mob boss.
In 1968, she married the English actor and producer David Hemmings after a whirlwind romance. They appeared together in Fragment of Fear (1970) and he subsequently directed her in Running Scared (1972). Her turbulent union with Hemmings ended in divorce after seven years. Gayle, nonetheless, remained based in London. Having lost all trace of her Texas accent, she could effectively pass for being British. She appeared on the stage in several noted productions, including in the title role of Hedda Gabler at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury and as Peter Pan at the Shaftesbury. On the big screen, she co-starred as the wife of a physicist (Roddy McDowall) investigating The Legend of Hell House (1973). Her most significant impact, however, was to be on British television with her strongest showing as Charlotte Stant in The Golden Bowl (1972) (adapted from the 1904 novel by Henry James) and as the Tsarina Alexandra in the excellent miniseries Fall of Eagles (1974). In the French miniseries Fantômas (1980), she featured as the exotic mistress of the eponymous master criminal (portrayed in this version by Austrian actor Helmut Berger). In similar vein, she essayed Irene Adler -- nemesis of the great detective -- in the premier episode of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984) and took on the mantle of femme fatale once more opposite Powers Boothe in an episode of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (1983).
Gayle's second husband (from 1978) was the author, political journalist and BBC broadcaster Simon Jenkins. This union, like her first, produced one son. She divorced Jenkins in 2009. By then, Gayle had already been retired from screen acting for ten years. In 2004, she published a selection of letters her father wrote to her mother while stationed with the 112th Cavalry in the South Pacific, entitled 'Dearest Virginia'. Gayle Hunnicutt passed away on 31 August 2023, aged 80.- Actress
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Blonde and blue-eyed with an attractively feline appeal, Carol Lynley began her professional career as Carolyn Lee. She learned ballet at age seven, became a successful child model at age 10 (eventually working for the Sears & Roebuck department store in New York), and got her face nationally recognized as "the Coca-Cola Girl."
Carole Ann Jones was born in New York City to Frances Fuller (Felch) from New England and Irish immigrant Cyril Roland Jones. Trying to branch out into acting early on, in New York City, to Frances Fuller (Felch), from New England, and Cyril Roland Jones, who was an Irish immigrant. Trying to branch out into acting early on, Carol discovered that another individual by that name, born seven years earlier, was already on the books of Actors' Equity, so Carolyn fused "lyn" and "lee" to create 'Lynley'. From age 15 she appeared on Broadway, played juvenile roles in early anthology television, and was featured on the cover of Life Magazine in April 1957. Her first important film roles came in decidedly wholesome fare, beginning with The Light in the Forest (1958) for Walt Disney Productions, in which she played indentured servant Shenandoe. It was a promising start. A New York Times reviewer praised her performance (alongside that of fellow screen newbie James MacArthur), describing both as "real charmers with more than their share of talent." Thrust once more into the limelight, Lynley reprised her earlier Broadway role in the film version of Blue Denim (1959) as a naive girl who becomes pregnant and ponders having an illegal abortion. This performance got her nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Most Promising Newcomer in 1959. That same year, she graduated with a diploma from New York's School for Young Professionals. Lynley went on to play other ingénues and troubled teens before shedding her wholesome image by the early 1960s.
Return to Peyton Place (1961) headlined the actress as a best-selling novelist who controversially reveals the town's darkest secrets and scandals. This was followed by the bawdy (and mostly irritating) sex farce Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963), with Lynley as a virginal college student in a New York apartment block pursued by a lecherous landlord/playboy (played by Jack Lemmon). Luckily, better opportunities to prove her acting mettle turned up with a double role in The Cardinal (1963) (opposite Tom Tryon), and as the tormented mother of a kidnapped child in the superior psychological thriller Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), directed by Otto Preminger and co-starring Laurence Olivier. Cinema magazine commented "With a face like that of a fallen angel, Carol Lynley has beauty that is often awe inspiring".
In March 1965, the former teen queen posed nude for an issue of Playboy magazine; later that year she played the title role in a turgid biopic of 1930s Hollywood sex symbol Jean Harlow. While the quality of her films tended to decline after the mid-'60s, there were still entertaining moments in B-pictures like The Shuttered Room (1967) and Once You Kiss a Stranger... (1969) (in this lurid thriller, Lynley rose above her material and was memorable in the role of a psychotic murderess). In Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure (1972), she was merely one of the ill-fated passengers who ended up in Davy Jones' Locker. Still, Variety called her performance "especially effective". After 1967, television provided most of her work, including guest spots in seminal shows like Mannix (1967), The Invaders (1967), Hawaii Five-O (1968) and as co-star of the TV pilot for The Night Stalker (1972) (as Carl Kolchak's girlfriend). In her penultimate role, Lynley played a grandmother in a film titled uncannily similar to the one which had launched her career: A Light in the Forest (2003).
Carol Lynley retired from the screen in 2006. A highly capable actress who should have made a bigger splash in Hollywood, she passed away on September 3, 2019 in Pacific Palisades, California from a heart attack. She was 77.- Stunts
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Gail Russell was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 21, 1924. She remained in the Windy City, going to school until her parents moved to California when she was 14. She was an above-average student in school and upon graduation from Santa Monica High School was signed by Paramount Studios.
Because of her ethereal beauty, Gail was to be groomed to be one of Paramount's top stars. She was very shy and had virtually no acting experience to speak of, but her beauty was so striking that the studio figured it could work with her on her acting with a studio acting coach.
Gail's first film came when she was 19 years old with a small role as "Virginia Lowry" in Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour (1943) in 1943. It was her only role that year, but it was a start. The following year she appeared in another film, The Uninvited (1944) with Ray Milland (it was also the first time Gail used alcohol to steady her nerves on the set, a habit that would come back to haunt her). It was a very well done and atmospheric horror story that turned out to be a profitable one for the studio. Gail's third film was the charm, as she co-starred with Diana Lynn in Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944) that same year. The film was based on the popular book of the time and the film was even more popular.
In 1945 Gail appeared in Salty O'Rourke (1945), a story about crooked gamblers involved in horse racing. Although she wasn't a standout in the film, she acquitted herself well as part of the supporting cast. Later that year she appeared in The Unseen (1945), a story about a haunted house, starring Joel McCrea. Gail played Elizabeth Howard, a governess of the house in question. The film turned a profit but was not the hit that Paramount executives hoped for.
In 1946 Gail was again teamed with Diana Lynn for a sequel to "Our Hearts Were Young and Gay"--Our Hearts Were Growing Up (1946). The plot centered around two young college girls getting involved with bootleggers. Unfortunately, it was not anywhere the caliber of the first film and it failed at the box-office. With Calcutta (1946) in 1947, however, Gail bounced back with a more popular film, this time starring Alan Ladd. Unfortunately, many critics felt that Gail was miscast in this epic drama. That same year she was cast with John Wayne and Harry Carey in the western Angel and the Badman (1947). It was a hit with the public and Gail shone in the role of Penelope Worth, a feisty Quaker girl who tries to tame gunfighter Wayne. Still later Gail appeared in Paramount's all-star musical, Variety Girl (1947). The critics roasted the film, but the public turned out in droves to ensure its success at the box-office. After the releases of Song of India (1949), El Paso (1949), and Captain China (1950), Gail married matinée idol Guy Madison, one of the up-and-coming actors in Hollywood.
After The Lawless (1950) in 1950 Paramount decided against renewing her contract, mainly because of Gail's worsening drinking problem. She had been convicted of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, and the studio didn't want its name attached to someone who couldn't control her drinking. Being dumped by Paramount damaged her career, and film roles were coming in much more slowly. After Air Cadet (1951) in 1951, her only film that year, she disappeared from the screen for the next five years while she attempted to get control of her life. She divorced Madison in 1954.
In 1956 Gail returned in 7 Men from Now (1956). It was a western with Gail in the minor role of Annie Greer. The next year she was fourth-billed in The Tattered Dress (1957), a film that also starred Jeanne Crain and Jeff Chandler. The following year she had a reduced part in No Place to Land (1958), a low-budget offering from "B" studio Republic Pictures.
By now the demons of alcohol had her in its grasp. She was again absent from the screen until 1961's The Silent Call (1961) (looking much older than her 36 years). It was to be her last film. On August 26, 1961, Gail was found dead in her small studio apartment in Los Angeles, California.- Actress
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One of four children, Blackman was born in London's East End, to Edith Eliza (Stokes), a homemaker, and Frederick Thomas Blackman, a statistician employed with the Civil Service. She received elocution lessons for her 16th birthday (at her own request), and later attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which she paid for by working as a clerical assistant in the Civil Service. She was also a dispatch rider for the Home Office during World War II, playing an important role in the war effort.
Blackman received her first acting work on stage in London's West End as an understudy in "The Guinea Pig". She continued with roles in "The Gleam" (1946) and "The Blind Goddess" (1947), before moving into film. She debuted with Fame Is the Spur (1947), starring Michael Redgrave.
Blackman suffered a nervous breakdown following her divorce from Bill Sankey, a man 12 years her senior, who's jealousy, fraudulent business practices, and emptying of her bank accounts took it's toll. After hospitalisation Blackman began counselling, which would last for years, and began rebuilding her career.
TV series work also came her way again, most notably the highly popular The Avengers (1961), co-starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed. As the leather-clad "Catherine Gale", Blackman showcased her incredible beauty, self-confidence, and athletic abilities. Her admirable qualities made her not only a catch for the men, but also an inspirational figure for the 1960s feminist movement.
Blackman took on the role of Greek goddess Hera in popular movie adventure Jason and the Argonauts (1963) with Ray Harryhausen and melodrama Life at the Top (1965) with Laurence Harvey. She then played "Pussy Galore" in the classic James Bond film Goldfinger (1964). Blackman went toe to toe with Sean Connery's womanizing "007" and created major sparks on screen.
Blackman continued to work consistently in films and tv, while also appearing on stage where she earned rave reviews as the blind heroine of the thriller "Wait Until Dark" as well as for her dual roles in "Mr. and Mrs.", a production based on two of Noël Coward's plays. She also enjoyed working with her second husband, actor Maurice Kaufmann, in the play "Move Over, Mrs. Markham" and the film thriller Fright (1971). She proved a sultry-voiced sensation in various musicals productions such as "A Little Night Music", "The Sound of Music", "On Your Toes", and "Nunsense."
In the new millennium, Honor was seen in such films as Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Color Me Kubrick (2005), Reuniting the Rubins (2010), I, Anna (2012) and Cockneys vs Zombies (2012), as well as the British TV serieses Water, Water, Everywhere (1920) The Royal (2003) Coronation Street (1960), long running series Casualty (1986) and finally You, Me & Them (2013), her last role after her retirement several years earlier.
Divorced from Kaufmann in 1975 (although they remained friends until his death, Blackman even cared for him during his 13 year battle with cancer), Blackman never remarried, revealing in an interview that she simply preferred single life, "Basically I'm a shy person and I like my own company". Unable to conceive, the couple adopted two children, Lottie and Barnaby, in '67 and '68 respectively.
The ever-lovely and eternally glamorous star continued to find regular work into her 90s, including co-starring in the long-running English hit comedy series The Upper Hand (1990) and performing her one-woman stage show, "Wayward Women"
Honor Blackman died on April 5, 2020, in Lewes, Sussex. She was 94.- Actress
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Tawny Kitaen was born on 5 August 1961 in San Diego, California, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Bachelor Party (1984), The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak (1984) and Witchboard (1986). She was married to Chuck Finley and David Coverdale. She died on 7 May 2021 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Actress
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Admittedly, the brand of the sultry, All-American bombshell has served Julie Michaels well in her acting career. Fans will agree that Julie's performance opposite Patrick Swayze in Road House (1989) was iconic and impossible to forget. Her incredibly graphic fight scene with Keanu Reeves in Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break (1991) inspired the New York Times to dub her "The babe who nuked Keanu". Undeniably, Julie is as beautiful as she is talented and tenacious, though the multi-nominee and Emmy Award winner broke well past the stigma of "seductress" to branch out into other positions in the entertainment industry, effortlessly traversing between acting, stunt coordinating and producing. While often wearing several hats at the same time.
Julie Michaels killed "Jason" in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993), tangled with Dwayne Johnson in The Scorpion King (2002), and fought the "Ultimate Fighter" in John Herzfeld's 15 Minutes (2001). Roles which relied not only on her training as an actress but as a stunt woman. Additionally, she has been paired opposite Dean Cain, was frozen by "The Governator" (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Batman & Robin (1997), and made several recent appearances on television shows such as How To Get Away With Murder, Jane The Virgin, Nashville, Southland, Seal Team, and on the soon to be released Chick Fight, opposite Malin Ackerman, also starring Alec Baldwin. Julie Michaels was awarded Best Actress for her role in the short film Last Writes on which she executive produced. She also co-executive produced After Forever, the acclaimed series which (in 2019) won several Daytime Emmy Awards. This "Golden Girl" seems to have the Midas touch and continues to break barriers in her own career as well as tear down walls for fellow women in the industry.
In 2016 Julie Michaels was nominated for a Prime-Time Emmy Award for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Comedy or Variety Show (the first woman ever to be nominated for that category) and earned herself an Action Icon Award in 2017. Additionally, between 2017-2019, Julie co-stunt coordinated the show Seal Team alongside her equally accomplished husband Peewee Piemonte, where the duo proudly sought and succeeded in hiring several hundreds of Veteran performers over their pilot and 44 episode run (the efforts of which garnered them an Emmy Nomination). The power couple has coordinated several top award-winning network shows together over the years (How To Get Away With Murder, Jane The Virgin, and Nashville to name a few fan favorites). Despite her dedication and commitment to creating action for television and film, Julie Michaels continues to find her way back in front of the camera. Exactly where loyal fans want her!- Laura Harring is a Mexican actress best known for her role as the mysterious amnesiac Rita in David Lynch's enigmatic film Mulholland Drive, which was recently voted the best film of the 21st century in multiple polls. Film critic Roger Ebert compared Harring to screen legend Rita Hayworth, while the International Herald Tribune's film reviewer likened Laura to Ava Gardner. But Laura Harring is her own person, a classical performer with a passion for acting, dance, travel, food and life.
Laura Harring became a world traveler shortly after finishing her studies at the prestigious Aiglon College, one of Switzerland's exclusive private boarding schools. After graduating with an academic diploma, Laura spent time in the foothills of the Himalayas, working as a social worker to help transport heavy rocks, plant gardens, build schools, and perform other manual tasks that helped the villagers create a better quality of life. After her social work, Laura devoted a year to backpacking through Asia and Europe, often falling asleep beside the ocean in a sleeping bag, an experience that changed her life forever. Laura spent time living in other countries and meeting new people, and it changed her life profoundly.
Years later, Harring starred opposite extraordinary actors such as Oscar winner Javier Bardem in the adaptation of Nobel Peace Prize winner Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, Oscar winner Denzel Washington in John Q, and Oscar winner William Hurt in The King. Laura also starred opposite John Travolta in Marvel's The Punisher. For the small screen, Laura starred opposite Forest Whitaker in the critically acclaimed television show The Shield, a show that changed the conventional formula of the cop genre and won multiple awards. Later she starred as Ed Westwick's mom in the super-hit TV show Gossip Girl. But Laura was no stranger to the small screen, having started her career as a series regular on Aaron Spelling's Sunset Beach on NBC.
In her earlier years, Laura studied at the London Academy of Performing Arts. She credits her grandfather, an extraordinary athlete who was due to compete in the Olympics in 1948, for her equestrian and fencing skills. Her philosophy in life is unique. She believes we are all one human family meant to enjoy the trip of life. - Carroll Baker was born on May 28, 1931 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a traveling salesman, William W. Baker. She attended community college for a year and then worked as a dancer and magician's assistant. After a brief marriage, she had a small part in Easy to Love (1953), did TV commercials, and had a bit part on Broadway. She studied at the Actors Studio and was married to director Jack Garfein (one daughter, Blanche Baker). Warner Brothers, sensing a future Marilyn Monroe, cast her in Giant (1956), Baby Doll (1956) (Oscar nomination for her thumb-sucking role), The Carpetbaggers (1964) and Harlow (1965) (title role). Moving to Italy, she made films there and in England, Germany, Mexico and Spain . After returning to American films, she married Donald Burton in 1982 and resided in Hampstead, London in the 1980s. They remained together until Burton's death from emphysema in their home in Cathedral City, California in 2007.
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Carol White was born on 1 April 1943 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Poor Cow (1967), The Wednesday Play (1964) and Some Call It Loving (1973). She was married to Mike King, Stuart Lerner and Mike Arnold. She died on 16 September 1991 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Actress
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Laura Leggett Linney was born in New York City on February 5, 1964, into a theatre family. Her father was prominent playwright Romulus Linney, whose own great-grandfather was a congressman from North Carolina. Her mother, Miriam Anderson (Leggett), is a nurse. Although she did not live in her father's house (her parents having divorced when she was an infant), Linney's world revolved, in part, around his profession from the earliest age. She graduated from Brown University in 1986 and studied acting at Juilliard and the Arts Theatre School in Moscow and, thereafter, embarked on a career on the Broadway stage receiving favorable notices for her work in such plays as "Hedda Gabler" and "Six Degrees of Separation".
Linney's film career began in the early 1990s with small roles in Lorenzo's Oil (1992) and Dave (1993). She landed the role of Mary Anne Singleton in the PBS film adaptations of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" series, playing her in Tales of the City (1993), More Tales of the City (1998) and Further Tales of the City (2001). Linney's first substantial big-screen role was as the ex-girlfriend of Richard Gere's character in Primal Fear (1996) and her superb performance brought her praise and a better selection of roles. Clint Eastwood chose Linney to play his daughter, another prominent role, in 1997's Absolute Power (1997), followed by another second billing in the following year's The Truman Show (1998).
Always a strong performer, Linney truly came into her own after 2000, starting the decade auspiciously with her widely-praised, arguably flawless performance in You Can Count on Me (2000). She found herself nominated for an Academy Award for this, her first lead role, for which her salary had been $10,000. Linney won numerous critics' awards for her role as Sammy, a single mother whose life is complicated by a new boss and the arrival in town of her aimless brother. On the heels of this success came her marvelous turn as Bertha Dorset in The House of Mirth (2000), clearly the best performance in a film of strong performances. Since then, Linney has frequently been offered challenging dramatic roles, and always rises to the occasion, such as in Mystic River (2003) and Kinsey (2004), for which she received another Academy Award nomination.- Actress
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Sheree J. Wilson has gained worldwide recognition starring in two enormously popular long running television series. Appearing in the hit series Dallas for five seasons playing opposite Patrick Duffy, and then for the entire eight year run of Walker, Texas Ranger opposite Chuck Norris. Currently, Ms. Wilson has starred and produced two feature films, Easy Rider: The Ride Back, a prequel to the cult favorite movie Easy Rider, and The Gundown. She also co-produced a zombie/comedy called Dug Up.
Sheree began her film and television career in a starring role, opposite Louise Lasser, Brian James and Reed Burney, in "Crimewave", a 1984 black comedy directed by Sam Raimi. Three days after that film wrapped, she was cast in "Velvet," an ABC/Aaron Spelling MOW/series pilot, in which she played a female "James Bond" character opposite Shari Belafonte. Within the next year, she had a lead with Tim Robbins in "Fraternity Vacation", a summer comedy in which she played an intellectual beauty who was the object of everyone's desire.
Producers began to take notice of this dynamic newcomer to Hollywood, and soon she starred in the 1985 CBS television miniseries "Kane & Abel," with Peter Strauss. This immediately led to "Our Family Honor," a CBS drama about Irish cops vs. the Mafia, in which she starred with Ray Liotta, Michael Madsen and Eli Wallach. Her career continued to grow including "News at Eleven" with Martin Sheen. And then, in 1986, television producer Leonard Katzman called Sheree to talk about a part he thought was tailor-made for someone with her classic beauty and sassy, fun-loving, energetic nature.
The role was that of 'April Stevens' on the CBS mega-hit series "Dallas." For five seasons she played a brainy, wealthy femme fatale. Her character went from being one of the most powerful women in Dallas and J.R. Ewing's nemesis, to being one of the warmest characters in town, eventually marrying Bobby Ewing, the show's ultimate good guy. Ultimately, April Stevens was gunned down during her honeymoon in Paris. Bowing out with a bang, Sheree's performance earned her the "Soap Opera Digest Award" for Best Death Scene.
In fact, Sheree was pregnant and wanted to leave in order to fully devote herself to motherhood.
At the end of 1992, she signed to do the lead female role of 'Alex Cahill' in "Walker, Texas Ranger," opposite Chuck Norris, which ran for eight seasons.
The daughter of two IBM executives, Sheree was born in Minnesota and moved to Colorado at the age of seven, where she learned to ride horses. Her superb equestrian skills won her first place riding cutting horses in the 1995 National Multiple Sclerosis Rodeo.
Currently, Sheree resides in Dallas, TX- Debra Feuer was born on 12 January 1959 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. She is an actress, known for To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Homeboy (1988) and Miami Vice (1984). She is married to Scott Fuller. They have one child. She was previously married to Mickey Rourke.
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Haydée Politoff was born on 25 May 1946 in Paris, France. She is an actress and writer, known for The Collector (1967), Bora Bora (1968) and Le mutant (1978).- Amanda Peterson was born on July 8, in Greeley, Colorado. With a natural beauty, powerful charm and a strong personality this talented and truly gifted actress began her career in film industry at age 9, with the feature film Annie (1982), directed by Academy Award-winner John Huston. To participate in "Annie", she had to persuade her mother and then compete in a casting which included more than 8000 girls. She is the youngest of three children, she has a sister, Ann-Marie Peterson, and a brother, Rev. Jim Peterson. Her mother, Sylvia Peterson, is a full-time mother and housewife and her father, James Peterson, is a doctor. Starting in 1981, Amanda had guest starring roles in television series such as Father Murphy (1981), Silver Spoons (1982) and Boone (1983). In 1985, she played alongside with Oscar nominee River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke, a four-time Oscar nominee, in Joe Dante fantasy-fable Explorers (1985). At 14 years of age this precocious young actress, had already participated in over 50 television commercials, three television series and four movies. She was also an active member of the Greeley Saddle Club, and horse riding was one of her passions since childhood. She met her greatest international success in 1987 with the comedy movie Can't Buy Me Love (1987), directed by Steve Rash. Amanda received critical praise worldwide and demonstrated that her skills were maturing into older roles. In 1987, in Chile, Amanda acted with her elder sister, Ann-Marie Peterson, Jsu Garcia and Xander Berkeley in the post-apocalyptic movie The Lawless Land (1988), directed by Jon Hess and produced by Academy Award-winner Roger Corman. In 1988, for her outstanding acting in the Emmy Award-winning television series A Year in the Life (1986), Amanda Peterson won the Young Artist Award in the category of Best Young Actress Starring in a Television Drama Series. These awards are often referred to as the Young Oscars. A year later she acted opposite Roy Scheider, two-time Oscar nominee, in the profound and moving drama Listen to Me (1989), directed by Oscar nominee Douglas Day Stewart. She also drew praise for is her performance in the excellent thriller Fatal Charm (1990), directed by Fritz Kiersch. In 1994, after participating in the memorable contemporary drama film Windrunner (1994), she decided to leave the entertainment industry. Amanda's work involves several genres, from western to romance, science fiction to thrillers, and from dramas to comedies.
Amanda found admirers on a global scale, with her delightful work. With her strong presence and dedication, she demonstrated a gift for portraying emotion and vulnerability, while immersing herself in here roles, while bringing here unique personality, an attribute that only the best actors have. In a Perfect World Amanda would have delivered many more quality character interpretations, whether in film or on television. With her movies she achieved immortality in the hearts of all who witnessed her work since her childhood. As Leonard Maltin, the most respected and recognized historian and film critic in America, once said - "Amanda Peterson is excellent". There is no doubt about that. After all, Amanda Peterson is one of the most talented and beautiful actress of her time and considered by many a legend. On July 3, 2015, Amanda Peterson died at her home in Greeley, Colorado, at the age 43 from an accidental morphine overdose. - Tina Caspary was born on 28 December 1970 in Downey, California, United States. She is an actress, known for Can't Buy Me Love (1987), Mac and Me (1988) and Annie (1982). She is married to Ryan Cyphert. They have two children.
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Barbara Niven was born in Portland, Oregon, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Chesapeake Shores (2016), A Perfect Ending (2012) and The Rat Pack (1998).- Actress
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Radio talk show host, "reality" TV host, film and TV producer, former high-fashion model, popular pin-up girl, actress and spokes model... Samantha ("Sam") Phillips is a 20 year veteran of the entertainment industry and a highly sought after radio and TV personality as the host of, "The Single Life with Sam Phillips" (2009); formerly a radio show on 97.1 FM Talk (2004-2009), now a 26 episode series airing on the premium HD cable network Mav TV (2009).
Sam began her mainstream hosting career in 2001 with the breakout hit show Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (2000), the relationship television series from Columbia Tri-Star. The show was billed as "The talk show that gets men and women to really talk!" and Sam was the co-host who would do the embarrassing demonstration, try the unknown or ask the question everyone was thinking but not saying. As the host of Xtreme Fakeovers (2005), (XFO) on PAX-TV, Sam and professional Hollywood make-up artist, Kevin Yagher transformed everyday people via prosthetics, body padding and elaborate special effects make-up (a la Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)) into a totally new person and then pulled elaborate hidden-camera pranks on their unsuspecting family family and friends (a la Punk'd (2003)). It was the everyday people practical joke show with the super bonus of Hollywood special effects.
Sam's radio career began at Xtra Sports Radio on "The Big Show with Steve Mason and John Ireland" (1998), which was also simulcast on Fox Sports West II. For the past decade 97.1 FM Talk has been Sam's radio home and in that time she's hosted 19 different shows. She's widely known as the modern day Dear Abby on the radio, except Sam's the cooler, hipper, hotter version. Speaking of hot, Sam's Penthouse Magazine Centerfold for June 1993 was published in more countries than any other Pet's. At the time, Bob Guccione predicted on his editors page that Sam's issue would become a collectors edition.
Sam got her experience for hosting from previous reporting, guest hosting and celebrity guest appearances on numerous shows, including a three year stint on Playboy Channel's "Sexcetera" (1998-2000), Red Eye w/Tom Shillue (2007), Strictly Sex with Dr. Drew (2005), The Test (2001), CBS' The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (1999), FX Network, "The Howard Stern Show" (2004), "The Joan Rivers Show" (1995), "Jenny Jones" (1995),"The Maury Povich Show" (1994), "Hard Copy" (1994), "Inside Edition" (1996), "Extra" (1996), "Entertainment Tonight" (1996), and HBO. She has also been cast in a slew of music videos, including ones for ''Weird Al' Yankovic', 'Van Halen', Amy Grant, Mötley Crüe, Simply Red, Scorpions, The Doobie Brothers, Dave Koz, Iron Maiden, Jeff Foxworthy and Alice Cooper, to name a few.
Sam has also hosted and emceed many public events including "ASYM's 14th, 15th, and 16th Annual Spring and Benefit Awards Show" (2006-2009), "ASYM's 2nd - 6th Annual Hollywood Live Music Showcase" (2005-2009), "The Prism Awards" (2006), "The Diversity Awards" (2005-2006), "The Singles Festival (2003), "Your Night of Stars at Edwards Air Force Base" (2001), "Wilmington's Most Wanted Charity Event" (2001), and several years of "The Best of L.A. Festival" (1998-2000). Sam co-created and hosted the popular "Improv's Red Light Comedy District" (2002-2005), and she is famous for producing all the campy, T&A "Busty Cops" films that star all her centerfold friends and have a large fan following.
Her first gig as a leading lady in a motion picture came in London in 1987. Love Potion (1987) was the brainchild of Monty Python alumni Graham Chapman (writer, producer) and Julian Doyle (director). Sam enjoyed acting so she moved to Los Angeles, where she became a film veteran, having acted in over 40 movies. She has starred in Deceit (1990), Phantasm II (1988), Angel 4: Undercover (1994), The Other Man (1994) and Fallen Angel (1997), and has appeared in Weekend at Bernie's II (1993), Spy Hard (1996) and Rescue Me (1992), among many others. Most recently she co-starred in the N.Y. Independent Film Festival award winner Just for the Time Being (2000).
Sam Phillips is widely known as a 1980s pop icon after her recent appearance in Patrick McMullan's photographic diary of the decade entitled "So 80s." She began as an international teen modeling sensation and spent a decade working with Wilhelmina Models in New York, Paris, London and Japan. She became one of the most sought-after models of the time, appearing in magazines such as "Italian Vogue", "Cosmopolitan", "Lei", "Elle", "Mademoiselle" and "Seventeen". She was featured on ad campaigns for Jordache, Esprit, Sebastian Hair Care Products, and the #1 pantyhose company in Europe, DIM Pantyhose, to name just a few.- Actress
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
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Kim Novak was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 13, 1933 with the birth name of Marilyn Pauline Novak. She was the daughter of a former teacher turned transit clerk and his wife, also a former teacher. Throughout elementary and high school, Kim did not get along well with teachers. She even admitted that she didn't like being told what to do and when to do it.
Her first job, after high school, was modeling teen fashions for a local department store. Kim, later, won a scholarship in a modeling school and continued to model part-time. Kim later worked odd jobs as an elevator operator, sales clerk, and a dental assistant. The jobs never seemed to work out so she fell back on modeling, the one job she did well.
After a stint on the road as a spokesperson for an appliance company, Kim decided to go to Los Angeles and try her luck at modeling there. Ultimately, her modeling landed her an uncredited role in the RKO production of The French Line (1953). The role encompassed nothing more than being seen on a set of stairs.
Later a talent agent arranged for a screen test with Columbia Pictures and won a small six month contract. In truth, some of the studio hierarchy thought that Kim was Columbia's answer to Marilyn Monroe. Kim, who was still going by her own name of Marilyn, was originally going to be called "Kit Marlowe". She wanted to at least keep her family name of Novak, so the young actress and studio personnel settled on Kim Novak.
After taking some acting lessons, which the studio declined to pay for, Kim appeared in her first film opposite Fred MacMurray in Pushover (1954). Though her role as "Lona McLane" wasn't exactly a great one, it was her classic beauty that seemed to capture the eyes of the critics. Later that year, Kim appeared in the film, Phffft (1954) with Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday. Now more and more fans were eager to see this bright new star. These two films set the tone for her career with a lot of fan mail coming her way.
Her next film was as "Kay Greylek" in 5 Against the House (1955). The film was well-received, but it was her next one for that year that was her best to date. The film was Picnic (1955). Although Kim did a superb job of acting in the film as did her co-stars, the film did win two Oscars for editing and set decoration. Kim's next film was with United Artists on a loan out in the controversial Otto Preminger film The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). Her performance was flawless, but it was was Kim's beauty that carried the day. The film was a big hit.
In 1957, Kim played "Linda English" in the hit movie Pal Joey (1957) with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth. The film did very well at the box office, but was condemned by the critics. Kim really didn't seem that interested in the role. She even said she couldn't stand people such as her character.
That same year, Novak risked her career when she started dating singer/actor Sammy Davis Jr.. The interracial affair alarmed studio executives, most notably Harry Cohn, and they ended their relationship in January of the following year. In 1958, Kim appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's, now classic, Vertigo (1958) with James Stewart. This film's plot was one that thoroughly entertained the theater patrons wherever it played. The film was one in which Stewart's character, a detective, is hired to tail a friend's wife (Kim) and witnesses her suicide. In the end, Stewart finds that he has been duped in an elaborate scheme.
Her next film was Bell Book and Candle (1958) which was only a modest success. By the early 1960s, Kim's star was beginning to fade, especially with the rise of new stars or stars that were remodeling their status within the film community. With a few more nondescript films between 1960 and 1964, she landed the role of "Mildred Rogers" in the remake of Of Human Bondage (1964). The film debuted to good reviews.
In the meantime, Kim broke off her engagement to director Richard Quine and embarked on a brief dalliance with basketball player Wilt Chamberlain. While filming The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965), she had a romance with co-star Richard Johnson, whom she married, but the marriage failed the following year.
Kim stepped away from the cameras for a while, returning in 1968 to star in The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968). It was a resounding flop, perhaps the worst of her career. However, after that, Kim, basically, was able to pick what projects she wanted. After The Great Bank Robbery (1969) in 1969, Kim was away for another four years until she was seen with then-boyfriend Michael Brandon in a television movie called The Third Girl from the Left (1973), playing a veteran Las Vegas showgirl experiencing a midlife crisis.
In a personal development, Novak met equine veterinarian Robert Malloy in October 1974 and the couple married in 1976. Subsequent films were not the type to get the critics to sit up and take notice, but afforded her the opportunity to work with strong talent. She appeared to good effect in Satan's Triangle (1975), Just a Gigolo (1978), The Mirror Crack'd (1980) and Malibu (1983).
In 1986 and 1987, Kim played, of all people, "Kit Marlowe" in the TV series Falcon Crest (1981). In 1990, she starred alongside Ben Kingsley in The Children (1990), a fine independent film shot in Europe. It was not widely distributed, thus few got to see Novak giving one of her most powerful performances.
Her last film, on the silver screen, was Liebestraum (1991), in which she played a terminally ill woman with a past. The film was a major disappointment in every aspect. Kim clashed with director Mike Figgis over how to play her character. Consequently, the role was cut to shreds. Kim has ruled out any plans for a comeback and says she just isn't cut out for Hollywood.
Fortunately, she has found long-lasting happiness outside her career. Today she lives in Eagle Point, Oregon with her husband Bob, on a ranch where they raise horses and llamas. Kim is also an accomplished artist and has exhibited her painting in galleries around the country. She enjoys riding, canoeing and expressing herself through paint, poetry and photography.- Actress
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Pamela Gidley was born on July 11, 1965, in Methuen, Massachusetts, and raised in Nashua, New Hampshire. Pamela was the only girl among four older brothers. After high school, she moved to New York and was discovered by a modeling agent while walking down a Manhattan street and soon afterward she won the Wilhemina Modeling Agency's "Most Beautiful Girl In The World" contest on March 12, 1985 in Sydney, Australia.
As her modeling career took off, she studied acting at the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts under Stella Adler and eventually moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.- Actress
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Nicole Eggert was born on 13 January 1972 in Glendale, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Charles in Charge (1984), Blown Away (1992) and Baywatch (1989).- Actress
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Gail Thackray was born on 16 December 1964 in Batley, Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Hard to Die (1990), Cellblock Sisters: Banished Behind Bars (1995) and The Curse of the Komodo (2004).- Angela Little was born on 22 July 1972 in Albertville, Alabama, USA. She is an actress, known for My Boss's Daughter (2003), Rush Hour 2 (2001) and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007). She was previously married to Andy Mackenzie.
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Toni Hudson was born on 9 November 1960 in San Bernardino, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Places in the Heart (1984), Just One of the Guys (1985) and Charlie's Christmas Wish (2020). She was previously married to Judd Tyler Mintz, Dirk Benedict and Peter S. Rizzo.- Born in London, England, Amanda Pays is the daughter of show business agent and actor Howard Pays and former actress Jan Miller. An aunt, Mandy Miller, won fame as a child star of the '50s film Crash of Silence (1952) . When she was eight, Pays started school at a nearby convent and it was there that she demonstrated her early skills as an actress. Possessing a distinctively throaty voice, she was invariably cast in the male roles in the all-girls school productions. At her mother's suggestion, Amanda sent a Polaroid picture to a modeling agent and almost instantly found herself enjoying a successful career which, for the next four years, took her around the world. Then, at twenty-two, she suddenly tired of what she called "clotheshorsing" and decided to jump into the acting field. Intensive study at London's Academy of Live and Recorded Arts led to her professional debut opposite George Segal in The Cold Room (1984), an HBO production written and directed by James Dearden, who later wrote Fatal Attraction (1987). Since then, Pays had appeared on stage, screen and television in her native England and in America. Her credits include the London fringe production of "Fire Eaters," Thames Television's Minder on the Orient Express (1985), Lady Victoria in Oxford Blues (1984) opposite Rob Lowe, as the host of the ground-breaking television experiment Max Headroom (1987), Max Headroom (1985), as Sarah in the ABC miniseries A.D. (1985), opposite Ava Gardner and James Mason and as Sister Nicole in Off Limits (1988), starring Willem Dafoe and Gregory Hines.
- Lucy Helyn Deakins is an American attorney and former actress best known for starring as Milly in The Boy Who Could Fly and originating the role of Lily Walsh on As the World Turns. Deakins was born in New York City, the daughter of Alice, a professor at Columbia University, and Roger, a professor at New York University. She graduated from Stuyvesant High School and enrolled in Harvard University in 1988. She graduated in 1994 with a degree in comparative religion. She took time off from acting to backpack across Europe. In 2007, she graduated from University of Washington School of Law and is now a practicing attorney in Denver, Colorado, specializing in the energy industry. She is a partner in the Denver law firm, Dunsing, Deakins & Galera.
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Désirée Nosbusch has been a successful and internationally acclaimed actress and television host for over 30 years. Born in Luxembourg, she started her career hosting a radio show for Radio Luxembourg at the age of 12. At the age of 14 she became the first youth television host in German television history for the network ZDF. In 1981 Désirée Nosbusch had her acting debut in 'Nach Mitternacht' a feature film adaptation of the fiction novel by Irmgard Keun. Hence she was accepted at the renowned Academy of Performing Arts HB-Studios by Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof in New York. In 1986 the Taviani Brothers cast Désirée Nosbusch in Rome for the part of Mabel in their feature film 'Good morning Babylon', co-starring Greta Scacchi and Joaquim de Almeida, which opened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987. She has since appeared in over 60 movies internationally. Since 2018 she is starring as Cathrin Blake in the ARD-Degeto series 'The Irish Crime Story' that is set in Galway, Ireland. 2019 Désirée Nosbusch was awarded the prestigious Grimme Award for 'Best actress' for her portrayal of Christelle LeBlanc in the highly acclaimed international miniseries 'Bad Banks' directed by Christian Schwochow. In 2003 Désirée Nosbusch changed course after successfully studying directing and film production at UCLA in Los Angeles. Her short film 'Ice Cream Sunday' starring Tippi Hedren, which she wrote and directed, received the Gold Award for Best short Direction at the World Festival Houston and the Gold Award for Best Short Drama at the Fargo Film Festival. In 2023 she wrapped her directorial feature film debut, an adaptation of the play Gift/Poison by Lot Vekemans, starring Tim Roth and Trine Dyrholm.- Actress
- Camera and Electrical Department
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Paula Marshall was born on 12 June 1964 in Rockville, Maryland, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Gary Unmarried (2008), Cupid (1998) and Californication (2007). She has been married to Danny Nucci since 12 October 2003. They have one child. She was previously married to Tom Ardavany.- Actress
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Barbara Crampton was born in Levittown, New York. Growing up in Vermont, she spent the majority of her childhood summers traveling the country with a roadside carnival that her father worked for. Crampton began acting in school plays in seventh grade and subsequently studied drama in high school. She earned a BA in Theater Arts from Castleton State College and, following graduation, portrayed "Cordelia" in an American Theater of Actors production of "King Lear" in New York.
The young actress then moved to Los Angeles and, in 1983, made her TV debut with a recurring role on the popular daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives (1965). The following year she had a brief, but memorable role in Brian De Palma's Body Double (1984), which was followed by the 1985 comedy Fraternity Vacation (1985). Barbara achieved enduring cult popularity as college coed Megan Halsey in Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985) and, after making a splash in the horror genre, successively starred in From Beyond (1986), Chopping Mall (1986), Puppet Master (1989), and Castle Freak (1995), among others.
Outside of horror, Barbara had recurring roles on daytime television soap operas Guiding Light (1952); The Bold and the Beautiful (1987), and The Young and the Restless (1973), for which won a Soap Opera Digest Award.
Years after retiring from acting to raise a family, Crampton returned to film in 2011 with a role in Adam Wingard's You're Next (2011). She subsequently appeared in number of new films, the majority of which were horror. Highlights of her return include The Lords of Salem (2012), We Are Still Here (2015), and Beyond the Gates (2016).
Crampton's hobbies include skiing, yoga, horseback riding, running, working out with weights, and shopping for antiques at flea markets. She lives outside of San Francisco with her husband, Robert Bleckman, and their two children.- Actress
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Principal is the elder daughter of Ree (née Veal) and Victor Rocco Principal. Her paternal grandparents were Italian, while her mother's family was from Gordon, Georgia, and South Carolina. Her father, a United States Air Force sergeant, was often transferred to different duty stations, so the family constantly moved, and Victoria grew up in London, Florida, Puerto Rico, Massachusetts, and Georgia, among other places. She and her sister attended 17 different schools. Victoria's acting career began when she made a commercial at age five, and she began modeling in high school. She enrolled at Miami-Dade Community College, and wanted to study chiropractic medicine. However, being seriously injured in a car crash at age 18 made her refocus her energy on her love of acting. She moved to New York City, where she worked as a model and actress. She then studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and moved to Los Angeles, California in 1971.
Her first film was as a Mexican mistress in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), starring Paul Newman. Four years later, she became so disappointed with her career that she quit acting and spent the next three years working as an agent. In 1978, she planned on going to law school and later become a studio executive, but Aaron Spelling offered her a year's tuition to accept a role in the pilot of Fantasy Island (1977). She agreed, and soon after that, she landed the role of Pamela Barnes Ewing on CBS' long-running soap opera Dallas (1978). She left the series after nine years, and began her own production company, Victoria Principal Productions. She continues to work as an actress and producer, and has also created a line of skin care products and written three books about beauty and skin-care.- British-born Vanessa Angel began her career at age 14 as a model, when she was discovered by world-renowned agent, Eileen Ford. She gained much life experience by traveling the world, relocating to New York and appearing on many magazine covers, including "Vogue" and "Cosmopolitan". Her transition from modeling to acting came in 1985, when she was chosen by director John Landis to play a Russian spy in Spies Like Us (1985). She honed her craft by studying with Sondra Lee and became a member of The Actor's Studio in New York in 1987, studying with Frank Corsaro. This led to roles in films including King of New York (1990), Sleep with Me (1994) and Kingpin (1996), from The Farrelly Brothers with Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray, Kissing a Fool (1998) with David Schwimmer and Jason Lee. She has been in many films in the past few years including Paramount's The Perfect Score (2004) with Scarlett Johansson and opposite Jon Voight in Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004). In addition to her film work, Angel starred in the hit series, Weird Science (1994), on the USA Network.
The unique range of characters earned her critical recognition for her comedic timing. She has played many roles on television, including the recurring role of police officer "Peggy Elliot" on NBC's Reasonable Doubts (1991) with Mark Harmon and Marlee Matlin, and a recent recurring role on Stargate SG-1 (1997). Most recently, she played herself in HBO's popular show, Entourage (2004), where she played opposite Kevin Dillon, who she had also starred opposite in Out for Blood (2004). She also recently starred in the Lifetime movie, Criminal Intent (2005), and just finished the independent film, Blind Ambition (2008), and the comedy, Endless Bummer (2009). She reconnected with The Farrelly Bros in Hall Pass (2011) and made a memorable guest appearance in Showtime's Californication (2007). She recently completed the films, Lycan (2017) and Trouble Sleeping (2018) Vanessa and her ex-husband, Rick Otto, are co-parents of their daughter India Otto. - Vanessa Branch was born on 21 March 1973 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006).
- Kozlowski is a Juilliard graduate with Broadway play experience, who found movie success in the billabongs of Australia with frequent co-star Paul Hogan. The film romance with her Crocodile Dundee (1986) costar grew into a real-life relationship during the filming of the first two movies. Linda married Paul Hogan in 1990 and they lived in California and have one son, named Chance. In 2001, Linda and Paul returned to their popular on-screen romance roles to complete the Crocodile Dundee trilogy. Linda and Paul divorced in 2014.
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Melora Hardin is an American actress, singer and director from Houston, Texas who is known for playing Jan Levinson from The Office and Trudy Monk from Monk. She also acted in The Rocketeer, 24 Dresses, 17 Again, Hannah Montana: The Movie, Transparent, The Bold Type and The Hot Chick. She had two daughters with Gildart Jackson, a British actor.