A fresh-face, wholesome brunette, Jo Collins was one of the most celebrated Playboy Playmates of the Sixties becoming the pin-up du jour of GIs stationed in Vietnam due to her many visits to that war torn country. Despite her popularity, she was never able to rise above decorative minor roles on the big screen. But with her figure, bikini-clad on the shores of Malibu is where she belonged.
Jo Collins was Playboy’s Miss December 1964 and was selected as Playmate of the Year in 1965 Collins became a favorite pin-up of service men worldwide and to show her support she traveled to Vietnam a number of times to help boost morale resulting in her being nicknamed “G.I. Jo.” She made her film debut in Ski Party (1965) as one of the anonymous beach girls who don ski clothes for a party in the snow. Of course there is an occasion for the gals to doff their bulky sweaters and slacks and slip into their bikinis as Frankie Avalon croons “Lots Lots More” poolside. Collins is featured very prominently in this production number as she dances and gyrates to the catchy pop tune. She also competes with ski bunnies Patti Chandler, Salli Sachse, and Mikki Jamison for pompous ladies man Aron Kincaid’s attention but he only as eyes for Dwayne Hickman dressed in drag as a feisty English lass. Despite her fantastic figure, Jo was pushed to the background in her next beach film How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) though she makes the first comment about bikini girl Beverly Adams, the new competition on the sand, and joins the beach girls singing “Hey, What About Us” to try to get adman Mickey Rooney to select one of them for his new advertising campaign. Later she and the other beach girls reluctantly try to teach Adams how to walk seductively. In the lame service comedy Sergeant Deadhead (1965) the beach gang once again puts on clothes as Collins played one of Deborah Walley’s military friends. Her most outstanding screen appearance was in the satire Lord Love a Duck (1966) directed by George Axelrod. The former Playmate looked fantastic and gave a surprisingly droll performance as a shapely bored starlet seen lounging on a yacht. The star of Cold War Bikini and plaything of producer Martin Gabel, Collins finds him to be “what a drag” when he announces she is too over exposed and will now be playing the older sister to new discovery Tuesday Weld in his upcoming beach movie extravaganza, Bikini Countdown. Jo Collin’s last feature film was Fireball 500 (1966) wherein the beach party gang abandons the shores of Malibu for the drag strip. Collins was part of a gaggle of groupies who coo over handsome racer Fabian rival to Frankie Avalon on and off the track.
After she stopped acting, Collins continued visiting Vietnam while working as a Playboy Bunny in clubs. In 1970 Jo married former baseball player Bo Belinsky. That marriage ended in divorce in 1975 and Collins dropped out of the limelight working at Playboy, Inc. as a Bunny Mother. In the January 2000 issue of Playboy, Collins was named one of the 100 Centerfolds of the Century placing seventeenth. She appeared as herself in the DVD release Playboy: 50 Year of Playmates (2004) and in “Hugh Hefner: Girlfriends, Wives and Centerfolds” on E! True Hollywood Story in 2006.
I’m completely unfamiliar with her. However, LORD LOVE A DUCK is scheduled to air on TCM tomorrow, so I’ll watch for her in that.
Jo (Janet) is a cousin of mine. Related through my grandfather, Ed Canoy, who was my grandmother’s first husband. He died from smallpox, in Lebanon, Oregon when my mother was an infant. Our family was quite religious so this was pretty scandalous and rarely talked about by my grandmother, but my mother kept me aware of family. Ed, was a very attractive young man and I have a beautiful portrait of him. When Jo was in Playboy it was my freshman year in college (a private Christian school), so needless to say that was a big deal to me. I hung the centerfold in my dorm room, but it wasn’t long before I came to the attention of the Boy’s Dean. I was asked to remove it, and no amount of pleading that it was a family photo did any good.
Thanks for sharing. Always wanted to interview her but never could find her. Of the Playmates that worked in the beach party films, she was one of the most liked.
I would love to know what else Jo did in her life and what she is up to now!
I believe she became a photographer and worked for Playboy for a period of time.