Tom Lisanti

Pity Jane Wald. The beautiful buxom brunette was saddled with a curvaceous figure measuring 38-22-35 that most women would kill for. But, as with most sexy actresses, she wanted to stand out due to her acting talent rather than her bra size. During the early to mid-sixties, Wald graced a number of glossy sex comedies that gave her little to do but glide across the big screen wearing nothing but a bikini, a towel, or harem wear.

Jane Wald was born Jane Wolberg in Mount Vernon, New York. Her father was an international businessman and her mother an artist. As a young adult, she attended at few semesters at NYU before enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She began learning her acting craft while doing summer stock and supported herself by working as a model appearing on billboards and in newspaper ads for Parliament cigarettes and Rheingold beer. Noticing her print ads, Playboy came a-calling three times but the modest Wald declined the offers to be a Playmate. Her first foray to Hollywood ended when the studio dropped her option and a dejected Wald flew to Europe to be with her parents.

Refusing to give up, Wald decided to give acting one more try and returned to Hollywood in 1959. To gain notoriety, she went the typical starlet route posing for lots of cheesecake photos, attending many openings, and entering promotional beauty contests. Wald was voted queen of the 1960 National Truck, Trailer and Equipment Show. She also gained a lot of publicity in 1962 when she accompanied Johnny Grant on a tour of Hawaiian military bases. She joined a troupe that included Ruta Lee, Ann B. Davis, and Cynthia Pepper.

Jane Wald began finding acting work due to her next door neighbor Barbara Steele. Invited by the actress to lunch at the 20^th Century-Fox commissary, Wald was spotted by actor Paul von Schreiber who was putting together a small independent avant-garde drama called Weekend Pass (1962). She played a dance hall girl opposite von Schreiber’s naïve sailor on leave. After spending time with him, the sailor is shocked when she asks to be paid for her services. Jane Wald recalls, “This was a non-union production and it was filmed in downtown Los Angeles. We walked around the streets at night shooting it and a lot of the homeless people became part of the crew helping out carrying lights and things. I believe it was an entry at some film festivals [Coronado International Film Festival, for one] but it never was released nationally.”

The film, clocking in at less than an hour, played the Los Feliz Theater in Los Angeles for one week in late December 1961 to be eligible for Academy Award nominations. Alas, none were earned. The featurette did pop up in LA again in September. Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times called it, “less savage then The Savage Eye and praiseworthy as straight-forward cinematic storytelling.”

When it rains, it pours as the old adage go and soon Jane Wald would not lack for work. Television kept the pretty brunette busy and she turned up in episodes of Surfside 6; The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis; Shannon; and The Tab Hunter Show as a gold digger after millionaire Richard Erdman’s money. Wald’s movie career officially started with a splash literally as she is seen soaking in a bath tub in The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962). She covered up, albeit with a towel, for her role as one of lecherous landlord Hogan’s (Jack Lemmon) va-va-voom tenants who likes to shower with her basement bathroom window open in the hit comedy Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963). She apologizes for not paying her rent for the last two months, but the voyeuristic playboy doesn’t mind a bit and presents her with a flower he just picked. Hogan is preoccupied with virginal coed Robin (Carol Lynley) who has just moved in with her boyfriend (Dean Jones) in an experiment to live platonically to see if they are marriage compatible. Despite her small role, Jane Wald’s image was used to promote the movie in many print promotions throughout the world.

“This was such a fun picture to work on,” exclaims Wald. “Jack Lemmon, Carol Lynley, Paul Lynde and the whole cast was just so nice. After Yum Yum Tree was released my dad who was on business in Japan called me. He was in a taxi and looked out the window and saw this huge block-long billboard of Jack Lemmon handing me a flower through my open bathroom window.”

Jane Wald continue getting small parts opposite some of Hollywood’s most popular leading men. In the comedy Take Her, She’s Mine (1963) she was one of coed Sandra Dee’s Parisian roommates. When her daddy (James Stewart) comes looking for his wayward daughter, Wald emerges from the bathroom brandishing her tooth brush. In the Shirley MacLaine What a Way To Go! (1964) she gives an energetic performance as artist Paul Newman’s kooky French beatnik friend who creates her artwork by shooting paint balloons onto her canvas.

“Sandra Dee, Paul Newman, Shirley MacLaine were all sweet to me,” says Wald. “Actually I never had any problems with the stars I worked with.”

Despite showing promise in her latter role, Jane Wald was still restricted to the decorative role due to her beauty and curvaceous figure. Her first bikini role was playing a bit in the sex farce Honeymoon Hotel (1964) starring Robert Morse and Robert Goulet. Next came the abysmal comedy John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1964) starring Richard Crenna as a former football player coerced to coach the sheik’s football team and Shirley MacLaine as a reporter. Jane was indistinguishable from many of the other scantily-clad starlets (including Barbara Bouchet, Teri Garr, Shelby Grant, and Irene Tsu) who were part of sheik Peter Ustinov’s harem.

Wald was frustrated with being cast due to her looks more so than her talent. She reflected, “I knew I had a nice body, but it was something I sort of took for granted. In Hollywood, it got a lot of attention—it made me self-conscious. I wanted to be known as a serious actress. I should have just gone with the flow but we always want something we don’t have. It was kind of silly of me that I didn’t since I obviously had a great body. I didn’t take advantage of it like the girls do today especially that in those days there was no nudity to worry about.”

Next came Jane Wald’s most memorable role. Dear Brigitte (1965) starred James Stewart Robert Leaf, an absent-minded professor of poetry and lover of all creative arts, who lives on a retired steamboat called the River Belle with his wife Vina (Glynis Johns);money-hungry teenage daughter Pandora (Cindy Carol); and eight-year-old tone-deaf, color-blind son Erasmus (Billy Mumy) who turns out to be a mathematical prodigy to the chagrin of his father. Pandora and her boyfriend Kenny (Fabian) get the idea to make money off Erasmus’ ability and use it to handicap the horse races. They begin winning big, but are eventually busted by the outraged parents. The professor learns that his son has been writing love letters to French movie star Brigitte Bardot and when she finally writes back and invites the boy to meet her. Erasmus begs to go. How can a father say no to Bardot and off they go.

The movie opens with Ed Wynn as the Captain describing all the creative types who live in his waterfront community. He then waves to artist George (Charles Robinson) who is painting his topless wife Terry (Jane Wald) whose back is to the camera. They live on the boat next door to the Leaf family and happily greet the Captain. Terry’s skimpy attire, or lack thereof, is the film’s running gag as the professor is always telling her to put on some clothes. About an hour into the film Wald’s Terry is finally clad, albeit in short shorts and halter top, and has more lines as she and George alert Prof. Leaf that his students are leading a protest outside to persuade him to return to campus. He quit when the dean accused him of knowing that Erasmus was betting the ponies. Later she runs out in a very skimpy green and white checked bikini and joins the Leaf family and the Captain who is launching his new model sail boat. The vessel disappeared into the sea and alas Jane did too from the movie.

“I adored working with Jimmy Stewart on Dear Brigitte,” exclaims Jane. “I used to go over his lines with him. He was very nice and he said to me that I had great comedic timing. We filmed this on location in Sausalito. I asked Ed Wynn to visit this museum one day.  He said, ‘I’m afraid they may keep me there’ so he wouldn’t go with me.” This story was told to the press back in 1965 with Wynn adding, “And I don’t know whether that’s humorous or witty. Just cautious.”

On television Wald turned up on Batman as a curvaceous bad girl who helps Cesare Romero as the Joker fake the kidnapping of a visiting Maharajah in “The Joker Trumps an Ace” and “Batman Sets the Pace.” The Dick Van Dyke Show offered her the female lead in “Stacey Petrie, Part 2” playing Julie Kincaid a love interest for Jerry Van Dyke as Dick’s bungling brother Stacey who wrote letters to her from the army on behalf of his buddy a drummer named James Garner. When the GI lost interest, Stacey did not and kept corresponding using his buddy’s name. Now in town to open up a coffeehouse, he finally gets up the courage to meet her. Stacey comes to Julie’s upper Eastside abode, complete with a butler, where an elegantly dressed Julie greets him. So excited to hear about the man she loves, Stacey hands her one last letter where he reveals the truth. Thinking she would be happy, Julie instead is furious and slaps Stacey twice and hits him over the head with a pillow before storming off. A dejected Stacey heads to his club where Rob and Laura are decorating for the opening and he wallows in self pity. Arriving home, Rob answers the phone and it is Julie looking for Stacy. In a funny bit, she talks to Rob who relays what she is saying to Laura and it goes back and forth. Julie wants Rob to tell Stacy that she is sorry. Julie arrives at the opening and seeing her Stacey gets tongue-tied again as each tries to apologize and they amusingly keep cutting each other off. Wald is quite charming in this role and does well playing off the frenetic Jerry Van Dyke whose shtick can be grating.

In 1966 Jane Wald was still getting press and columnists speculated that her meetings with producer Arthur Jacobs was because she was being considered for the role of Nova in Planet of the Apes. That part went to Linda Harrison. She says, “I stopped acting around 1966 after I remarried and was expecting my first child. Because I resembled Natalie Wood, I was offered a part as her sister but had to turn it down. However, I did appear in a Buick commercial showing how a pregnant woman could fit behind the steering wheel.” Hubby #2 who was not in show business. They went on to have three children before divorcing in 1974.

Jane Wald’s last two sixties movies, the cult thriller Seconds starring Rock Hudson and the biker flick Hell’s Bloody Devils, only featured her in very minor roles and were a complete waste of her talent. It is surprising since she had graduated to bigger roles on TV and proved she had comedic ability that she would wind up the decade so insignificantly.

Wald made intermittent attempts to revive her acting career. In the mid-seventies she turned up in the episode “Flight to Danger” on Barnaby Jones and in 1993 she co-starred with Deanna Lund and Liz Torres as college chums who look back on their university days while vacationing at a ski resort in Girl Talk, a sort of precursor to Sex in the City.

Asked if she had any regrets giving up her career, Jane Wald firmly states, “I would rather have my children and the life I have now then a woman who doesn’t have children. That’s what is important in life—it’s not having a career. If you have a career and come home to an empty home at night—what’s the point?”

Pretty, blonde Melody Patterson (profiled in my book Drive-in Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-Movie Starlets of the Sixties) will forever be remembered as shapely cowgirl Wrangler Jane on the cult TV comedy series F Troop.  Patterson was fresh-faced, feisty and a bit reminiscent to real-life western heroine Calamity Jane.  I loved this show and her on it. Most of the online tributes and obits deservedly concentrate on her success here and her short-lived marriage to actor James MacArthur. However, I love 60s biker movies and going to profile her 2 appearances in the genre, which many fans may be unaware of.

Proving she could play strong-willed women convincingly, the biker film genre took advantage as Melody was cast as a Hollywood starlet in The Angry Breed (1968) and a former motorcycle gang member trying to go straight in The Cycle Savages (1969).

Melody was cast as movie starlet named April whose boyfriend was  the leader of a motorcycle gang in the exploitation film, The Angry Breed (1968). “During the late sixties, Hollywood seemed to be always trying to portray itself as being populated by dope-crazed, LSD-taking, weirdoes,” remarks Patterson.  “I think that is what this movie was supposed to be about.  But I am not really sure.  It is the worst movie ever made.”  The Angry Breed tried to merge the world of violent bikers with the hip pill-popping Hollywood set but it was not a success.  The reviewer in Variety noted that the film “[had] the look of a mismatch between an out and out sexploitation item and the type of actioner that has proven such a formula for American International.”

Though billed fifth, The Angry Breed starred Murray McLeod as Johnny Taylor, an actor and Vietnam vet, who has just returned to Hollywood with a script from a writer whose life in saved in battle. (“Good God, Murray wore his pants practically up to his armpits and was supposed to be the big hero,” jokes Melody laughing.)  Johnny’s attempts to sell the script are unsuccessful.  Broke, he begins living on the beach in Malibu where he comes to the rescue of Diane Patton (Lori Martin) who is being harassed by a Nazi-clad biker gang headed by Deek Stacey (James MacArthur).  Patton’s father Vance (William Windom), a film producer, is so grateful to Johnny he agrees to finance the film.  He hooks Johnny up with greedy homosexual agent Mori Thompson (Jan Murray) whose favorite client is none other than biker Deek who wants to star in the film.  Mori convinces Vance to throw a costume party to celebrate the film’s start but he and Deek plot to do away with Johnny.  At the party, which turns into a freak-out complete with LSD, Johnny’s leading lady April Wilde (Melody Patterson) pursues him but he wants Diane.  A crazed Deek in disguise tries to kill Johnny but he escapes thanks to a diversion caused by Patton’s mute maid.  The next day on the set Johnny recognizes Deek and has him thrown off the lot.  That night Johnny learns that Vance has pulled his financing since he is unhappy about the budding romance between Johnny and Diane.  Furious with her husband, his neglected wife (Jan Sterling) sabotages the cable car that takes Vance down to the beach for his nightly swim.  Deek shows up bent on revenge and during the struggle with Johnny ends up in the cable car along with Vance.  The car crashes killing Deek while an injured Vance realizes the error of his ways.

Recalling the shoot for The Angry Breed, Melody says, “This fellow’s [David Commons] only credit was a ketchup commercial and he thought he could direct a feature.  How he got all of us—it was a good cast—in this movie to begin with I’ll never know. I haven’t the foggiest idea what my character was supposed to be doing and why.  I ran around for a week sporting a mustache.  It was difficult wearing it trying to flirt with Jimmy MacArthur, who was dressed in a Nazi uniform.” Mustache or not, Patterson was a knockout and got MacArthur’s attention—so much so that they were wed two years later.

The following year Melody Patterson had a more defined role and gave a convincing performance as Lea a troubled young woman trying to go straight while keeping her distance from her former biker gang in the violent film, The Cycle Savages (1969) directed by Bill Brame.  Interestingly, the movie was produced by Top 40 deejay Casey Kasem and record executive Mike Curb, who later became the lieutenant governor of California.  As the trade ads proclaimed, “Hot steel between their legs…The wildest bunch on wheels!”  The film also featured a great exploitation cast including Bruce Dern, Chris Robinson, Scott Brady, Gary Littlejohn and Maray Ayres. Though panning the film, Variety’s critic commented that “the whole cast really tries.”  Melody remarks, “Bruce Dern was wonderful and an absolutely an exciting actor.  Chris Robinson and I had the same manager so we knew each other pretty well.  I loved the director because he was an editor and knew what he was doing.”

https://youtu.be/0YSkQTSiaQQ

An artist named Romko (Chris Robinson) gets on the bad side of crazed gang leader Keeg (an intense Bruce Dern) for sketching him and his outlaw bikers as they terrorized the patrons of a hamburger drive-in.  Keeg is determined to retrieve Romko’s sketches because they could incriminate him and his renegade roughnecks in a white slavery operation they run.  They slash Romko’s midsection and his neighbor Lea nurses him after Keeg threatens her to keep Romko away from his apartment.  To stall Romko, Lea allows the artist to draw her nude while the gang ransacks his pad looking for his drawings. Lea falls for Romko and they make love but when the police come to investigate his attack they reveal that Lea was a decoy for the gang and was pressured to distract him.  Meanwhile, Keeg and his gang have coerced a high school girl over to their lair where they give her LSD and gang rape her.  After being rejected by Lea, the bikers capture Romko and torture him by squeezing his hand in a vise.  A pistol-packing Lea arrives to save him but she lacks the courage to shoot anyone.  As the police close in, the gun is grabbed by biker chick Sandy (Maray Ayres), who chases a fleeing Keeg and shoots him dead.

“I had a better experience working on The Cycle Savages than The Angry Breed though I can’t say it was a better movie,” comments Patterson.  “I was in the midst of my Method acting period and it seemed like everybody was taking long pauses before saying their lines.  I didn’t like doing nudity but I agreed to do a back shot and a love scene.  That is when I found out that I had a curvature of the spine.  My mother was on the set to make sure everything was on the up and up. It was done with the utmost care and on a closed set.  What I found amusing the most was that the sketch of me drawn by Chris’ character was a lot bustier than I was.”

RIP Melody Patterson. You will be missed.

For more on Melody Patterson, link below to purchase my book Drive-in Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-Movie Starlets of the Sixties:

Lovely Yvonne Craig’s passing has truly saddened me. She was one of my childhood favorites along with Miss Julie Newmar, Tina Louise, Deanna Lund from Land of the Giants, and Bridget Hanley from Here Come the Brides. Yvonne had the looks and knockout figure for sure, but she also had acting talent as evidenced by the varied roles she played. She was the ultimate 60s chick appearing in Elvis musicals, beach parties, spy flicks, melodramas, westerns, the original Gidget, and guest starring on all the popular TV shows of the decade. She was tops as Batgirl and would bring a smile to my face Friday nights when she frequently popped up on Love, American Style. Below is my tribute to her cribbed from my book Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood:

Yvonne Joyce Craig was born on May 16, 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois.  When her family relocated to Dallas, Craig began ballet training with Edith James.  A superlative dancer, Yvonne wowed guest teacher Alexandra Danilova who chose her to be her protégé.  It was through Danilova that Craig won a scholarship to the School of American Ballet in New York, which led her to become the youngest member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo where she progressed to soloist.  While on tour in Hollywood, she passed on film offers but when she returned in 1957 (after abandoning a career in ballet possibly because she was a bit too voluptuous to be a dancer) she accepted the female lead in the handsomely produced western The Young Land (1959) starring Patrick Wayne as a lawman torn between the Anglos and Mexicans in the newly formed state of California.  Craig with cleavage amply on display played his Senorita girlfriend.  When filming was delayed, she accepted a supporting role in the teenage exploitation film Eighteen and Anxious (1958).  More movie roles followed—the disapproving high school friend of Sandra Dee’s surfing sweetie in Gidget (1959) and a pony-tailed teenage vixen who puts the moves on shy drummer Sal Mineo in The Gene Krupa Story (1959).  Craig also began appearing on the small screen with small guest roles on Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Perry Mason, Bronco, Philip Marlowe, and a few appearances on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

In 1960, television viewers were treated to Yvonne Craig playing the sweet ingénue on episodes of The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Channing, The Dick Powell Show, Dr. Kildare, Follow the Sun, Hennessy, and many others.   On the big screen she played a brainy college coed in the Bing Crosby comedy High Time (1960) where she met her first husband Jimmy Boyd (they divorced two years later) and a young nurse held captive by the Japanese in the WWII adventure Seven Women from Hell (1961).  Craig then shocked her fans when cast as the town tramp who vamped rich playboy George Hamilton in By Love Possessed (1961).  Sitting in his car, the amorous Craig seductively purrs, “If, ah, I get drunk and pass out…it’s no fun for me.  If you get drunk and pass out…it’s no fun for me.”  After their roll in the hay he gives her the brush off.  Furious, the gold digging tart then accuses him of rape.

Craig’s big screen persona softened during the mid-Sixties after signing a contract with MGM and co-starring twice with Elvis Presley.  In It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963) she was a small town girl clad in a tight form-fitting dress caught making out on the family sofa with playboy pilot Elvis by her gun-toting father who runs the poor boy out of his house and in Kissin’ Cousins (1964) she vied with her hillbilly sister Pamela Austin for the charms of distant cousin GI Presley.  In a surprising twist, brunette Craig’s charm lands the King while blonde Austin has to settle for another.

Craig was next wasted in a small part as a saloon girl in the comedy western Advance to the Rear (1964) starring Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens, and then played the spoiled fiancée of meek news reporter Robert Morse who almost loses him to half-Maori girl Anjanette Comer while on assignment in Antarctica in the lightweight romantic comedy, Quick, Before It Melts (1964).  In Ski Party (1965) a beach party in the snow starring Frankie Avalon and Deborah Wally, Yvonne played the love interest of Dwayne Hickman.  When she and Walley go gaga over ladies man Aron Kincaid, the guys dress in drag and pretend to be British lasses determined to discover what women look for in a man.  Craig gives a perky performance and looks simply fetching in her ski outfits but unfortunately she is no where to be found when the bikini girls gyrate poolside to a warbling Avalon. Though a professional ballet dancer, Yvonne could not muster sixties pop go-go dancing.

https://youtu.be/HZo954DwLhA

At this time Yvonne started landing bigger and even more memorable roles especially in the spy genre on TV beginning with an appearance on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in “The Brain Killer Affair” as the young innocent who joins Robert Vaughn’s Napoleon Solo as he searches for U.N.C.L.E. chief Mr. Waverly who is being held prisoner by THRUSH agent Elsa Lanchester the creator of a mind-altering machine whose rays render the captive ineffectual.  On The Wild Wild West Craig gave a passionate performance as the amusingly named Ectascy La Joie, a seductive assassin whose every attempt to kill a Middle-Eastern despot is foiled by Robert Conrad’s agent James West in “The Night of the Grand Emir.” For marquee name value only Craig appeared in added scenes in two theatrically released Man from U.N.C.L.E. features.  In One Spy Too Many (1966) she played Leo G. Carroll’s niece who is attracted to Robert Vaughn’s virile agent.  But the role was just created for gratuitous titillation as Craig is seen lying topless on her stomach in a bikini tanning under a sun lamp while working in the communication room at UNCLE headquarters.  One of Our Spies Is Missing (1966) featured Craig as agent “Wanda” who unfortunately keeps her uniform on but has no interaction with any of the other actors in her brief scenes in the control room.

She next played a sexy mini-skirted scientist who recites a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo in the sci-fi cheapie Mars Needs Women (1966) opposite Tommy Kirk as a Martian sent to abduct nubile lasses to bring back to the Red Planet where their female population has plummeted.  However despite the film’s tag line “They were looking for chicks…to go all the way!” it is not as fun as it sounds.  After putting her ballet skills to good use in the more high profile role of a Russian ballerina/enemy agent in In Like Flint (1967) opposite James Coburn as suave Derek Flint (though she does her own dancing Craig was disappointed that they shot her scenes from what looks like the balcony), Yvonne landed the role that will make her live on in infamy—Batgirl on TV’s Batman.  With the ratings falling during the second season, the producers wanted to inject the series with a female crime fighter.  The network was skeptical but after watching Craig who measuring 37-23-35 was a knockout in her skintight purple cat suit during a short promo film Batman was renewed for a third season in 1967.  Her meek librarian Barbara Gordon by day morphed into crime fighter Batgirl by night aiding the Dynamic Duo in keeping Gotham City safe from a rogue’s list of felonious felons. Her best episode was perhaps the first one that introduced her to the series as Barbara Gordon is kidnapped by Burgess Meredith’s Penguin who aims to marry her making him the son-in-law of the city’s police commissioner.  Though Craig brought more excitement to the show it did not translate into bigger ratings so the series was cancelled in 1968.

Yvonne finished up the decade playing various roles on such series as The Mod Squad as a singer with meningitis on the lam from the mob in “Find Tara Chapman!,” Star Trek as a demented green-skinned alien denizen of a space asylum in “Whom Gods Destroy,” and Land of the Giants as a time-traveling researcher in “Wild Journey.” Yvonne also turned up four times on Love, American Style. She was perfect for this late ’60s/early ’70s lightweight satire on love between the sexes.

Yvonne returned to the big screen wearing a auburn wig in the comedy How to Frame a Fig (1971) playing a duplicitous secretary aiding crooked politicians to set up bookkeeper Don Knotts to take the fall for their looting of the town’s coffers.  She is quite seductive in her fur coats and mini-dresses as she tries to romance Knotts to keep him distracted from catching on to the politicians’ scam but she disappears from the movie far too soon.  The rest of her credits include small dramatic roles in the made-for TV movie Jarrett (1973) and on O’Hara, U.S. Treasury, Mannix, The Magician, Kojak, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Starsky and Hutch.  Tired of being typed in sexy roles, Craig instructed her agents not to accept them anymore.  Hence, her career came to a screeching halt as she wasn’t able to progress to mother-type roles.  Needing to support herself, she obtained a real estate license while accepting an occasional acting role such as in “Remember…When?” on Fantasy Island in 1983.  Yvonne received a resurgence of popularity when then the remake of Batman was released in 1989, which led to many talk show appearances and a small role in the direct-to-video comedy Diggin’ Up Business (1990).  At this time, she began doing autograph conventions where she was a fan favorite.  Her popularity inspired her to write her memoirs entitled From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond, which was released in 2000 by Kudu Press.  After appearing as herself reminiscing about her dancing days in the documentary Ballet Russes (2005), she announced her retirement from making personal appearances in 2006 to spend more time with her husband Kenneth Aldrich whom she wed in 1988. Sadly, she passed away on August 17, 2015.

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On August 14^th the highly anticipated feature film The Man from U.N.C.L.E. starring Henry Cavill as Napoleon Solo and Armie Hammer as Illya Kuryakin will be released. I am excited to see it since they are keeping the movie set in the 1960s and making it an origin story as how the two agents came to be paired up. Of course, the wildly popular TV series starred Robert Vaughn as Solo and David McCallum as Kuryakin. Every U.N.C.L.E. episode had lovely ladies in it and the film is no exception co-starring Elisabeth Debicki and Alicia Vikander.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E., (originally conceived by James Bond creator Ian Fleming as Solo), became one of the biggest hits on television during the 1964-65 season. Solo was teamed with sexy Russian Illya Kuryakin, both who took orders from their no-nonsense bureau chief Mr. Waverly (Leo G. Carroll).

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a true delight for young viewers, especially men as a number of sexy starlets including Senta Berger, Yvonne Craig, Carol Lynley, Danielle de Metz, Irene Tsu, Barbara Luna, France Nuyen, Luciana Paluzzi, Diane McBain, Anna Capri and others could be seen on the program.  The show was so popular that a number of two part episodes were re-edited, padded with new footage or outtakes and rushed into theatres.  During the show’s first two years on the air, fans could see their favorite U.N.C.L.E. stars on the big screen in To Trap a Spy (1965), The Spy with My Face (1965), One Spy Too Many (1966) and One of Our Spies Is Missing (1966).  Unfortunately, as the series began to become more of a spoof than a dramatic show by season three, the quality of the program suffered though it vastly improved in Season four but not enough to defeat the weak ratings (NBC kept jerking fans around by moving the series time slot) killing the show in mid-season.

Over the years I have interviewed many an actress who worked on the series and below are some of the more notable:

Sharyn Hillyer recurring role as U.N.C.L.E. agent Wanda during 3rd season 1966-67

“There was always this flirtation between Wanda and Solo. I was usually in a huff because he would go off and get involved with other women. I was left back at headquarters so there were always scenes of me steaming. I remember one episode [“The My Friend the Gorilla Affair” (12/16/66)] where Vaughn’s character was going to Africa and I got to give him his inoculations before he went. And so Wanda kind of got even with him for always running off and flirting with women all over the world. She got to give him a number of shots with a big needle.

Robert Vaughn was nice and friendly enough but he kept to himself. He was professional but he wasn’t much fun. He wouldn’t hang out where as David McCallum would. David was playful and would have lunch with me. I don’t remember a lot about Leo G. Carroll. He didn’t hang around much between scenes. He was very nice and always courteous to me. He was also very generous as far as time and working with someone but he was sometimes a bit forgetful.”

Sue Ane Langdon  in “The Shark Affair” aired October 13, 1964

“I had met Robert Vaughn previously before doing this. He has the same atmosphere about himself as Napoleon Solo in the show—a very tongue-in-cheek polish and too, too suave! Bob Culp played the villain and didn’t hang around the set that much. He was not unfriendly but we didn’t have much opportunity to talk to each other. I also think he immersed himself in his character on and off screen. I saw him years later and he was much looser with a great sense of humor. That didn’t come out when we worked together.”

Joan O’Brien in “The Green Opal Affair” aired October 27, 1964

“I played a housewife who was abducted off the streets of Bedesda, Maryland—I have an amazing memory, don’t I? This was fun to do because we had a scene where we had to run through the jungle barefoot chased by a live cheetah. I had to wear mold skin on my feet to help me from tearing up the skin.  It was a very far out episode.  Again it was fun, but not anything I’m extremely proud of.

Robert Vaughn and I went together for a couple of years prior to this. We had an on-again off-again relationship. He was fine to work with. David McCallum was a typical British actor. I really didn’t care for Carroll O’Connor who played the villain all that much. He was rather smug and not particularly warm. He was all business, but he did give me some interesting tips on acting. He told me I was moving my head around too much in the tight shots. I had never thought about that. He said, ‘If you really want people to listen to what you are saying and observe you closely don’t move your head. It’s distracting.’  I realized he was right and took his advice.”

Irene Tsu in “The Hong Kong Schilling Affair” aired March 15, 1965

“I remember working with David McCallum and he was a very precise actor. In one scene we were playing Chinese checkers. He didn’t want me to come in and say my line until he did a certain move. The first couple of times I goofed it up.  He said sternly, ‘Don’t say anything until I make my move!’ I finally got it right.”

Danica d’Hondt in “The Girls of Nazarone Affair” aired April 12, 1965

“David McCallum was a nice guy and very professional to work. I wasn’t so impressed with Robert Vaughn who acted ‘the star.’  Sharon Tate was so sweet and we socialized a bit after this shoot. When I heard about her murder it was extremely disturbing to me. She was such a lovely girl.

I had to learn how to drive a finely tuned sports car called a Cobra. They had one that was the show’s car and another that was this guy’s prize possession that they were going to use for the speed scenes. Well, the TV car’s back axel locked so we could only use the really fancy one. The guy who owned it did not want me driving it. The stuntman had parked the car with the wheels turned and I didn’t notice that. They gave me strict instructions not to baby the car but to put my foot on the gas and go. I got in the car with this actor [Ben Wright], I said my lines, I put my foot on the gas and since the wheels were turned I was headed for about fifty crew members. I swung the car around and careened down the road. I think it was being in character that saved me otherwise I would have been too scared to do that. They got it all on film and everyone was thrilled to death except the poor guy in the car with me who I think had to go and change his underwear.

Danica is pictured holding pistol; Sharon Tate in center; and Kathy Kersh on right.

Kathy Kersh in “The Girls of Nazarone Affair” aired April 12, 1965

“I respected Robert Vaughn very much as an actor but he was rather pompous and a bit full of himself. At one point [during a fight scene], Sharon [Tate] was supposed to hold his arms back and I was supposed to hit him in the stomach. In the rehearsal, I didn’t hit him very hard. I didn’t have a lot of experience doing this so he stopped the scene and said, ‘Now look, you can hit me as hard as you want. Hit me as hard as you can.’ He was holding in his stomach tight. So I hit him and he said, ‘See, you can’t hurt me.’ He was a little annoying the way he carried on and on.

Before we actually went before the cameras, I said to Sharon, ‘When you grab his arms from behind rather than just grabbing him—I want you to grab his arms and snap him back. And then quickly stick your knee right in the small of his back. I’ll hit him in the stomach.’ Sharon was very athletic and she thought that it was a great idea. And that’s what we did. Sharon snapped him back, which he totally did not expect and I punched him good in the tummy. He doubled over. We really didn’t hurt him—that wasn’t the point—but it was his pride that was injured. I remember some of the cast and crew turning away so as not to laugh in front of him.  After he got up he said something like ‘Maybe you shouldn’t do it like that.’ Sharon and I had a good laugh.”

Celeste Yarnall in “The Monks of St. Thomas Affair” aired October 14, 1966

“There is a great story of how I won this role.  They were only auditioning French actresses like Claudine Longet for this part. I just signed with a new agent and told him I did dialects. He sent me to MGM to interview for this. When I walked in I said in a French accent, “Bon jour. My name is Celeste Yarnall and I’m from Paris.’ The producer [Boris Ingster] who was foreign, started speaking to me in French. I know only a little bit of French so I said using a French accent, ‘No, no, no.  I am in this country to practice my English. Don’t speak French to me. I will read the script in English and you tell me how I do.’ One of the words in the script was the Beatles. When I got to it, I pronounced it ‘the Be-a-tles.’ They fell on the floor laughing and I got the part almost on the spot. After we started shooting, I said to Boris Ingster, using my normal American accent, ‘You know I’m really not French.’ His jaw dropped and he said that I had totally convinced them that I was from France.

Overall, doing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was an excellent experience for me. Robert Vaughn was wonderful to work with. He is a very elegant and intelligent man. I must have done a good job because it lead to many more acting offers for me.

Diane McBain in “The Five Daughters Affair” aired January 11 & 18, 1967

“[Fellow guest star] Telly Savalas was such a sexy man, very virile, as was David McCullum. Telly was the kind of man who could go up to any woman, sweep her into his arms and take her right there, no matter where. Not that he did that to me—I only imagined it.  But, I’d bet a bundle he could. David McCullum wouldn’t have had any trouble doing the same thing, either. It may not be true, but I imagined these men had endless women crawling in and out of their dressing rooms, at all hours.  When you work with actors in that milieu, especially on a set with limited contact, it is difficult to get to know them all that well. Telly seemed to keep to himself unless it had something to do with business. Then, he was always available. But, he was, on every relevant occasion, very pleasant to be around and to work with.”

Thordis Brandt in “The Prince of Darkness Affair Part II” aired October 9, 1967

“Robert Vaughn and David McCallum kept to themselves. Neither one socialized with me on the set.”

She had more fun working on the sister series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. “Stefanie Powers and Noel Harrison were wonderful. Noel was such a sweet man. This show was a lot of fun to work on. The producers told me that they could use me in the background a lot if I could change the way I look.  I was a real chameleon so I was able to pull it off.”

Marlyn Mason in “The Deadly Quest Affair” aired October 30, 1967

“We [Robert Vaughn and her] had to do a kissing scene In those days when people kissed on television and in movies it was all very tame stuff. There was no slurping and nobody was eating anybody’s face like you see nowadays. So we do this scene and Vaughn just jams his tongue down my throat. Of course the actress in me just kept on acting but I was not responsive. I was trying to keep my mouth shut. I was so stunned and I decided that I was just not going to say anything. We did this in one take but I thought, ‘There is no way that they are going to see this in the dailies and pass it.  We’re going to have to do this again.’ Sure enough, the next day the director came and told us we had to do the scene over again. I was watching out of the corner of my eye as the director took Robert Vaughn aside and told him, ‘You can’t kiss her like that.’ We did it a second time and he made a half-ass attempt to do it again. But my mouth was tightly shut!”

Photo is from her Marlyn’s prior appearance in “The Fiddlesticks Affair.”

BarBara Luna in “The Man from Thrush Affair” aired December 4, 1967

“When I saw this episode recently it looked like I was walking through it. I was very boring in it. I thought Robert Vaughn was very good though. As for acting with him, he is not unpleasant to work with, just aloof. When I see him at conventions, he still is very aloof, but I like him anyway.”

To read more about the U.N.C.L.E. gals and other spy chicks, check out our book (co-written with Louis Paul) Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1963-1973 and some of my others:

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