fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Jill St. John (born Jill Arlyn Oppenheim; August 19, 1940)[1] is an American former actress. She may be best known for playing Tiffany Case, the first American Bond girl of the 007 franchise, in Diamonds Are Forever. Additional performances in film include Holiday for Lovers, The Lost World, Tender Is the Night, Come Blow Your Horn, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, Who's Minding the Store?, Honeymoon Hotel, The Liquidator, The Oscar, Tony Rome, Sitting Target and The Concrete Jungle.

Jill St. John
St. John c. 1970s
Born	Jill Arlyn Oppenheim (1940-08-19) August 19, 1940 (age 82) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1949–2014
Spouses	Neil Dubin ​ ​ (m. 1957; div. 1958)​ Lance Reventlow ​ ​ (m. 1960; div. 1963)​ Jack Jones ​ ​ (m. 1967; div. 1969)​ Robert Wagner ​ (m. 1990)​
Relatives	Katie Wagner (stepdaughter) Natasha Gregson (de facto stepdaughter)

On television, St. John has appeared in such top rated shows as Batman, The Big Valley, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Hart to Hart, Vega$, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Magnum, P.I. and Seinfeld. During her Hollywood heyday she was almost equally famous for her high-profile social life and frequent romantic associations with prominent public figures. St. John is married to actor Robert Wagner and has known him since she was 18 years old. They share credits on nearly a dozen screen and stage productions, notably the miniseries remake of Around the World in 80 Days.

Early life

St. John was born Jill Arlyn Oppenheim in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Edward Oppenheim, a prosperous restaurant owner,[2] and his wife Betty (née Goldberg),[3] who became her stage mother. She has no siblings.

As a young girl, St. John was a member of the Children's Ballet Company with Natalie Wood and Stefanie Powers. All three would later marry or co-star with actor Robert Wagner. Her mother Betty changed Jill's last name to St. John during her adolescence.[2]

Career

Child actress

St. John began acting on radio at age six. In December 1949, at age nine, she made her screen debut in The Christmas Carol, the first full-length TV movie. Also that year, she joined the cast of Sandy Dreams, a TV show for children featuring Richard Beymer.

At age 11, she appeared in two episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. She had a small role in the film Thunder in the East (1951) and was in episodes of Sky King, Fireside Theatre, and Cavalcade of America.

She attended Powers Professional School and received her high school diploma from Hollywood Professional School in the spring of 1955 at age 14.[2] At age 15, St. John enrolled at UCLA's Extension School.

During this time, she appeared on a large number of radio shows, notably One Man's Family.[4]

Universal

St. John was 16 in May 1957 when Universal Pictures signed her to a contract for seven years starting at $200 a week.[5] Her major studio film debut was in Summer Love (1958) starring John Saxon. She also appeared on TV in episodes of The Christophers, Schlitz Playhouse, and The DuPont Show of the Month (an adaptation of Junior Miss). She said her idol was Kay Kendall.[6]

20th Century Fox

St John then signed a contract with 20th Century Fox who tried to build her into a star. She played the daughter of Clifton Webb in The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959) and Holiday for Lovers (1959), then was put in an adventure movie, The Lost World (1960).

"Nothing but starlet parts," she later said. "You know, the daughter, the niece, the girlfriend."[4]

Fox picked up their option on her. Warner Bros. borrowed her for The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961), then she had a supporting role in Tender Is the Night (1962).[7]

Comedy

St. John had a key role in Come Blow Your Horn (1963), where she starred opposite Frank Sinatra. She received a Golden Globe Award nomination as Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance in the film.

"I'm a comedienne," she said in 1963. "I've never pretended to be a dramatic actress. But I'm very funny."[8]

She followed this with a series of comedies: Who's Minding the Store? (1963) with Jerry Lewis, Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963) with Dean Martin and Honeymoon Hotel (1964) with Robert Morse and Nancy Kwan.

"Now I play the sexy comedienne, which is my forte" she said in 1964. "Comedy is what I've always wanted to do."[4]

She guest-starred on television shows like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Burke's Law, The Rogues, and Theatre of Stars. In 1964, she guest-starred with Lauren Bacall and Bacall's then husband, Jason Robards, Jr., in the episode "Take a Walk Through the Cemetery" of the drama series Mr. Broadway. She also appeared in some variety specials with Bob Hope.

MGM gave her the female lead in a spy spoof The Liquidator (1965) with Rod Taylor, and she was in The Oscar (1966) with Stephen Boyd.

St. John appeared in the first and second episodes of the television series Batman (1966) as the Riddler's moll Molly. She was also in The Big Valley.

Universal

St. John signed a contract at Universal. She was in a TV movie Fame Is the Name of the Game (1966), and had a supporting role in How I Spent My Summer Vacation (1967) with Robert Wagner.[9]

She did the Bob Hope comedy Eight on the Run (1967), then made Banning (1967) with Wagner and The King's Pirate (1967) with Doug McClure.

In 1966, she said her goal "was to be at a point where I have so proved myself as an actress that I can be more discriminating in the roles I choose. I want to be able to choose the parts I know I can do next."[10] St. John nearly landed a starring role in The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), which instead went to Sharon Tate.[11]

She was reunited with Sinatra in Tony Rome (1967) and did a TV movie The Spy Killer (1968), which was popular enough for the sequel Foreign Exchange (1970). She guested on The Name of the Game. Decisions! Decisions! (1971) was a TV movie St. John did with Bob Newhart and Jean Simmons.

James Bond

St. John achieved her biggest success starring as diamond smuggler Tiffany Case, the love interest of James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), opposite Sean Connery. She was the first American to play a Bond girl.[12] The character Tiffany is argumentative, abrasive, loud, and brash when compared to previous Bond girls who were more demure.

In 1972, St. John appeared alongside Oliver Reed in the crime drama Sitting Target.

Television

She did the TV movies Saga of Sonora (1973) and Brenda Starr (1976) (playing the title role), and guest-starred on Vega$, The Love Boat, Magnum, P.I., Fantasy Island, and Matt Houston. She also appeared in the pilot episode for Hart to Hart.

St. John did the TV movies Two Guys from Muck (1982) and Rooster (1982) and was top-billed in the feature The Concrete Jungle (1982), a woman in prison film in which she played Warden Fletcher. She had a small role in The Act (1983).

During 1983–1984, she starred with Dennis Weaver on the short-lived soap opera Emerald Point N.A.S., in which she played Deanna Kinkaid, Thomas Mallory's conniving former sister-in-law. It also starred another James Bond girl Maud Adams.

Later career

St. John and Robert Wagner were in Around the World in 80 Days (1989); Something to Believe In (1998); and The Calling (2002). They made brief cameo appearances as themselves in Robert Altman's Hollywood satire The Player (1992).

In 1996, they started appearing together on stage in a production of Love Letters.[13]

In 1997, the couple appeared together at the end of "The Yada Yada" episode of the television sitcom Seinfeld.

St. John appeared without Wagner in Out There (1995) and The Trip (2002).

In 2014, St. John played Mrs. Claus in the TV movie Northpole alongside Wagner, who played the part of Santa Claus. The film marked her first acting role after a 12-year absence from the screen.

Other activities

In 1972, St. John largely left Hollywood behind and moved to Aspen, Colorado, where she focused on personal interests and cooking.

Her interest in cooking eventually led to her becoming a culinary personality, appearing in monthly cooking segments on ABC-TV's Good Morning America and her writing a column in USA Weekend magazine through the 1980s. This culminated in authoring The Jill St. John Cookbook (1987), a collection of healthy recipes and some anecdotes.[14]

St. John also developed a handmade Angora sweater business, and became interested in orchid growing, skiing, hiking, river rafting, camping, and gardening. In 1987, she said "I'm a mountain gal now. I love the outdoors and I love harvesting and using fresh vegetables and herbs."[14]

St. John is founder of the Aunts Club, a Rancho Mirage-based group of women who contribute at least $1,000 per year to provide financial support for a child.[15][16]

Personal life

St. John has been married four times. Her husbands:

• Neil Dubin (May 12, 1957 – July 3, 1958; divorced) St. John was 16 years old when they eloped to Yuma, Arizona.[lower-alpha 1] Dubin was heir to a linen fortune. St. John complained that he harassed and ridiculed her.[18]
• Lance Reventlow (March 24, 1960 – October 30, 1963; divorced) Reventlow was the son of Barbara Hutton, heir to the F. W. Woolworth fortune. St. John received a settlement of $86,000.[19] Despite their divorce and subsequent remarriages, she refers to Reventlow as "my late husband" in interviews.[20]
• Jack Jones (October 14, 1967 – February 28, 1969; divorced) Jones said demands on his singing career and the involved traveling contributed to the breakup.[2]
• Robert Wagner (May 26, 1990 – present) The couple first met in 1959 when they were contract players at 20th Century Fox, and have been together since Valentine's Day[21] 1982.

Between marriages, St. John dated entertainment, sports, and political personalities including Ben Barnes, Gianni Bulgari, Sammy Cahn, Michael Caine, Oleg Cassini, Barry Coe, Sean Connery, Ahmet Ertegun, Robert Evans, Glenn Ford, David Frost, Jack Haley Jr., Bill Hudson, Henry Kissinger, Sidney Korshak, Sandy Koufax, Peter Lawford, George Lazenby, Jim Lonborg, Trini López, Tom Mankiewicz, George Montgomery, Jack Nicholson, Hugh O'Brian, Ogden Mills Phipps, Roman Polanski, Alejandro Rey, Tom Selleck, Frank Sinatra, U Thant, Robert Vaughn, Giovanni Volpi, Adam West and David L. Wolper.[22] St. John has also had amorous relationships with criminal court judge Jerome M. Becker, ski instructor Ricky Head, Olympic ski champion Brownie Barnes, plastic surgeon Steven Zax, investment broker Lenny Ross, Chicago businessman Delbert W. Coleman and Brazilian entrepreneur Francisco "Baby" Pignatari.[23] She was engaged to Miami real estate developer Robert Blum in 1974, but called off the engagement.[2]

She has three stepdaughters:

• Katie Wagner, born 1964 to Wagner and Marion Marshall
• Natasha Gregson, born 1970 to Richard Gregson and Natalie Wood, but raised in the Wagner/St. John household after Wood died
• Courtney Wagner, born 1974 to Wagner and Wood

In July 2007, Wagner and St. John sold the Brentwood ranchette they had lived on since 1983, for a reported $14 million[24] and relocated to their vacation home in Aspen.[25] They retain a condo in L.A.[26]

Mutual animosity between St. John and her husband's former sister-in-law, actress Lana Wood, dates back to 1971, when Sean Connery was simultaneously involved with both women during the filming of Diamonds Are Forever. The pair's half-century feud has been highlighted by two well-documented public altercations: one in September 1999, when St. John refused to be photographed with Wood at a Bond girl reunion for Vanity Fair magazine,[27] and another in February 2016, when Wood crashed an event honoring St. John in Palm Springs and confronted Wagner over the reopened death case of her sister Natalie,[28] who mysteriously drowned in 1981 while yachting with Wagner off the coast of Santa Catalina Island.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role(s)	Notes
1952	Thunder in the East	English Girl	Uncredited
1957	Summer Love	Erica Landis
1959	The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker	Kate Pennypacker
	Holiday for Lovers	Meg Dean
1960	The Lost World	Jennifer Holmes
1961	The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone	Barbara Bingham
1962	Tender Is the Night	Rosemary Hoyt
1963	Come Blow Your Horn	Peggy John
	Who's Minding the Store?	Barbara Tuttle
	Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?	Toby Tobler
1964	Honeymoon Hotel	Sherry Nugent
1965	The Liquidator	Iris MacIntosh
1966	The Oscar	Laurel Scott
1967	Eight on the Lam	Monica
	Banning	Angela Barr
	The King's Pirate	Mistress Jessica Stephens
	Tony Rome	Ann Archer
1971	Diamonds Are Forever	Tiffany Case
1972	Sitting Target	Pat Lomart
1982	The Concrete Jungle	Warden Fletcher
1983	The Act	Elise
1992	The Player	Jill St. John
1998	Something to Believe In	Dr. Joanne Anderson
2002	The Trip	Mary Oakley
	The Calling	Elegant Lady	Last film role

Television

Year	Title	Role(s)	Notes
1948	Sandy Dreams
1949	The Christmas Carol	Missie Cratchit	TV Movie
1951–1952	The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show	Sherry Kelly / Jill Kelly
1952	Sky King	Gretchen Gluckman
1953	Fireside Theatre
1954	Cavalcade of America
1957	The Christophers
	Schlitz Playhouse	Eloise
	The DuPont Show of the Month	Lois Graves
1963–1965	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Janie Douglas / Faith / Bunky
1964	Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea	Carol	Uncredited
	Mr. Broadway	Herself
	Burke's Law	Pinky Likewise
1965	The Rogues	Jena Tate
1966	Batman	Molly
	The Big Valley	Barbary Red
	Fame Is the Name of the Game	Leona Purdy	TV Movie
1967	How I Spent My Summer Vacation	Nikki Pine	TV Movie
1968–1971	Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
1969	The Spy Killer	Mary Harper	TV Movie
	The Name of the Game	Michelle Howell
1970	Foreign Exchange	Mary Harper	TV Movie
1971	The Red Skelton Hour	Freida
	Decisions! Decisions!	Andrea Winters	TV Movie
1973	Old Faithful	Miss Roberts
	Saga of Sonora	Molly
1976	Brenda Starr	Brenda Starr
1977	Telethon	Fran Sullivan
1979	Hart to Hart	Sylvia Maxwell
1979–1982	The Love Boat	Laura / Sandy Wilson / Claire Dalrymple / Mitzi De Risi
1980	Vega$	Mavis Graham
1981–1982	Fantasy Island	Ellen Layton / Jane Doe / Helen of Troy
1982	Magnum, P.I.	Jan Kona	Episode: "Three Minus Two"
	Two Guys from Muck	Miss Demandt	TV Movie
	Rooster	Joanna Van Eegan
	Matt Houston	Karen Ann Douglas	Episode: "X-22"
1983–1984	Emerald Point N.A.S.	Deanna Kincaid	19 episodes
1986	Dempsey and Makepeace	Mara Giardino	2 episodes
1988	J.J. Starbuck	Rachel Capstone	Episode: "A Song from the Sequel"
1989	Around the World in 80 Days	Woman mistaken for Princess Aouda
1995	Out There	Bunny Wells	TV Movie
1997	Seinfeld	Mrs. Abbott	Episode: "The Yada Yada"
2014	Northpole	Mrs. Claus	TV Movie

Footnotes

References

External links

• Jill St. John at IMDb 
• Jill St. John at the TCM Movie Database
• Jill St. John at AllMovie
• Jill St. John at Yahoo! Movies
• Jill St. John at the British Film Institute

На других языках

---

[de] Jill St. John

Jill St. John (* 19. August 1940 als Jill Arlyn Oppenheim in Los Angeles, Kalifornien) ist eine US-amerikanische Schauspielerin.

---

- [en] Jill St. John

---

[es] Jill St. John

Jill St. John (Los Ángeles, California, 19 de agosto de 1940) es una actriz de cine y televisión estadounidense.

---

[ru] Сент-Джон, Джилл

Джилл Арли́н Сент-Джон (англ. Jill Arlyn St. John), урождённая — Оппенха́йм (англ. Oppenheim; род. 19 августа 1940, Лос-Анджелес, Калифорния, США) — американская актриса и певица. Наиболее известна по роли Тиффани Кейс в фильме бондианы «Бриллианты навсегда» (1971).

---

---