Barbara Hancock

Barbara Hancock (born November 21, 1949 in Atlanta , Georgia ) is an American actress and dancer .

Life

Hancock trained as a ballet dancer and performed as a soloist with Harkness Ballet , a New York ballet company funded by the widow of Standard Oil co-founder Stephen V. Harkness . In 1966 she appeared as a dancer in a Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun . As a result, she received a studio contract with Warner Bros.

In her first feature film , the musical The Golden Rainbow by director Francis Ford Coppola with the young George Lucas as his assistant director, she played the mute Susan, who can only communicate through expressive dance. The film, which stars Fred Astaire and Petula Clark , received two Academy Award nominations ; Hancock himself was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards in the categories of Best New Actress and Best Supporting Actress. However, she was unable to continue this success, and her contract, originally concluded for five films, was terminated after two more films.