Charlene Holt

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Charlene Holt.jpg

Charlene Holt (born April 28, 1928 as Verna Charlene Staveley in Snyder , Texas , † April 5, 1996 in Brentwood , Tennessee ) was an American actress and model . She is best known for roles in Howard Hawks' films .

Live and act

After dropping out of college , Holt began a modeling career in the 1950s . She became "Miss Maryland" in 1956 and initially advertised swimwear. When she by the prestigious modeling agency of Eileen Ford , Ford Models was taken under contract, she moved to New York . She then made a name for herself primarily with advertising for high-priced cosmetic products . She was promoted as "Miss Sweater Girl" for the lobby association Wool Bureau of the US wool industry , was seen in numerous commercials in the cinema and on television and rose to become one of the highest-paid American models of her time.

From the early 1960s she appeared in small supporting roles in film and television, often in crime series such as Perry Mason . Due to her tall and extravagant appearance, she mostly embodied self-confident and glamorous types of women. The successful director Howard Hawks discovered them for the A-movie in Hollywood. He had them in a commercial for lipsticks brand Revlon seen and cast her in three of his films in addition to high-profile leading men of Hollywood cinema. In 1964 she was in a goldfish on a leash the Texan fiancée Tex Connors that of Rock Hudson embodied male character, in 1965, she starred in the action film Red Line 7000 as Lindy Bonaparte a girlfriend of James Caan embodied racer Mike. The high point and at the same time the end of her film career was the role of hotel owner Maudie in the western El Dorado in 1966 . As a woman between two men - portrayed by John Wayne and Robert Mitchum - she played her first and only extended supporting role in her film career and won over audiences as well as critics. The film became a box office hit.

After filming El Dorado , she married the wealthy building contractor William A. Tishman that same year. It turned out that she had made herself ten years younger. Her film career ended abruptly and she only appeared occasionally in small roles in B-movies and on television, for example in 1968 alongside Robert Wagner in two episodes of the crime series Your Appearance, Al Mundy and in 1974 in the first television adaptation of the comic book Wonder Woman , in which she was the Amazon queen Hippolyte in the title role alongside Cathy Lee Crosby . The marriage with Tishman was divorced in 1973. In the 1980 film Melvin and Howard by Jonathan Demme , she had her very last appearance on screen or screen in a tiny supporting role as Mrs. Worth. She retired from show business and died, forgotten by the film world, at the age of 67 in Tennessee.

Rating as an actress

Her design of the role of Maudie was positively highlighted by both Howard Hawks and Martin Scorsese . Hawks praised in an interview that she was a "really good actress", especially in El Dorado , only that she wanted too much to be a star, played to the effect of the audience, and was also unpredictable privately (Hawks says "dangerous" ) been. Martin Scorsese, on the other hand, paid her unreserved praise for her acting performance in El Dorado and was impressed by her “casual manner” and her “easygoing manner” (“likably husky voice”). If she had been born a few decades earlier, according to Scorsese, she would likely have become a big star.

Filmography (selection)

movie theater

watch TV

Web links

Commons : Charlene Holt  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Howard Hawks: A Private Interview. Peter Lehmann and Stuff 1976 , printed in: Scott Breivold (Ed.): Howard Hawks: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers), University Press of Mississippi 2006, p. 207
  2. ↑ Martin Scorsese via Charlene Holt , on jwaynefan.com
personal data
SURNAME Holt, Charlene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stavely, Verna Charlene (maiden name); Tishman, Verna Charlene (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film actress; American model
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Snyder , Texas , United States
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1996
Place of death Brentwood , Tennessee , United States