Valerie Perrine

Valerie Ritchie Perrine was born on September 3, 1943, in Galveston, Texas,^[1] the daughter of Winifred "Renee" (nee McGinley), a dancer who appeared in The Earl Carroll Vanities, and Kenneth I. Perrine, a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army.^[2] She had a younger brother, Ken.^[3] Because of her father's military career, the family moved frequently, and Perrine lived several locations during her childhood. When she was three, the family relocated to Japan, where her father was stationed, and later moved to a ranch in Arizona during her teenage years.^{[citation needed]}

Her mother was of Scottish and Irish descent and came from Helensburgh in Dunbartonshire.^[4] Her father was of English and French ancestry and was the grandson of Alfred Perrine of Wallkill, Orange County, New York, and a descendant of Staten Island Huguenot Daniel Perrin. The Perrine family traces its lineage to the French Perrin line, which intermarried with other Norman families dating back to the era of William the Conqueror in 1066.^[5]

In 1968, Perrine worked as a showgirl in "Lido de Paris" at the Stardust Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.^[6]

After several years in Las Vegas, Perrine moved to Los Angeles. "Acting wasn’t something I pursued," she later recalled. "I was at a small dinner party where an agent was looking for someone to play the role of Montana Wildhack in George Roy Hill’s film production of Slaughterhouse-Five. The agent saw something in me and thought I would be perfect for the part. That’s how I became an actress."^[7] Her performance as Montana Wildhack, a softcore pornography actress, established Perrine as a rising actress in Hollywood.^[2]

Perrine was photographed nude for a pictorial in the May 1972 issue of Playboy, and she later appeared on the magazine's cover in August 1981. She became the first actress to appear nude intentionally on American network television during the May 4, 1973, PBS broadcast of Bruce Jay Friedman's Steambath on Hollywood Television Theater.^[8] Later in 1973, she appeared in the episode "When the Girls Came Out to Play" of the romantic anthology television series Love Story (1973).^[9]

In 1975, Perrine received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress^[10] and a Golden Globe nomination^[11] for Best Motion Picture Actress (Drama), and she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival^[12] for her role portrayal of Honey Bruce, the wife of comedian Lenny Bruce, in Bob Fosse's Lenny (1974).^[13]

She portrayed Carlotta Monti, the longtime companion of W. C. Fields, in the biographical film W. C. Fields and Me (1976). Perrine then played Miss Eve Teschmacher, the accomplice of criminal mastermind Lex Luthor, in Superman (1978), earning a 1979 Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She later reprised the role in the sequel Superman II (1980).^[14]

Perrine appeared as Charlotta Steele, the ex‑wife of a rodeo champion played by Robert Redford, in The Electric Horseman (1979). Her career became more uneven after her role in Can't Stop the Music (1980), for which she received a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress; the film has since developed a cult following. She played Marcy Smith, the wife of a corrupt police officer, in The Border (1982) with Jack Nicholson, and in 1986 starred opposite Harvey Korman in the short-lived CBS sitcom Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills.^[15]

In the following years, Perrine appeared in lower‑profile projects, though she had a small supporting role in Mel Gibson's film What Women Want (2000). In 1995, she guest‑starred on Homicide: Life on the Street, playing an ex-wife of Richard Belzer's character, Detective John Munch.^[14]

Stacey Souther directed and produced Valerie, a 45-minute documentary about Perrine's career and her experience with Parkinson's disease.^[16] The film screened at the Edmonton Film Festival in 2020.^[17]

While living in Las Vegas, Perrine became engaged to gun collector and importer Bill Haarman, who died in January 1969 from an accidental gunshot wound to the lung, one month before their planned wedding.^[3]

After his death, Perrine began a relationship with hairstylist Jay Sebring. On August 8, 1969, he invited her to a dinner party with his former girlfriend, actress Sharon Tate, and their friends Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski at the El Coyote Cafe on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, but she was unable to attend. Shortly after midnight on August 9, all four were murdered by members of the Manson Family at Tate's home in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles^[3]

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a performer at the now‑demolished Stardust joked, 'If you don’t like somebody, fix them up with Valerie and he’ll be dead within three months."^[3]