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<\/a>Gerber was born on October 4, 1937 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and began studying ballet at age seven. Her talent was evident even as a young girl and at fifteen she became the youngest member of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. She grew up touring with the ballet troupe and eventually married a jazz musician. But in the late 1950s, she abandoned the unsuccessful marriage and moved to Toronto to work as an actress. She appeared on stage and in many live CBC television dramas. Gerber also had a flair for comedy, and was one of the last to perform in TV sketches with the legendary vaudeville duo Smith and Dale (who inspired the film The Sunshine Boys<\/i>) on both The Wayne and Schuster Show<\/i> and The Ed Sullivan Show<\/i>.<\/p>\nMoving to Hollywood in 1963, the talented blonde quickly snagged the lead role in the play Under the Yum Yum Tree<\/i> and made guest appearances on such popular TV series as My Three Sons<\/i>, Perry Mason<\/i>, and Wagon Train<\/i>.\u00a0 In 1965, she made her film debut in The Girls on the Beach<\/i>, co-starring The Beach Boys, before her agent suggested she change her name and, as Gail Gilmore, she went on to have principle roles opposite Elvis Presley in Girl Happy<\/i> (1965) and Harum Scarum<\/i> (1965). She then returned to the sands of Malibu to co-star with Edd \u201cKookie\u201d Byrnes in Beach Ball<\/i> (1965) before growing to gigantic proportions along with five other delinquent teenagers (including Beau Bridges and Tisha Sterling), who terrorize a town in Village of the Giants<\/i> (1965).<\/p>\n
httpv:\/\/youtu.be\/Oa2dTcxwOMI<\/a><\/p>\n Gerber had a minor role as a cosmetician in The Loved One <\/i>(1965), directed by Academy Award winner Tony Richardson. It was on the set of that movie where she met its screenwriter Terry Southern, who was riding high due to the success of his satirical novels Candy<\/i> and The Magic Christian<\/i>, as well as the smash movie Dr. Strangelove<\/i>, which he co-wrote. The two hit it off immediately and, despite their marriages to others, became inseparable. Gerber even abandoned her acting career in 1966 to live with Southern in New York, then in Connecticut, where she taught ballet for over twenty-five years and tended to their 200-year-old farmhouse, the chickens and pigs. Gerber remained Southern\u2019s steadfast companion and muse until his death thirty years later in 1995.<\/p>\n After Southern\u2019s death, Gerber spent most of her time living in New \u00a0 York City. During the last twenty years of her life, she was the secretary of the Terry Southern Trust. She also returned to acting \u2013 playing a dotty old woman in Lucky Days<\/i> (2008) an independent film written\/directed by and starring her friend Angelica Page. Next she played a Wake Guest in avant-garde filmmaker Matthew Barney\u2019s just completed film River<\/i> of Fundament<\/i> <\/i>(2014).<\/p>\n