{"id":3880,"date":"2016-09-06T12:05:23","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T12:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixtiescinema.com\/?p=3880"},"modified":"2016-09-06T12:05:23","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T12:05:23","slug":"happy-birthday-to-the-late-carol-wayne-jody-mccrea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/2016\/09\/06\/happy-birthday-to-the-late-carol-wayne-jody-mccrea\/","title":{"rendered":"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE LATE CAROL WAYNE & JODY McCREA!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"acarolw\"<\/a>A platinum-blonde beauty in the vein of Marilyn Monroe, Carol Wayne\u00a0became extremely popular acting the bubble-headed ditz.\u00a0 But what made Wayne special was that she instilled a charming wide-eyed innocence into her characters making them lovable and endearing rather than just the typical daffy buxom bimbo with an eye popping figure.<\/p>\n

Carol Wayne made her television debut on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.<\/em> followed by her\u00a0made her film debut playing a very minor part of a sexy blind date in Blake Edwards\u2019 Gunn <\/em>(1967) the big screen version of his popular TV series, Peter Gunn<\/em>, starring Craig Stevens as the super cool gumshoe.\u00a0 Edwards cast Wayne again in his comedy The Party<\/em> (1967) starring Peter Sellers as a bungling Indian actor who is mistakenly invited to a big time movie producer\u2019s A-list soiree.\u00a0 Wayne portrayed one of the guests\u2014a Hollywood sexpot clad in a pink mini-dress with a plunging neckline that accentuated her 39-24-25 figure quite nicely.\u00a0 Though she doesn\u2019t utter a line of dialog for the first 20 minutes she is on screen, audiences could not help but notice the platinum blonde in the background with the kewpie doll looks, bountiful bosom, and curvy body. For unknown reasons, movies didn\u2019t beckon much for Wayne but she remained very active on television.\u00a0 She popped up on I Spy<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0I Dream of Jeannie<\/em>\u00a0among others.<\/p>\n

Carol is best remembered for her 101 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson<\/em> beginning in 1971 playing the dippy but dazzling Matinee Lady to Carson\u2019s lecherous host Art Fern in the \u201cTea Time Movie\u201d skits.\u00a0 Wayne wasn\u2019t the first actress to essay the role but once she did the part was hers to keep.\u00a0 Its success was partly due to Wayne\u2019s caught-in-the headlights stare as she appeared not to understand Carson\u2019s bawdy jokes and double-entendres.\u00a0 She usually joined the guests on the couch after the skits and one of her most hilarious lines came when comedian Don Rickles mentioned to Johnny that his mother just moved to Miami. Wayne cooed in her little girl voice, \u201cOooh, Miami Beach.\u00a0 That\u2019s God\u2019s little waiting room.\u201d\u00a0 Daytime fans were treated to Wayne\u2019s brand of humor as she appeared regularly on the women\u2019s talk show Mantrap<\/em> in 1971, and the game shows Celebrity Sweepstakes<\/em> and The Hollywood Squares<\/em>.\u00a0 But acting roles were few and far between for Carol as she was becoming known for being more of a personality than actress.\u00a0 She had a supporting role in the forgettable battle-of-the-sexes TV-movie Every Man Needs One<\/em> (1972) starring Ken Berry and Connie Stevens and landed dramatic guest star roles on The Bold Ones: The Lawyers, Mannix<\/em>, and Emergency!<\/em>\u00a0 In between she played various roles including distracting secretaries and love-starved women in six episodes of Love, American Style<\/em>.\u00a0 When The Tonight Show<\/em> was shortened to an hour in 1980 most of Carson\u2019s skits were jettisoned including the one with Carol Wayne.<\/p>\n

he returned to the big screen playing cameo roles in the comedy Savenger Hunt<\/em> (1979) and the obscure drama Gypsy Angels<\/em> (1980) starring a pre-Wheel of Fortune<\/em> Vanna White as a stripper for falls for an amnesiac stunt pilot.\u00a0 Marriage to husband number three, Burt Sugerman, producer of the rock music TV show The Midnight Special<\/em>, kept Wayne employed making a few appearances on the late night staple.\u00a0 During this time she let her natural hair color grow out and posed semi-nude in Playboy<\/em> at age forty-two.\u00a0 Wayne won the best reviews of her career and proved she had acting talent when she was cast as an artist\u2019s kinky model complete with garter belts and leather accessories in Heartbreakers<\/em> (1984) starring Peter Coyote and Nick Mancuso as two men in their thirties who have to finally face growing up.\u00a0 Wayne gave the film\u2019s most poignant performance when after agreeing to a manage a trios with artist Coyote and his pal Mancuso she touchingly reveals her feelings about herself\u2014from what she thinks of her body to her dreams that have passed her by. Unfortunately, Carol Wayne was never able to capitalize on the raves she received from Heartbreakers<\/em>.\u00a0 The newly divorced actress drowned while on vacation with a companion in Mexico on January 13, 1985 shortly after the movie was released.\u00a0 To this day, her death remains a mystery and foul play has long been suspected.\u00a0 She was survived by her sister Nina and son Alex from her second marriage to photographer Barry Feinstein.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/-TbejGnVRLs<\/p>\n

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\"ajody\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Happy Birthday also to the late Jody McCrea!\u00a0Tall, strapping, square-jawed Jody McCrea became a favorite of the teenage audience for his amusing performances as Deadhead in Beach Party<\/em> (1963) and its sequels Muscle Beach Party<\/em>, Bikini Beach,<\/em> Pajama Party<\/em> (as Big Lunk), Beach Blanket Bingo<\/em>, and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini<\/em>.\u00a0 As the dumb surfer in the bunch, Deadhead could be counted on to say something idiotic in his slow drawl.\u00a0 Though McCrea was always assured a laugh based on how the role was written, it is to his credit that Deadhead came off as sweetly na\u00efve rather than a complete moron.<\/p>\n

Read more about Carol Wayne in my book Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood<\/strong> <\/em>and my interview with Jody McCrea in Hollywood Beach and Surf Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A platinum-blonde beauty in the vein of Marilyn Monroe, Carol Wayne\u00a0became extremely popular acting the bubble-headed ditz.\u00a0 But what made Wayne special was that she instilled a charming wide-eyed innocence into her characters making them lovable and endearing rather than just the typical daffy buxom bimbo with an eye popping figure. Carol Wayne made her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}