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Samantha Eggar Profile

Samantha Eggar
Samantha Eggar
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(Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar)
5 March 39 is born in Hampstead, London, to R. A. J. Eggar, a British Army brigadier, and his Dutch-Portuguese wife
? spends 11 years in a convent school. Later she'll remember: "The nuns didn't have too much success with me - I've always had a violent temper. In fact, once I almost killed one of the nuns."
? studies fashion design for two years because her parents are opposed to the idea of a theatrical career
? moves to London from her country life in Sussex and Buckinghamshire and lives with a cousin in Chelsea. For about eight months she does little but learn the free-wheeling Chelsea life, driving around in a sports car with a Great Dane beside her.
? is seen around London on the arm of Michael Caborn-Waterfield, a.k.a. Dandy Kim, a con-man arrested for robbery on the French Riviera. "A dashing playboy and professional jockey, he stakes her to acting lessons at the Webber-Douglas Dramatic School in London. Together they explore London's kooky and kinky activities. They share a love for sports cars, dogs, horses, and the country. And lovingly, Samantha wears Dandy Kim's signet ring on her finger."
? is on stage at London’s Royal Court Theater
? is discovered by artist-photographer-writer Cecil Beaton, who gives her a part in his play, Landscape with Figures
62 is discovered by producer Betty Box for The Wild and the Willing
? is in love with actor Albert Finney, but Finney drops her
? meets insurance representative-turned-actor Tom Stern at a London nightclub when he's in the London cast of Never Too Late with Fred Clark and Joan Bennett.
13 July 64 a spokesman in London announces that she will marry Stern in October or November in London. The spokesman says that Stern proposed to her last weekend by transatlantic telephone. She is in London filming The Collector. The couple will meet in about three weeks in Gallup, New Mexico, where Stern will do location filming for The Hallelujah Trail. It will be the first marriage for each.
? doesn’t get along well with director William Wyler while filming The Collector. She is signed and unsigned and goes to Palm Springs while Wyler flirts with the notion of the more familiar face of Natalie Wood. He follows her and talks her into returning. "The few differences of opinion I had with Mr. Wyler were all cleared up. He's pleased and he has an option for two more pictures," she says. Later, she will recall it as the worst experience of her life.
End August 64 in London at the Dorchester hotel, columnist Earl Wilson asks director William Wyler why he had seemingly dropped her and then rehired for his The Collector. Wyler replies: "We didn't think she could do the part." Wilson: "But why did you take her back?" Wyler: "We couldn't get anybody else."
24 October 64 marries actor-producer Tom Stern at St.Mary's Church in Chelsea, London. He's about 32; she's 25. He's Jewish; she's Catholic.
May 65 columnist Earl Wilson reports that she’s expecting
Early June 65 she and Terence Stamp, her co-star in The Collector, win the Best Acting Awards at the Cannes Festival. The Film Festival custom is for contestants to leave as soon as their entry is shown. Columbia charters a plane to bring the couple back to Cannes. Stamp doesn't go. Samantha arrives too late.
June 65 Terence Stamp warns press agents he doesn't want to make appearances with her "and they wonder why he's mad..."
is up for a picture co-starring Sidney Poitier, but regretfully has to say no to it. The role requires a Brooklyn accent, and she doesn't feel she can master that trick.
12 September 65 her son, Nicolas, is born in Los Angeles. He will become a producer.
Late September 65 she and Stern show their week-old son to the press at their Beverly Hills home
December 65 is called Sam Stern at Columbia studios, where she's currently filming Walk, Don't Run
31 January 66 wins a Hollywood Foreign Press Associate's Golden Globe Award for her performance in The Collector. The awards are presented on the Andy Williams television program.
End February 66 is nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress of 1965. The others in the category are Simone Signoret for Ship of Fools, Julie Andrews for The Sound of Music, Julie Christie for Darling, and Elizabeth Hartman for A Patch of Blue. Christie will win.
April 66 columnist Walter Winchell reports her "dazzling the Old Homestead patrons with her 4-inches-above-the-knees skirt, revealing dainty pink garters..."
6 May 66 arrives at 20th Century-Fox to begin work on Doctor Dolittle
June 66 producer Arthur Jacobs says she'll probably play opposite Richard Burton in Goodbye Mr. Chips
August 66 the press reports that she would like to work with Marlon Brando or Paul Newman
January 67 rejects a Playboy bid for a nude layout while working on Doctor Dolittle
July 67 expects her second child in mid-September. "Her husband, Tom Stern, will rejoin her soon from Italy, where he has been filming with William Holden."
23 September 67 her daughter, Jenna Louise, is born in Los Angeles. She will become an actress.
3 April 68 her daughter is christened at St. Mary's Church in Chelsea, London, by Father John Grant, the same priest who christened Samantha herself 27 years ago
13 November 68 attends the second marriage of David Hemmings to Gayle Hunnicutt at the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church. Among the guests are Noel Harrison, Nancy Sinatra, Herb Alpert, and Steve McQueen. Tom Mankiewicz is best man.
May 69 recovers from a kidney ailment and reports back to work in The Walking Stick
June 69 advertises for Foster Grants
16 June 69 her husband sues her in Los Angeles for divorce on grounds of extreme cruelty. In his complaint he asks custody of their children, Nicolas, 3, and Jenna Louise, 2. He describes her as an unfit mother and says she had threatened to take the children abroad to France and hide them. The petition says she has secreted $500,000 in Swiss banks. She says in a statement: "Ten days ago I asked my husband for a separation. He replied that he would let me know his decision after he could have some time to think it over. The next I heard was this afternoon that he had filed for divorce and requested an injunction to keep me from taking my two children with me to Paris later this week." He's 37; she's 30.
31 July 69 she and Stern are reported to have "managed to cool those fires of discord that had them at each other's necks for awhile. Sam was afraid Tom wouldn't let her take their children to Paris where she was to begin film work. Not only did he let her. But he's even managed a trip to the French capital for family-reunion time."
September 69 some people blame the failing of her marriage on the growth differential in their careers. Hers' burgeoned, her husband's slumped. "Others believe Samantha fell in love with her press agent."
? is paid $300,000 for her part in The Molly Maguires
September 69 gets $200,000 for the lead in The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun, filmed in Paris
May 70 columnist Earl Wilson writes "people keep phoning us that Samantha Eggar is going to give us a big story one of these days. We hope so. We need a big story."
December 70 upon arriving in New York from Europe with her two kids, she tells Wilson that her divorce is all arranged "except that I have to go into court and have some judge mumble, 'I now pronounce you no longer husband and wife.' I've been separated for a year and a half. Why rush?"
February 71 gives instructions to her press agent to stop Stern at all costs from getting to her during her stay at Manhattan's Plaza Hotel. The tall muscular press agent is a black belt karate expert.
25 March 71 is granted a divorce from Stern in Los Angeles Superior Court and given token alimony of $1 a year for five years. She agrees to give Stern $25,000 and to support their two children, whose custody she is awarded. She tells the court that her income exceeds $200,000 a year.
May 71 Wilson knows that she’s "been to the Bitter End three times in a week because singer Kris Kristofferson's there..."
August 71 the press tells "the reason, Joanna Pettet took of to Rome to join hubby Alex Cord who is making a movie there, is his co-star Samantha Eggar. Word drifted back to Joanna that Samantha had more than a professional interest in Alex."
October 71 will make her first solo recording, "a tune boy friend Kris Kristofferson wrote for his picture, Silver-Tongued Devil"
November 71 is reported receiving "$2,500 a show for TV's "Anna and the King of Siam" opposite Yul Brynner. He is reported getting $20,000.
July 72 is reported dating Presidential adviser Henry Kissinger
June 73 columnist Jack O'Brian reports that she and American pop artist "Edward Ruscha set up housekeeping in London. No marriage. Yet..."
January 74 attends the opening of Mr. Chow's in Beverly Hills with Edward Ruscha, who provided some of the drawings for the new restaurant in 1930's style. Among the guests are Mrs. Alfred Bloomingdale and George Christie, Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, Karen Carpenter and Mike Curb, Clint Eastwood, James Farentino and Michelle Lee, Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston, and Helen Reddy.
November 74 columnist Jack O'Brian writes: "Edgar Bronfman's headlined marital travail with latest wife Lady Caroline Townsend reminded his pal the Seagram multi millionaire's in a British groove or rut: before Lady T. he swung with Londoner Sue Lloyd, her, Samantha Eggar, lately stately Blighty-born Rita Webb."
December 75 is off to Teheran, Iran, for the ten-day International Teheran Film Festival hosted by Her Imperial Majesty Farah Pahlavi, Shahbanou of Iran. Among the guests are William Holden and Stephanie Powers, Deborah Raffin and Michael Viner, Alexis Smith and Craig Stevens, Joan Collins and Ron Cass, Charlotte Rampling and Brian Southcomb, Cloris Leachman and George Englund, Delbert Mann, Rex Harrison, Francois Truffaut, Herb Jaffe, Dyan Cannon, Jennifer O'Neill, and Shirley Jones.
December 76 is reported to be still very deeply religious
22 October 77 attends a luncheon in Los Angeles in honor of visiting Prince Charles. She sits at Mayor Tom Bradley's right at the head of the table. Among the guests are Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, Telly Savalas, Lauren Bacall, Merle Oberon, Cicely Tyson, Roddy McDowell, and Michael York. Afterwards, Charles visits the set of "Charley's Angels" to chat with Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, and Cheryl Ladd.
November 80 film critic Joan E. Vadeboncoeur thinks that Samantha "must be desperate for roles if she accepts as febrile a part as the doctor in The Exterminator. If she could cover her British accent, she might get some of the roles that go to Jane Fonda."
c. 81 plays the part of Maggie in the pilot of "Falcon Crest" but doesn't want to become involved with a weekly series, so the role goes to Susan Sullivan.
? resides on Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, California
Sources:
Starlet by Kim Holston, Screen Stories, Movie Life, Family Weekly, Oakland Tribune, Reno Evening Gazette, Great Bend Daily Tribune, The Lima News, The Times Recorder, The Post-Standard, The Coshocton Tribune, Chronicle-Telegram, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Nevada State Journal, The Van Nuys News, The Daily Gleaner, The Sunday Gleaner, Indiana Evening Gazette, The Sheboygan Press, Bucks County Courier Times, Showtime, Mansfield News-Journal, www.Ancestry.com
Recommended Books:
Links:
Filmography
Samatha Eggar at Spooky's Nightmare Mansion
Samantha Eggar at TV and Movie Trivia Tribute