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Pamela Tiffin Profile

Pamela Tiffin
Pamela Tiffin
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(Pamela Tiffin Wonso)
13 October 42 is born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, of Russian-British ancestry, to architect Stanley Wonso and his wife Grace
? is raised in Chicago
? lives with her parents at 9940 South Crawford Avenue, Oak Lawn, Illinois
? begins modelling at 13
? attends primary and secondary school in Oak Lawn, Illinois
? while in high school, she's a member of the Latin club, debate club, speech club, and girls' club
59 graduates as "Peppy" Wonso
? moves with her family to New York City
? glamour photographer Bert Stern uses her for a lingerie ad in The New York Times Magazine
? becomes a Vogue cover girl and one of New York’s top fashion models, earning up to $1,500 a week
? attends New York’s Hunter College while modeling
November 60 while on Thanksgiving vacation with her mother visiting friends in Los Angeles, she has lunch at the Paramount commissary, where she’s invited to producer Hal B. Wallis’ office / Paramount talent sleuth Boris Kaplan urges her to meet Hal B. Wallis. Wallis immediately casts her for his upcoming Summer and Smoke.
in between, a talent scout on behalf of director Billy Wilder tries to track her down in New York
61 turns down Blue Hawaii because everybody tells her not to do an Elvis Presley movie. She will also turn down Girls! Girls! Girls! in 1962, and Fun in Acapulco in 1963.
is off to Munich, Germany, for the filming of One, Two, Three
July 61 makes clear that a wealthy Pakistani she and her mother visited in Switzerland recently is just a family friend
? lives quietly in New York and attends college classes between films
61 meets journalist and writer Clay Felker at New York's Museum of Modern Art when they are introduced by mutual friends
November 61 attends the premiere of Summer and Smoke and the party at 21 afterwards. Columnist Hedda Hopper notes her as "the prettiest girl in the packed room."
December 61 columnist Earl Wilson tags her Hollywood's "New Girl of the Year"
April 62 columnist Wilson asks about her and Clay Felker: "Is their dating serious?" "I don't know," she replies, "but it's been a hectic three weeks."
62 considers co-star Bobby Darin’s entourage direct and flirtatious while filming State Fair. Her mother doesn’t want her near the music business crowd.
Mid-April 62 attends the premiere of State Fair with Clay Felker. Says Spyros Skouras, head of 20th Century-Fox, spotting Felker with her: "I envy him - he's so young, and so handsome."
April 62 her escort at Le Club is editor Clay Felker. There they bump into Laurence Harvey, her co-star in Summer and Smoke, and Joan Cohn.
62 the filming of Come Fly With Me takes her to England and France with side trips to Rome, Italy
October 62 between takes on Champagne Flight, she is taken by Hugh O’Brian to the Royal Ascot in England
6 October 62 marries Clay Felker, senior editor of Esquire magazine, at the Riverside Church in New York City. He's 34; she's 19. Reverend Gordon Gilke performs the ceremony. Felker's previous marriage ended in divorce. She prepares to retire from acting, but her husband encourages her to keep working
Fall 62 enrolls at New York’s Columbia University
? director John Sturges wants her to play the Japanese lead in A Girl Named Tamiko, but she’s replaced by France Nuyen
63 audits for director Otto Preminger for a part in his upcoming The Cardinal, but the role goes to Carol Lynley
Early 63 furnishes her home in New York with a fondness for the Tudor period, which she shares with her husband
September 63 takes her final exams at Columbia University
64 while filming The Lively Set, co-star James Darren is very jazzy and flirty although he’s married, and she has to be very circumspect around him
? films The Pleasure Seekers in Madrid, Spain. Neither Carol Lynley nor Ann-Margret is interested in a friendship with her.
October 64 she and Carol Lynley do fashion photos at the World's Fair Spanish Pavilion
November 64 will tour to publicize The Hallelujah Trail
65 is off to Italy for the filming of Oggi, domani e dopodomani. She enjoys being a blonde in that film so much, that she promptly dyes all of her hair.
August 65 will host a Dallas fashion show for a DuPont TV commercial
November 65 she and Felker are frequent guests at Arthur, Sybil Christopher’s new in-disco. The others in the crowd include Huntington Hartford and his wife Diane, Joan Collins and Anthony Newly, and Tuesday Weld.
66 is considered for a part in The Group but is eventually replaced by Jessica Walters
April 66 Playboy wants her to be its centerfold
vacations with Felker after several strenuous months of filming Oggi, domani, dopodomani, a.k.a. Paranoia with Marcello Mastroianni in Italy
May 66 attends a luncheon at the swank Eden Roc in Cap d'Antibes, France, with guest of honor, Rock Hudson. Hudson's in Cannes to promote his Seconds. Hundreds of photographers are awaiting them.
Early June 66 is at New York's Roosevelt Hospital with a kidney infection
14 June 66 attends a supper party held by the Shakespeare Festival Committee at New York’s Plaza Hotel ballroom in a teaser see-through with a pink jeweled bra and a one-shoulder crepe toga that drapes low to naked hipbone. She is dressed as Kate, of Taming of the Shrew, and Gloria Steinem is garbed as Lady Macbeth.
Late June 66 attends Henry Fonda's party to celebrate 30 years of stardom at New York's new chic L'etoile restaurant. She is attired in a black lace thigh-high dress and black mesh stockings.
October 66 celebrates her 24th birthday backstage with the cast of Dinner at Eight
February 67 is among 500 guests at Norman Mailer's party at his house in Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, to celebrate the off-Broadway opening of his Deer Park. Others are Monique Van Vooren, Budd Schulberg, Artie Shaw, Jose Torres, Betsy Von Furstenberg, Margie King, and Frederic Morton.
March 67 films a one-minute trailer outlining the new production code as set down by the Motion Picture Association of America
April 67 sparkles at Le Pavilion's April in Paris Champagne Supper
67 relocates to Italy to escape her unhappy marriage to Felker
September 68 columnist Earl Wilson reports that she and Felker have been separated for months but undecided about a divorce
69 returns briefly to Hollywood to star in a theater production of Uncle Vanya. She resides at the Chateau Marmont.
April 69 is seen at the Algonquin with her husband Felker
? is off to Texas for the filming of Viva Max!
c. mid-69 divorces Felker, founder and editor of New York magazine. "We still love each other, we have dinner together," she says. "But life, it seems, is not a Doris Day movie."
January 70 resides in Rome, Italy
? declines to file a lawsuit against Playboy for having run a topless pictorial called “A Toast to Tiffin” with semi-nude test shots of her
July 72 is featured bare breasted in the Italian Playmen
February 73 attends a party tossed at New York's Rainbow Room by Bette Davis and John Springer after their "Legendary Ladies of the Movies" show held at Town Hall. Columnist Suzy notes Pamela "in a floor-length wool maroon print with an open midriff and gold sandals so brief she might have been shoeless." Pamela tells columnist Earl Wilson that she's back in New York to study Japanese art at Columbia. Other guests are Myrna Loy, John Gielgud, Tammy Grimes, and Andy Warhol.
74 marries Edmondo Danon, son of producer Marcello Danon, and retires to raise a family
? her daughter Echo is born
12 February 81 her daughter Aurora is born. Both of her daughters will become actresses.
00 owns homes in New York and Illinois
2 December 20 dies at age 78 in New York City
Sources:
Fantasy Femmes of 60's Cinema by Tom Lisanti, Starlet by Kim Holston, The New York Times, Suburban Economist, Burlington Daily Times-News, Reno Evening Gazette, The Lima News, Burlington Daily Times-News, Screen Stories, The Times Recorder, Syracuse Herald-Journal, The Times Recorder, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Bucks Courier County Times, News Reporter, www.Ancestry.com
Recommended Books:
Fantasy Femmes of 60's Cinema by Tom Lisanti
The Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool by Chris Strodder
Pamela Tiffin - Hollywood to Rome by Tom Lisanti
Links:
Filmography
The Love Goddesses: Pamela Tiffin
!WOm!WAm!: Pamela Tiffin