Jean Hale

In 1960s America, few women more perfectly embodied the prevailing standard of sensual blond beauty than Jean Hale. It was a quality her strict Mormon family did not encourage her to exploit -- she withdrew from the Miss New York beauty pageant under pressure from her father. But when she was accepted into New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, it didn't take long for Hale to be noticed. She quickly got work as a model, and in 1960, when she was spotted dancing at the Playhouse, she was hired by TV's "Sing Along With Mitch" to do the same in front of a national audience. Hale's subsequent movie career had as many fits as starts. Not wanting to leave New York, Hale turned down a role in the high-profile Elizabeth Taylor vehicle "Butterflied Eight." Small parts in movies like "The Oscar" and TV shows such as "Hogan's Heroes" followed. Hale came tantalizingly close to snaring the plum part in what turned out to be a hit film, but ultimately it was Faye Dunaway who played Bonnie in the epochal "Bonnie and Clyde." In 1967 Hale was finally cast in two female leads -- one in the spy spoof "In Like Flint," the other in the mob movie "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre." But when she refused to do a European tour for "In Like Flint," Hale was dropped by Twentieth Century Fox. Occasional work in television would continue for the next 20 years, but Hale's peak didn't outlast the 60s. Jean Hale died on August 3, 2021 in Santa Monica, CA at the age of 82.