Jill St. John
Jill St. John
The daughter of an ambitious but relatively benign "stage mama," Los Angeles-native Jill St. John was acting on stage at age 5, and on radio from the time she could read; in the late '40s Jill was a regular on the marathon soap opera One Man's Family. Jill's mother changed the girl's name from Oppenheim to St. John when she was 11, and (via surgery) changed her nose from Romanesque to turned-up when Jill was 16. By that time, Jill had been attending UCLA for two full years; she was assessed by experts as having an IQ of 162. Jill wanted to be a comedienne like her idol, Kay Kendall; but when she was signed for a 20th Century-Fox contract in 1958, it was on the basis of her pulchritude rather than her comic timing. After a series of non-descript heroines in such pictures as Holiday for Lovers (1959) and The Lost World (1960), Jill came into her own on the TV guest star circuit. She was most frequently seen on the specials of comedian Bob Hope (ever the connoiseur of feminine beauty) and was also shown to good advantage in a couple of Frank Sinatra films. Virtually all of Jill's film assignments contrived to get her into the skimpiest of swimwear; in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds are Forever, Jill spent at least three-quarters of the picture in brief bikinis. Though not as active on screen in the '80s and '90s as she'd been before, Jill kept busy as the "in house" cooking expert on the daytime TV series Good Morning America and as the food columnist of the USA Weekend newspaper supplement; she has also published several well-received cookbooks. Jil's hobbies have ranged from collecting model trains to dating such high-profile celebrities as Henry Kissinger. Thrice married, Jill St. John was wed in 1990 to actor Robert Wagner, a longtime friend and coworker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Filmography of Jill St. John:
- Tony Rome with Frank Sinatra , Richard Conte , Gena Rowlands , Simon Oakland , Lloyd Bochner , Joan Shawlee , Shecky Greene , Jeanne Cooper , Sue Lyon , Buzz Henry , Joe E. Ross
- The Player with Tim Robbins , Greta Scacchi , Fred Ward , Whoopi Goldberg , Peter Gallagher , Vincent D'Onofrio , Brion James , Dean Stockwell , Richard E. Grant , Sydney Pollack , Lyle Lovett , Dina Merrill , Gina Gershon , Steve Allen , Richard Anderson , Rene Auberjonois , Harry Belafonte , Karen Black , Gary Busey , Robert Carradine , Cher , James Coburn , John Cusack , Brad Davis , Paul Dooley , Peter Falk , Felicia Farr , Louise Fletcher , Dennis Franz , Teri Garr , Jeff Goldblum , Elliott Gould , Joel Grey , David Alan Grier , Buck Henry , Anjelica Huston , Sally Kirkland , Jack Lemmon , Marlee Matlin , Andie MacDowell , Malcolm McDowell , Jayne Meadows , Martin Mull , Nick Nolte , Bert Remsen , Burt Reynolds , Julia Roberts , Mimi Rogers , Alan Rudolph , Susan Sarandon , Rod Steiger , Joan Tewkesbury , Lily Tomlin , Robert Wagner , Ray Walston , Bruce Willis , James Jr. Coburn , Scott Glenn , Michael Tolkin
- Man of Faith with Brad Dourif , Faye Dunaway
Jill St. John Trivia
