Sharon Tate Article Nouvelle Starlet and Kerstien Matondang's Coppertone Ad

Here is another article from my collection that I hope you enjoy:

From: Films of the Golden Age, Fall 1997

Sharon Tate - Nouvelle Starlet

By Eve Golden

In the late 1960s, she was one of the most promising starlets in Hollywood.  Breathtakingly beautiful, hard-working and genuinely well liked, Sharon Tate had a future easily as bright as other newcomers like Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway and Candice Bergen.  But a handful of lunatics changed all that, and Sharon became better known as one of the decade's most famous murder victims.  She only made nine films, but Sharon had been on her way to becoming one of the industry's brightest stars as the 1970s dawned.

She was born in Dallas, Texas, on January 24, 1943, the daughter of Major Paul Tate and his wife, Doris.  Already a beauty at six months, she won the Miss Tiny Tot contest.  Sharon and her two younger sisters had adventurous childhoods: their father, working with Army Intelligence, spent much of the 1950s moving his family from Dallas to Tacoma, Houston, El Paso and San Francisco.  In 1959, when Sharon was 16, they moved to Verona, Italy, where she attended high school and quickly became multi-lingual.

 

It was in Italy that she also began mulling over an acting career.  Richard Beymer was making a film near Sharon's school, and introduced the teenager to his agent.  Nothing came of this, but Beymer had put a flea in her ear.  She came back to the U. S. in 1963 and began seriously looking for work.  "I was shy and bashful when I reached Hollywood," she said in 1965.  "I only had enough money to get by and I hitch-hiked a ride on a truck to the office of an agent whose name I had."

 

An audition for the TV series 'Petticoat Junction' didn't pan out, but her test was seen by Martin Ransohoff of Filmways Productions.  Impressed, he put her under a seven-year contract and set out to "develop" her in the old-fashioned Hollywood manner.  Ransohoff sent Sharon to New York's Actor's Studio, and to classes in dancing, singing, body-building and modeling.  "I'm sure the three years I spent in training to be an actress will pay off," Sharon told The New York News in 1966.

 

By that time, she had also gotten her first few jobs.  She can be briefly glimpsed guesting on 'Mr. Ed' and as secretary Janet Trego, Mr. Drysdale's secretary, in a few episodes of 'The Beverly Hillbillies.'  She did commericials, including one for cigarettes which nearly did her in: "The commericial required many takes," Sharon recalled. "Just when they were ready fro the final one, I passed out from taking too many puffs on my first attempt at smoking."

 

Ransohoff helped get her small roles in 'Separate Beds' (1963), 'The Americanization of Emily' (1964), and 'The Sandpiper' (1965), to help her get accustomed to filming.  Her first major role was in the dreadful, pretentious British-made thriller from 1965, 'Eye of the Devil', also known as '13'.  The film starred David Niven and Deborah Kerr as a middle-aged couple living in a chateau.  Sharon was thrilled to be in such company, even in a less than sterling project.  She portrayed Odile, a spooky local girl who wanders about looking creepy and uttering ominous  lines.  No one got much of a chance to act in this film, and it made no real impact on the budding starlet's career.

Sharon Tate was an odd duck in the swinging Hollywood of the mid-1960s.  Strictly brought-up, she was sweet and innocent in a town that was neither.  One actor called her "one of the toughest lays in town.  Strictly a one-man woman."  She reportedly had an unhappy relationship with a French actor for two years, then was briefly engaged to her hairstylist, Jay Sebring. The two broke up, but remained friends.  Then, at a London party in 1966, she met Roman Polanski.

 

The 33-year-old director and actor was already famous for his dark films 'Knife in the Water' (1962), and 'Repulsion' (1965).  He also had quite a reputation: one ex-girlfriend described him as "the quintessential male chauvinist pig.  He treats women like objects, like toys, like his latest pet car.  It can be fun to share his limelight for a while, but ultimately it becomes boring."  Ransohoff loaned Sharon to Polanski for his horror comedy film 'The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967).  Sharon and Polanski became involved, despite their obvious cultural differences.  He himself later said, "It took the longest time for me to get her to go to bed with me.  She was not someone who went easily to bed with a man."  They moved in together in Belgravia, London, and Sharon learned to love London's Swinging '60s scene:  "There are so many talented young people with fantastic, original ideas here," she said in 1967.  "...The Mod Look, the long, straight hair for girls and long hair for boys, mini skirts...it all started here and eventually got to America.  Americans are too inhibited but they are slowly coming around to realizing what a swinging world we live in."  But the fast Polanski crowd was too swinging even for her.  According to Mia Farrow, Sharon experimented with pot and LSD, but never really got into drugs.

 

Sharon's only film with Polanski turned out to be something of a disappointment.  Visually, it was stunning, capturing a vision of 19th century Eastern Europe in the dead of winter.  But the performers were given little to do.  'Vampire Killers' veered between bad sitcom dialogue and gory thrills, and never seemed to quite settle on a style. Sharon, in a red wig, looked beautiful and somewhat detached.  The film did not do well in the U.S., and Polanski tried to help it along by shooting nudes of Sharon for the March 1967 issue of Playboy.  Aside from raising questions of taste, this did nothing.

 

Sharon's first real U. S. exposure came with MGM's big-budget beach comedy 'Don't Make Waves' (1967), starring Tony Curtis.  Sharon had a small but showy role as Malibu, a sky-diving beach bunny whom Curtis steals from her body-building boyfriend.  The film wasn't up to much, but critics noted Sharon's combination of beauty and deadpan humor.  She, however, did not share their enthusiasm.

"It's a terrible movie," she accuarately noted before it had even been released, then admitted that "sometimes I say things I shouldn't.  I guess I'm too outspoken."

To be continued tomorrow...

I don't think Sharon's films were that bad.  At least she showed potential especially in comedic roles.

Her venture into the 'Valley of the Dolls' and more will be discussed in the article tomorrow.

 

I noted Kerstien Matondang's great video site yesterday and today she told me she has added another.  This time it is with Sharon's voice and images doing a Coppertone ad for when she made 'Don't Make Waves.'  Please be sure to comment on it and tell Kerstien what you think?  Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLf-HaeuVqo

Sharon Defies Ransohoff in Translated Article and More

I found this interesting article on The Brazilian Sharon Tate Site and thought I'd share it here.

http://sharontate.bravehost.com/index.html

"CAPRICHO" - March 1968 - Brazil

HOLLYWOOD IS HELL'S GATE

SHARON TATE, ONE OF THE MOST PROMISING AMERICAN STARS OF THE NEW GENERATION, ACCUSES HOLLYWOOD OF BEING FALSELY MORALIST AND SAYS THAT THE OLD CINEMA MECA IS VERY DEPRAVED. SHE RESISTED A LOT OF PRESSURE TO GET HER STARDOM AND ENDURED ALL KINDS OF THREATS, EVEN FROM THE PRODUCER WHO DISCOVERED HER, JUST BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T WANT TO BREAK UP OR BETRAY HER GREAT LOVE.

"I’m completely psychedelic. And not in Julie Christie ’s way, please! I know there are people who think that I imitate her! Can you believe that? I want much more freedom than she has. Julie became a slave of her ambition. I think she’s frustrated. Now she says she’s neurotic. I’m not inhibited at all. I just do what I want. If I feel like it, I flirt with a cab driver. I like new things, try new sensations. Why not?"

Sharon likes to speak. And explosively. In her luxurious apartment she didn’t think for a moment: ask the maid to serve something serious from the bar, took her shoes and the stockings off, and loved chatting.

"I got tired of being nobody. I’ve been pretty since I was a little girl. Everybody kept telling me: Why don’t you make movies, Sharon? One day I decide to take the advice. I was very lucky. On the same day I went to an agent’s office from New York, a very strange man came in and said: 'It’s you. I’m gonna make you a movie star.' It looks like a fairytale, I know, but it isn’t."

The man was Martin Ransohoff, a producer who took 30 months and spent more than 500.000 dollars to prepare Sharon for stardom. The first movie Sharon did was Eye of the Devil. The impact she created was such that when Polish director Roman Polanski saw it in a private exhibition in London, he took a plane and went to Hollywood to take a look at that sensational girl. He had been looking for a face like hers for a long time: pure and depraved at the same time, to act in a movie about vampires he was preparing. The meeting of Sharon and Polanski became love at first sight. Much to Ransohoff’s anger, she had no doubts, went along with the young Polish director when he went back to London.

"And why not? I never promised Martin I would give up the right to live my own life the way I want. And then, it’s funny when one falls in love. It happens suddenly. Contracts, plans, everything changes at that moment. The notion I was in love with Roman overwhelmed me. Nothing else mattered. It’s wonderful and horrible at the same time. I stayed in London with Roman. I made Fearless Vampire Killers for him. Martin wouldn’t accept it. He even threatened me. I told him to go to hell. And what annoyed him the most was that I was living with Roman. 'At least, get married' he would shout. It’s funny; Hollywood is a very depraved place, the hell’s door, but knows how to be Victorian when it’s about beginners like me. The pressure was such that Roman understood. He married me. He’s an angel. He realized it was necessary. Hollywood offered me something wonderful though Martin Ransohoff: the role of Jennifer, in Valley of the Dolls, America’s number one best seller, the depraved and pill addicted vamp was coveted by people such as Candice Bergen, Anna Karina, Anouk Aimee, Anne Bancroft. They wanted to give me the role if I married Roman. And that happened. The worst, now, is that Martin doesn’t know that when I love I don’t give a damn to career and fame. When I love and get married, I want children, a home, a quiet life. He says Valley of the Dolls put Hollywood at my feet. And so what? Women who can handle marriage and career are very rare. When you want both things tragedy happens: the husband is jealous of his wife’s success, the wife gets tired of the husband’s jealousy, just because she wants the husband as much as her career. And what’s more important? A magazine cover to look for one whole day, or the love of a husband to have your whole life?"

Caption below photo reads:

30 MONTHS TO BE PREPARED – "Martin just wanted to prove that he could make anybody a movie star. I was very luck but then came the worst: 30 months of super intensive preparation. Diction, walking, singing, acting classes and some small parts in television. I learned how to be an actress."

Here is another great recommendation for "The Fearless Vampire Killers" :

http://zombiesaremagic.blogspot.com/2009/12/fearless-vampire-killers-1967.html

Micaela has uploaded many great videos of Sharon including the Hatami ones here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSLTWdLY2Co

Ellen Graham and Sharon Tate

Thanks to Melly for sharing this article on photographer Ellen Graham and Sharon Tate:

http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/4159

Ellen Graham’s eye on the world: Sharon Tate

I first knew Ellen and her husband Ian Graham in Los Angeles where they have a wonderful house in Beverly Hills and often entertain with cocktail parties. Ellen’s fabulous photographs are kept mainly in one large room, a gallery/library. There are so many famous faces in fascinating places that you can’t resist being distracted by them. Many times you’d see the same faces out on the Grahams’ terrace or around the pool during cocktails. In 2004 she published some of them in her “The Bad and the Beautiful” (Harry Abrams) with Christopher Walken on the cover.

Sharon Tate

The photograph (above) was taken in May of 1969. It was a beautiful spring day in Beverly Hills around four o’clock in the afternoon when the light is right, on the lawn of the house on Cielo Drive that she shared with the director Roman Polanski.

She was one of the most beautiful women I ever photographed – one of three at the time – Julie Christie (see NYSD 2.9.08) and Candy Bergen being the other two. Those are faces of perfection, with all the beauty of the old movie stars like Swanson and Garbo – the bone structure, the eyes, the skin.

She was very sweet, very much of a lady, very cooperative and very much appreciative. She trusted me completely but I didn’t have to tell her anything. She knew what to do (and she didn’t have to do anything because she was so beautiful; nobody could look better).

Ellen Graham

She was pregnant expecting her first child. She trusted me completely. I was overwhelmed with her beauty and her kindness. There were no press agents, no handlers, no stylists, no makeup people, unlike today when those people are always around. Without them, you have an intimacy with your subject –there’s no one to get in the way (these people don’t know anything; anyway).

Sharon Tate didn’t need that; she loved the camera and the camera loved her. The session lasted about an hour – I try not to go beyond that because people get tired. She changed her clothes a couple of times. It was a very easy session and she was pleased enough with it that she told me she wanted me to photograph her baby.

Three months later that hideous tragedy which occurred in that very house ended all that might have been for this beautiful woman and her child. When I saw Roman several years later in Paris, I said, “I have some beautiful pictures of Sharon.” He said, “I don’t want to be reminded.”

I understood. But looking back, I now think we should all be reminded.

— Ellen Graham

Photo of the Week, Woman who claims people tell her she looks like Sharon??? & more

Here is a photo I found of Sharon were she looks very 1960s 'mod'!

Also, there is a woman claiming people tell her she looks like Sharon Tate among a few others? 

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/quinn-219139-alvarado-says.html

No offense but I don't see it?  Do you?

Here is a short article I found on Sharon:

Newsweek March 4, 1968

The New American Beauties

Every year another British lovely marches on screen, swings her purse, tosses her mane or hugs the camera, and becomes the star of the year. Before the British were the Italians - sexy, shapely and abandoned. Always there are the French, who come in all styles from the life-loving to the world-weary. But when was the last American actress to electrify the world's moviegoers? Probably you would have to go all the way back to Marilyn to find an answer - that is, until Faye Dunaway came along...

...Unless you're Marilyn Monroe - she had it, and all the bad movies in the world couldn't obscure it - the star needs the right movie at the right time. "Bonnie and Clyde" was that kind of movie for Faye Dunaway, and she was ready for it. All over Hollywood are other girls who are waiting, and looking for their Bonnie, and in the meantime seeking alternate roads to stardom. The ways are many.

...Candice Bergen, Mia Farrow, Raquel Welch, Katharine Ross, Leigh Taylor-Young, Gayle Hunnicutt...

Astoundingly photogenic, infinitely curvaceous, Sharon Tate is one of the most smashing young things to hit Hollywood in a long time. She began as the invention of wheeler-dealer Martin Ransohoff and in her five years on the Hollywood treadmill, she has, surprisingly, made progress. In fact, in her last film, "Valley of the Dolls," she managed to be the only living doll. Now married to the brilliant and volatile Polish director Roman Polanski, perhaps she will begin to fulfill her tremendous potential.

Remembering her husband's "Repulsion", she dreams: "I'd like to be an American Catherine Deneuve. She plays beautiful, sensitive, deep parts with a little bit of intelligence behind them." And then about her past, "They see me as a dolly on a trampoline." Her gorgeous hazel eyes open wide at the thought of Faye Dunaway. "Dunaway!" she sighs. "Oooooooohhhh! She's a woman. She's there, you know it, and there's no way around it." But Sharon Tate is still looking for Sharon Tate. "Sometimes," she sighs, "I think it would be better to be a sex symbol, because at least I would know where I was. But," she adds quickly, "I'd lose my mind."