Samantha Eggar

She married Sam Elliott and has a cameo in "Donnie Darko".

I thought killed herself.

I get her confused with Inger Stevens.

No. Inger sued Zsa Zsa and won.

R1- That is Katharine Ross.

Here’s Samantha at Stacy Keach's Walk of Fame star event 2 weeks ago, with Juliet Mills and Maxwell Caulfield. Of this line-up, I’d say she’s the best preserved.

R6 In this photo, Samantha looks better than she did 40 years ago!

God Maxwell Caulfield was so hot.

Funny how Max and Juliet have... met in the middle.

He's kept his body quite trim.

Get a grip, R1. It was Katharine Ross who married Sam Elliott.

OP that image looks like it's from David Cronenberg's The Brood, which IMO was pretty good.

Her eyes are green, her hair was auburn, and her dress was vivid red!

She wasn't a drunk. Just a Brit.

According to IMDB:

In 1966 she rented what would later become known the infamous 'Sharon Tate' house on Cielo Drive.

Rather unexpectedly, she dated Kissinger after her divorce.

She still looked good at that time R16

Too bad Kissinger didn't.

A fantastic actress who is not as famous as she should be. She started out in theater in London and was directed by Tony Richardson in her early career IIRC. She was excellent in "The Collector" playing a captive to a looney Terence Stamp, and equally great in "The Brood," which I think is Cronenberg's best movie (sorry, "Videodrome" lovers). She also played an actress in the low-budget '80s slasher "Curtains" which happens to be another favorite of mine.

If I recall correctly, my impression was that she got caught up in the Canadian film industry in the '70s and '80s, as she was a British export, and Canada was employing a lot of those people in their films. The problem, however, was that many of these films were tax shelter flicks or low budget, so many of them weren't great and didn't exactly bring much exposure to talent.

R19 "A fantastic actress who is not as famous as she should be."

Totally Agree.

huyyyy

I was transfixed by The Collector back in the 60s. It had a magical music score by Maurice Jarre and William Wyler's always-tasteful direction.

But this woman made no impression on me. She was just another Julie-Christie-clone. I know she got Dr Dolittle because Julie Andrews didn't want to do it.

She seemed to disappear quite quickly. Such an awful name; I would have changed it.

"Samantha Eggar" sure as hell is a step up from "Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar" (yes, that is her actual birth name).

This woman was nondescript.

There were so many nondescript women around in those days. Nicole Maurey, Barbara Murray Anne Crawford, Piper Laurie, Belinda Lee, Dana Wynter, Shirley Eaton, Hope Lange, Janette Scott were all throughly nondescript.

They couldn't sing, dance, act or crack or joke. There were merely one-dimensional, anodyne, pale, passive prizes for the hero to take.

Shirley Eaton wasn't even allowed to speak with her own voice in GOLDFINGER. And she was English!

She was in this movie which one reviewer on IMDB describes as an 'overcooked potboiler'.

There was a bathroom murder scene where she may (or many not) have exposed her tiny lemon-shaped breasts. I don't remember, I was too busy fixating on the handsome Maximilian Schell.

Fired after the Falcon Crest pilot and replaced by Susan Sullivan.

And Jane Wyman's brown wig.

R6 Who's that fat man next to her?

Wow, never knew she was the original Maggie.

To me, growing up in the '70s and '80s, she was just somebody who turned up on Love Boat and Fantasy Island now and then. I assumed she had been famous a long time ago, as she seemed pretty old to me.

Interesting two-part interview done five years ago, touches on all aspects of her long career.

[quote] No. I have no regrets. Never had a regret about anything. But I certainly have no regrets about the path I took. Mind you, my agent wanted to kill me at times.

^ That's an informative interview; she sounds sensible while admitting she's appeared in a lot of trash.

I think the other man in the photo is Barry Primus.

R30 Thanks for sharing!

R30 That interview said a lot of her bad movie choices were because of her children's schooling (but I don't think she mentioned a husband).

All the clips reminded me that Eggar had big hair and a button-up nose like Diana Rigg. But she never struck me as intelligent the way Rigg does.

And she never struck me as virtuous in her roles like Jean Simmons or Julie Andrews did —nor as slutty as Julie Christie was (she commenced her career as a British version of Brigitte Bardot).

It sounds like we've exhausted all that needs to be said about this woman.

She didn't have multiple husbands; she wasn't rude to her fellows; there was no sex-scandal; and she didn't appear in many big big-earning movies.

Do we believe that Linda Thorson lied about the mink coat?

Not the mink coat! ? !

She was more interesting than Dana Wynter, who was a definite b/c-lister, lucky to do television (and she did a lot of it, including drek like "Love Boat"). Hope Lange was a decent actress, but an ensemble player, not someone who could carry a film. Eggar was a presence and a decent actress, but, again, not someone who could carry a film.

She actually beat Julie Christie for the golden globe in 1966. Christie won the Oscar, and Eggar didn’t even show up for the Oscars that year.

Dana Wynter starred in the iconic film Invasion of the Body Snatchers R38. She definitely had a more lustrous career than Samantha.

Dana Wynter is hardly known for her turn in Invasion of the Body Snatchers even. Eggar, though not a major name, appeared in a wider range of movies, some of which have reached classic or cult classic status (Mary Poppins, The Brood, Walk Don't Run, The Collector). She also won the Cannes award for Best Actress for The Collector, in addition to getting the Golden Globe and the Oscar nom. Wynter was a television actress for the majority of her career.

I don't think Eggar was in "Mary Poppins".

You are correct R42, I meant Dr. Doolittle; not sure how the wires got crossed on that one

Wonky eye

Her wonky eyes aren't as wonky as the lovely Diana Wynyard.

R38 You say the right thing about her not being able to "carry a film".

Eggar never got top billing, AFAIK. She always had someone else to 'carry the film'.

Body Snatchers was an iconic film but it was not exactly a career builder. Kevin McCarthy (a better actor than Wynter) wasn't exactly launched into the big leagues, either.

She was one of the finalists for the role of Sable Colby on the Dynasty spin-off.

I don't want to go off-topic but I heard some rumour that Kevin McCarthy was involved in secret sex with Monty Clift.

But, back on-topic, it seems Samantha Eggar's lacklustre career was involved with her family and wanting to stay in Lotus Land USA and not even bothering to take roles in England.

She did return to the British stage in 1985 for The Seagull with John Hurt; and The Lonely Road with Anthony Hopkins.

McCarthy and Clift were briefly roommates. I suspect Monty got more action from Merv Griffin, another roomie. I can't imagine Monty grooving to "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts".

I'm forcing myself to watch all those Samantha Eggar movies I've been avoiding for the last 30 years.

One interesting one was on Youtube. 'A Name for Evil' aka 'Satanicus' (1973) with Robert Culp showing off his penis.

Miss Kay Lenz breezed onto the scene and put all these old dames out of the business. Kay could play any part and she was so beautiful and fresh and new. RIP.

Kaye Lenz. Dyke, ya know.

Samantha basically got top billing for Curtains and Demonoid, but that's about it and they were both cheesy horror flicks. They're both fun, though.

John Vernon is first billed on this poster. Was the billing altered on other posters?

I heard here and there that Eggar was a demanding bitch to work with, and lost work as a result. Not a big enough star to begin with, she was purposely overlooked because of her behavior. She became a has-been almost overnight.

That doesn't really make sense. Low budget movies have less time and resources. Eggar mentioned how she shot her "The Brood" scenes in four days.

Well, R57 you might have heard that Eggar lost work as a result of being a demanding bitch.

I heard she went a bit screwy after she married record-holding swimmer from Stanford graduate who died soon after she gave birth to some children.

And her convent upbringing flared up so she campaigned for Catholic Church stuff (there's a clip of her campaigning for Catholic Church stuff on YouTube).

^. That Catholic thing you mention.

Once a Catholic, you a Catholic eternally.

Is Samantha one of those creepy Catholics, though or did she just grow up at a Catholic? A lot of her movies haven't been exactly Catholic-friendly.

She does look very good these days, though. She seems to have held herself together better than a lot of her contemporaries and, if she has had work done, it's been good work.

She's 'a sure colleen' with her thick, red hair.

I somehow doubt she is a hardcore conservative Catholic R61. People who were raised Catholic often still consider themselves Catholic even if they don't actively practice or rigidly believe in all of it. It's a cultural thing. Catholicism is very much like Judaism in that way.

Samantha commenting on her convent education, per Wikipedia:

[quote]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.