Yvette Mimieux Is DEAD TO ME

Si jeune.

RIP.

I've seen several of her films, but can't recall anything about her. I'd call her forgettable as an actress, if I could remember anything about her.

I remember that name mostly from the ABC Movie of the Week.

‘3 in the Attic’

RIP

I just saw her in The Time Machine. She was so beautiful. Yvette had a unique ethnic background she was half French and half Mexican.

I wonder what she looked like in recent years....fascinated to see how a woman with such ethereal youthful beauty aged.

I mostly remember her for that 2 parter on Dr. Kildare "Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright" as his surfer girl love interest. LIFE Magazine did a big cover story on that.

I pretty much only knew her from "The Time Machine".

Always thought she looked like her name sounded

I always got her mixed up with Tuesday Weld.

Time Machine was her first role but let’s not forget Where The Boys Are.

Loved her. ‘Oh Meredith. Yalies!’

Co-starred with Richard Chamberlain in Joy in the Morning

Toys in the Attic

And Berrenger’s!

Light in the Piazza with Olivia DeH and George Hamilton. Yvonne did a good job.

I like that movie R14. It's funny because it implies if you happen to have a mentally delayed daughter, just dump her with an Italian! They wont know the difference!

Piazza...

R15 I got a similar vibe -- if you have a mentally delayed daughter, take her to a foreign country: The language barrier will disguise the mental difficulty as shyness and naivete.

"Jackson County Jail" (1976)

She was no Nancy Kovack.

I'll never forget her as the title role in "Hit Lady," about a beautiful woman assassin.

Yvette Mimieux IS the Hit Lady and She Never Misses.

From a 2018 DL thread:

Supposedly, on the set of "Joy in the Morning," Yvette Mimieux, who had become friendly with Richard on her two guest appearances on "Dr Kildare," found out that Richard was gay and went around making disparaging comments about his manhood. This created a lot of on-set tension, which leaked out to the gossip columns, printed without naming names. Richard was a "nice guy" who lived quietly and didn't have scandalous sexcapades like Sal Mineo or Anthony Perkins, so the press spared him the "shame" of an exposé.

I was always described as a little light in the piazza.

R22 well it was a different time dear.

R22, I remember that.

Scorchy did it better.

I’m surprised. She was super rich and super healthy.

She was something of a fashio victim.

Au revoir, Yvette. Salut. RIP...

R19 Her husband was just as rich as Zubin, however.

Ugly clothes but her face looks good at r28. She aged well

R28 Lacroix, darling.

This outfit is particularly ugly.

I liked the movie where she was a sadistic headmistress of a character building corporate camp. She stripped a fat guy nude, criticized his body and put him in a cage! Then she did Walt Disney’s The Black Hole.

Her last movie was a Jackie Collins adaptation.

I read she died in her sleep...natural causes. She just turned 80 on the 8th.

*

^^ The Betty White syndrome.

Awww, she was so cute and her name sounds like a wee French kitty cat.

[quote]Supposedly, on the set of "Joy in the Morning," Yvette Mimieux, who had become friendly with Richard on her two guest appearances on "Dr Kildare," found out that Richard was gay and went around making disparaging comments about his manhood. This created a lot of on-set tension, which leaked out to the gossip columns, printed without naming names. Richard was a "nice guy" who lived quietly and didn't have scandalous sexcapades like Sal Mineo or Anthony Perkins, so the press spared him the "shame" of an exposé.

Last week Chamberlain wished her a happy 80th birthday.

A very interesting woman. RIP, Yvette.

She was in one of my favorite cheesy movies of the 60's, Diamond Head.

Played Charlton Heston's sister. In love with "Hawaiian" brothers, noted Italian from South Philly, James Darren and racially ambiguous Greek, George Chakiris.

Wow. I was just thinking about "Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell" this afternoon only to read this tonight.

Did the Devil Dog Hound of Hell finally get her?

What's on her V.I.N.C.E.N.T?

R40, it's clear from the posts that he isn't running that account himself

We name our cat after her. The cat also died.

Yvette Meowmeow?

^Exactly

R46 I totally missed that. Thanks--

Is her surname 2 or 3 syllables?

Like Mimiograph?

On TCM, Robert Osborne pronounced her name as Mimmy-O and he was usually good about pronunciation of names

R5- The Time Machine (1960) is SUCH a good movie.

Rod Taylor is such a good looking HUNK in it too.

What was her marriage to Stanley Donen all about?

The Black Hole! I was 10 when this came out…and I even had the action figures, including the one of Ms. Yvette.

Sci-fi action star

In Jane Fonda’s autobiography she mentions Yvette as one of her acquaintances during the 60s as they were both married to french guys.

This one stings a bit as I remember her so fondly from “the time machine” which is a film that was shown to me as a child and I became obsessed with for a while. As an adult I watched more of her work such as “toys in the attic”, “diamond head”, “where the boys are” and “ the mercenaries.” While not having the gravitas of more long lasting stars of the era, she was always a welcome presence in film.

I assume she stopped working out of choice.

Quentin tarrentino payed homage to her by naming a character in “inglorious basterds” after her.

A little saddened to hear that rumour about her treatment of chamberlain but who knows the full story. I do remember reading in Linda Evans’s autobiography that she was replaces by mimieux in the movie “the black hole” which caused her to seriously give up acting but instead she got “dynasty” and counted her blessings instead.

She bared her breasts in a Tommy Le Jones movie.

Nice tits

Correction to my previous post. Yvette was living with a french guy in the 60s, I think a director. She was not married to him.

Was it the AIDS?

So The Black Hole wasn't a reference to Candace Owens' pussy?

Somewhere in Beverly Hills, Richard Chamberlain is smiling.

I think she was better looking in middle age.

DL faves Anita Morris and Jeff Conaway were in the cast.

I remember as kids watching The Black Hole with my sister and she pronounced her name Yvette Mee-Maw. As a little gay boy, I knew the correct way to pronounce her name.

The Last Waltz.

Chamberlain doesn't pronounce it "Mimmy-O."

I liked her. She rose above her exceptional beauty and the early studio system contract player grooming to take on some interesting roles in the 1970s. She was especially proud of Hit Lady, which she also wrote.

I got the impression she became tired of the struggle for parts, especially as she hit 40. I think that is why she married Howard Ruby and became a Hollywood wife. (Ruby at one time owned the majority of corporate housing in the US via Oakwood.) I’m sure Ruby is devastated, it’s hard for widowers and by all accounts he was devoted to her.

She reteamed with Rod Taylor for a very good action film which is hard to find today. It was very violent and fast-paced and called “Dark of the Sun.”

All dying in their sleep...

With lovin' on their mind...

It's funny that most people on DL remember her from The Time Machine (although Rod Taylor was so hot in that film!). I always think of Yvette from Where The Boys Are.

[quote]I pretty much only knew her from "The Time Machine".

Has NO ONE watched "Where the Boys Are"?

Has Richard Chamberlain commented yet?

Yvette's Baudelaire LP from 1968.

She's no Jayne...

Jayne looked ridiculous and ethnic posing as a wasp.

NOW is the time for someone to ask if Susan Dey commented yet.

They both were in the movie "Skyjacked!"

I always wanted to meet her so I can ask her what it was like to work with Chris Jones b

R73 r74 Please.

We lost Sue Lyon and Carol Lynley, and now Yvette Mimieux. Who's next Tuesday Weld or Diane McBain?

Let's hope for Connie Stevens.

R82 Just not Connie Stevens. Or Joey Heatherton.

Did she make it in my Starlets thread?

She was just another blind bimbo as far as I was concerned.

She spoiled my theory that Stanley Donen was an obvious homosexual (R55). And she helped make that ridiculously-unbalanced movie 'Toys In The Attic" even more so.

In her starlet days, Yvette seemed to have the market cornered on "challenged" or "dazed" characters... But then so did Carol Lynley and Tuesday Weld!

Joseph Cornell's Yvette Mimieux collage is now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Notorious Republican.

^^ Well, that's disappointing.

She was paired with Gene Kelly on a Love Boat episode. Kind of interesting as she had been married to Stanley Donen, Gene's former - whatever he was - co-director - and I don't think Gene and Stanley were friends any longer.

[quote]Jayne looked ridiculous and ethnic posing as a wasp.

Apparently not too ridiculous or ethnic, since I never noticed she was anything other than wasp-looking.

"Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania,[2] the only child of Herbert William Palmer (1904–1936), of English and German ancestry, and Vera Jeffrey (née Palmer) Palmer (1903–2000), of English and Cornish descent."

So what was her ethnicity?

[quote]We lost Sue Lyon and Carol Lynley, and now Yvette Mimieux. Who's next Tuesday Weld or Diane McBain?

Diane McBain is 80, the same age as Yvette was. Tuesday is 78.

I still thought of Yvette Mimieux and Carol Lynley as young starlets, right up to their deaths. Pamela Tiffin, also. She died just over a year ago.

But Mother Superior Dolores Hart continues to thrive in a convent in Connecticut. She had the right idea.

Kind of sad that not a single major network has mentioned her death.

Someone posted upthread that Richard Chamberline lives in California - I thought he lived in Hawaii with his partner.

No, that was Raymond Burr.

Chamberlain used to live in Hawaii, not sure if she still does. I thought I read that he broke up with his partner

Joseph Cornell was an odd duck but I like his work and Mimieux must’ve been very flattered.

I watched Diamond Head a while ago, always interested in seeing Hawaii in the 60s, and it was confusing at first because Heston seemed very controlling. I thought she was his wife at first but she was his sister and there seemed to be an incest subtext.

Burr didn't live in Hawaii, r96.

Jim Nabors?

Chamberlain used to live in Hawaii.

Chamberlain, who lives in LA now, separated from his former partner Martin Rabbett in 2010, stating that they no longer lived together but were better friends than ever. He'll be 88 next month, had a debilitating fall last year.

That's what the doctor will tell you when you reach that age..."DON'T fall".

That story about Mimieux making fun of Chamberlain’s sexuality in the 1960s was resurrected in the 1980s, when he became a TV miniseries perennial. Yet (if memory serves) Chamberlain wrote warmly about Mimieux in his memoir.

This is an interesting read about the development and filming of “The Picasso Summer” with Albert Finney and Yvette Mimieux, which despite its impressive pedigree was never released to theaters!

Paula Prentiss and Diane Baker are the only Old Hollywood stars still alive.

R107 Tuesday Weld is still around, as are Shirley MacLaine, Joanne Woodward, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren......

I think that poster was joking.

Is there a link or any kind of proof on that story of Mimieux's homophobic remarks about Chamberlain? I find it hard to believe, - not necessarily that she was homophobic, but that she would have so publicly defamed a co-star like that.

I always confused Yvette with Carol Lynley, though I liked them both. I just got confused which one was in which film.

Carol Lynley had very full cheeks and a prettier nose than Yvette.

[quote]I always confused Yvette with Carol Lynley, though I liked them both. I just got confused which one was in which film.

How funny. I always confused them, too. I thought I was the only one.

It's called starlet confusion, r113.

Miss Pettet?

[quote] Is her surname 2 or 3 syllables?

Deux.

Mim Yeux.

The X isn't pronounced.

Of course. But people who know how to pronounce yeux will get it, less so "yeu."

She started out in similar vehicles to Jane Fonda. It’s just a matter of lucky breaks how a lot of these starlets careers turned out.

Hardly. She had decades to prove herself.

Diamond Head was fun. Chakiris was so gorgeous in it. He and Yvette nearly eclipsed the topography.

A body made for bikinis . . . it wasn't all exercise, although I think she'd started out in ballet . . .

She had abs when people didn't.

R120 I'm not a Fonda fan, but compared to Yvette Mimieux she's Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck.....

R124 - Now, now, don't be churlish to either lady (Fonda is on the edge of the abyss as well). No one ever said with any seriousness that Mimieux was a great actress.

And although Fonda gave a couple of performances that were a tad less than convincing (Nine to Five comes to mind), she gave a good many damned fine ones (Klute and Coming Home come to mind).

I just think we never really saw what Yvette was capable of. Jane managed to evolve out of the mgm comedies and showed some serious acting chops. Yvette didn’t really get that opportunity and seemed to just tire of the business. Dolores hart was similar, only she went off abs became a nun.

Tire of the business? She last worked in 1992. She had plenty of time to show what she could do.

You’re only as good as your roles and I do not think Yvette was ever given much. I think she could have been had she been given something meaty say the susannah York role in “they shoot horses, don’t they?” for example.

R105 you just said it though… in the 60s! The fact anyone would be shocked a gay man was made fun of for being gay in the 60s is absurd to me.

A lot worse was happening to many gay men all over the country than being made fun of.

[Quote] You’re only as good as your roles and I do not think Yvette was ever given much.

Not true. Watch some of those shitty Star Wars movies. Note how the old, repertory trained Brit actors don't embarass themselves like the younger generation (and that includes Ewan McGregor).

Jane was also a beneficiary of nepotism. Let’s stop comparing.

It's funny how people like r129 will defend some homophobes. Hollywood is more liberal and has a higher % of gays than the rest of America, even in the 60s most actors were not bullying gay co-stars.

Susannah York was trained at RADA and one of her earliest roles, Sophie Western in Tony Richardson's TOM JONES, was offered to her three times by the director before she agreed to do it. I don't think it was the same at all for York. She also came from a wealthy, distinguished family.

Yes, Fonda got in the door because of her name. But so did Vanessa Redgrave and her sister Lynn and they acquitted themselves fantastically.

They still had to produce once in.

R132 I am not defending homophobia. I am stating the truth. It was the 60s. How can you be shocked? It makes no sense.

Hollywood having a lot of gays doesn’t change the perspective of straight people, especially then.

Somebody please provide proof that Yvette belittled Richard over being gay...

Weird how so many other stars in the 60s (and earlier) managed to have gay friends and be supportive of gay people....

R136 but many weren’t… how many stars were openly friends with gays? Please already. Your denial is scary.

Like Lee Radziwill?

[quote] found out that Richard was gay and went around making disparaging comments about his manhood.

Wait, she said he had a small penis?

R137, your denial is scary. Stop defending a homophobic person because she starred in a few movies you like

Ok… one…

Wait wait wait r140… based on your posting history I thought you were against “wokeness”….

The Grim Reaper took away Yvette's wokeness.

"I was as homophobic as the public I sought to please". - Richard Chamberlain, "Shattered Love"

If you want to see how friendly many MANY straight actors/directors/producers/writers were with the gays (closeted and out), you need not look any further than Roddy MacDowell's Malibu home movies on youtube. And this was back in 1965.

You can be friendly and still be pretty homophobic. A lot of people smile in a black persons face and then call them the N word behind their back. I’ve seen it.

There's casual bigotry typical to the era and then there's genuine hatefulness. I doubt most people who willingly interacted often with black or gay people were earnestly hateful.

R110, I don't think Yvette ever publicly defamed him. It was workplace gossipmongering.

I think this Vanity Fair piece was the last time she cooperated with media. It was 19 years ago and she was styled to the hilt, but she looked hot. I'm assuming t

For an actress who you'd presume most people barely remember, I've been shocked by all the appreciations I've been seeing on my FaceBook scroll. Maybe that just says more about my FaceBook friends, lol.

Anyway, her presence in The Time Machine, Light in the Piazza, Where the Boys Are and that 2 part episode of Dr. Kildare really made a lasting impression on a lot of Baby Boomers. RIP Yvette.

That picture at R149 was taken in her bedroom!

She’s dressed like I Dream of Jeannie

She seems to have loved color so much in her later wardrobe, I'm surprised to see her bedroom barely had any.

Eldergays, did Yvette and Connie Francis hate each other? Miss Francis always posts touching tributes to her former colleagues who pass away on her facebook page but she hasn't said anything about Yvette.

R154 Fuck you! I've been drinking for 5 days straight. I'll get to it!

Connie is going blind in one eye.

On the special features of Where The Boys Are there are interviews with Connie Francis and Paula Prentiss, they talk about still seeing Mother Dolores Hart but I got the impression they never were in touch with Yvette.

Does anyone remember the Deb Stars and the Deb Star Ball? It was an entertainment industry event started by Howard Smit to promote one of the motion picture unions and it got very big in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I cracked up at this anecdote about Mimieux and the Deb Stars from one of Tom Lisanti’s books. Something about the term “enraged starlet.” He’s correct: that white stole photo is ubiquitous.

I'm pretty sure Connie Stevens was popular amongst teenage boys.

Guys even back then sensed that Connie was a dyke.

We're not talking about Connie Ford.

R158, Do I remember the Deb Stars and the Deb Star Ball? Of course I do!

R162 that’s a lot of tulle!

R162, So do I.

R164 who is above you? Is it Gena Rowlands during her starlet era?

Hardly. Rowlands wasn't a newcomer then. She'd been in the likes of A Child Is Waiting.

Wow! I don't remember these Deb Star Balls at all and I was certainly paying attention to those things as a gayling. Is there a photo out there of Yvette in her white fox stole?

I recognize a few names from the earlier photo (Jill St. John, Myrna Fahey, Judi Meredith and, of course Tuesday in her Chinese cheongsam) but none besides Raquel in the second one. Who are all those other ladies?

R167

1st row: Beverly Washburn, Raquel Welch, Barbara Parkins, Beverly Stuart 2nd row: Mary Ann Mobley, Laurie Sibbald, Margaret Mason, Donna Loren 3rd row: Tracy McHale Janet Landgard.

Thanks, r168. I recognize Mobley, Washburn and Parkins now. Amazing how Raquel overwhelms them all in that photo, though she did get the best placing.

Janet Landgard had a good part in “the swimmer” I wonder why her career didn’t take off.

Was "The Swimmer" shot years before it was released? It's strange that she had a three year gap so early in her career.

Damn. I never knew Victor Buno was ever first billed in anything.

R171 Maybe she was in plays?

r167 Deb Stars of 1962 with Karyn Kupcinet in center and (a blonde) Lana Wood to Karyn's left.

r174 Names for the photo in here. I remember Wood and Kupcinet of course, as well as Mimsy Farmer, Bad Seed Patty McCormack, and Joan Freeman.

I recognized Roberta Shore and Sheila James (Keuhl)!

^^ And Sheila James of Dobie Gillis fame, now Sheila Kuehl the prominent lesbian lawmaker.

What's Zelda doing there?

r164...

r167 She was a Deb Star of 1959. Group was Carol Douglas, Diane McBain, Yvette Mimieux, Leslie Parrish, Barbara Lawson, Linda Hutchins, Pamela Duncan, Shirley Knight and Sherry Jackson. This photo was definitely from the shoot. They often used makeup in the shoots because Deb Star was a creation of the entertainment industry's hair and makeup guild. I'm surprised there are not more publicity photos of the 1959 class since they appeared on a Bob Hope TV special.

Shirley Knight must have loathed being a part of that!

They like me! They really like me! "Deb Stars of 1966. Including Cheryl Miller (Daktari), Peggy Lipton (The Mod Squad), Sally Field (The Flying Nun), Melody Patterson (F-Troop), Sherry Alberoni (former Mouseketeer), and Edy Williams."

Edy...forever a Deb Star!

Ryan O'Neal with Barbara Parkins at the annual Deb Star ball at the Palladium in 1966. They looked hot.

Where's Sally?

I remember Phyllis Davis from "Vega$" with Robert Urich.

Great shot of Yvette on October 19, 1957 at 16. This is probably the most animated and natural she has ever appeared. Every year, she seemed to look a bit more remote.

She was weird.

Agreed, R185, as her career went on, she became more reserved and remote — and less appealing.

Can’t believe Edy Williams was a Deb Star — have to admit, she looks really pretty in the photo at R184!

I see Sally.

“The Caper of the Golden Bulls” is a fun and enjoyable heist movie!

If The Time Machine and Light in the Piazza were two of Yvette's first films, she couldn't have gotten any more remote as her career progressed. She was practically a zombie in those two.