Valerie Perrine, American actress. Member Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of television and Radio Artists.
Background
Perrine was born in Galveston, Texas, the daughter of Winifred "Renee" (née McGinley), a dancer who appeared in Earl Carroll"s Vanities, and Kenneth Perrine, a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States. Army. Owing to her father"s career, Perrine lived in many locations as the family moved to different posts.
Education
Student, University Arizona, 1961.
Career
She began her career as a Las Vegas showgirl. Some believe she made her film debut with an uncredited part in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), but this is not true. She played soft-core pornography actress Montana Wildhack in Kurt Vonnegut"s Slaughterhouse-Five (1972).
Perrine was photographed for a pictorial layout in the May 1972 issue of Playboy, later appearing on the cover in August 1981.
She then became the first actress to purposely display herself nude on American television by completely baring her breasts during the May 4, 1973, Public Broadcasting Service broadcast of Bruce Jay Friedman"s Steambath on Hollywood Television Theater. (She was seen taking a shower from the side totally undressed) Only a few Public Broadcasting Service stations nationwide were adventurous enough to carry the program
Later in 1973, she appeared in the episode "When the Girls Came Out to Play" of the romantic anthology television series Love Story (1973). She was Carlotta Monti in the biopic West.C. Fields and Maine (1976) and one of her best-remembered movie roles came as Mission Eve Teschmacher, moll of criminal mastermind Lex Luthor, in Superman (1978).
Foreign this role, she was nominated for the 1979 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She reprised her role as Mission Teschmacher in Superman II (1980). Her career grew uneven after an appearance in Can"t Stop the Music (1980), for which she was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actress. This film has since become a cult classic.
In 1982, she played the role of Marcy, the wife of a corrupt police officer, in The Border with Jack Nicholson.
In the years since then, Perrine has worked in lower-profile projects, although she did have a small supporting role in the 2000 Mel Gibson film What Women Want. In 1995, Perrine made a guest appearance on the series Homicide: Life on the Street, playing an ex-wife of Richard Belzer"s Detective John Munch.
Membership
Member Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of television and Radio Artists.