Jill St. John - WikiHQ

Jill St. John (born Jill Arlyn Oppenheim; August 19, 1940) is an American retired actress. She is best known for playing Tiffany Case, the first American Bond girl of the James Bond franchise, in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever. Additional performances in film include Holiday for Lovers, The Lost World, Tender Is the Night, Come Blow Your Horn, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, Who's Minding the Store?, Honeymoon Hotel, The Liquidator, The Oscar, Tony Rome, Sitting Target and The Concrete Jungle.

On television, St. John has appeared in such top-rated shows as Batman, The Big Valley, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Hart to Hart, Vega$, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Magnum, P.I. and Seinfeld. During her Hollywood heyday she was almost equally famous for her high-profile social life and frequent romantic associations with prominent public figures. St. John is married to actor Robert Wagner and has known him since she was 18 years old. They share credits on nearly a dozen screen and stage productions, notably the miniseries remake of Around the World in 80 Days.

Early life

St. John was born Jill Arlyn Oppenheim at Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles on August 19, 1940, to Edward Oppenheim, a restaurateur from Brooklyn, and his philanthropist wife Betty (née Goldberg), from Philadelphia. She has no siblings, but grew up with many cousins, her mother being one of eight surviving children and her father one of three. St. John's parents married in 1934. Her maternal grandparents were Russian, of partial Jewish descent, while her paternal great-great-grandparents emigrated from Hessen, Germany and Amsterdam.

Raised in Encino, St. John was a member of the Michael Panaieff Children's Ballet Company with Natalie Wood and Stefanie Powers; all three would later marry or co-star with actor Robert Wagner. As a young girl, St. John says she never played with dolls, instead preferring a toy cash register and money.

Career

St. John made her stage debut at age five in The Conspiracy at Geller's Theater Workshop on January 31, 1946. She describes herself during this period as "precocious. I could read really well by the age of six." St. John's television debut came in 1948 when she joined the cast of Sandy Dreams, a musical fantasy series for children featuring Richard Beymer. In December 1949, she played Missie Cratchit in The Christmas Carol, one of the earliest filmed adaptations of Charles Dickens' classic 1843 story. Shot in kinescope, it is a rare example of a 1940s live TV broadcast still surviving in entirety.

By the age of 10, St. John was a regular on KTLA's Fantastick Studios, Ink. At 11, she appeared in three episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. She had an uncredited role in the film Thunder in the East (1951) and was in episodes of Sky King, Fireside Theatre, and Cavalcade of America.

She attended Powers Professional School and received her high school diploma from Hollywood Professional School in the spring of 1955 at age 14.

right|thumb|John Saxon, [[Shelley Fabares, John Wilder and Jill St. John in Summer Love (1958)]]

St. John was 16 in May 1957 when Universal Pictures signed her to a contract for seven years starting at $200 a week. Her major studio film debut was in Summer Love (1958) starring John Saxon. She also appeared on TV in episodes of The Christophers, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, and DuPont Show of the Month (an adaptation of Junior Miss). She said her idol was Kay Kendall.

St. John had a key role in Come Blow Your Horn (1963), starring opposite Frank Sinatra. She received a Golden Globe Award nomination as Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance. "I'm a comedienne," she said in 1963. "I've never pretended to be a dramatic actress. But I'm very funny." She followed this with a series of comedies: Who's Minding the Store? (1963) with Jerry Lewis, Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963) with Dean Martin, and Honeymoon Hotel (1964) with Robert Morse and Nancy Kwan.

"Now I play the sexy comedienne, which is my forte," she said in 1964. "Comedy is what I've always wanted to do." She guest-starred on television shows like Burke's Law, The Rogues, and Theatre of Stars. In 1964, she guest-starred with Lauren Bacall and Bacall's then-husband, Jason Robards, in the episode "Take a Walk Through a Cemetery" of Craig Stevens' CBS drama series Mr. Broadway. She also appeared in variety specials with Bob Hope. MGM gave her the female lead in The Liquidator (1965) with Rod Taylor, and she co-starred in The Oscar (1966) with Stephen Boyd.

St. John appeared in the first two episodes of the television series Batman as the Riddler's moll Molly. She became the first character to die in an episode of Batman. She was also in an episode of The Big Valley at that time.

thumb|Wagner and St. John in How I Spent My Summer Vacation (1967)

St. John re-signed with Universal. She was in a TV movie Fame Is the Name of the Game (1966) and had a supporting role in How I Spent My Summer Vacation (1967), starring future husband Robert Wagner. She did the Bob Hope comedy Eight on the Lam (1967), then made Banning (1967) with Wagner and The King's Pirate (1967) with Doug McClure.

In 1966, she said "My goal is to be at a point where I have so proved myself as an actress that I can be more discriminating in the roles I choose. I want to be able to choose the parts I know I can do next." St. John nearly landed a starring role in The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), which instead went to Sharon Tate.