Although she was made famous to American audiences in Dynasty, Stephanie Beacham had already had quite a career beforehand. But who cares? Today, she’s in her sizzling seventies, and looks as good as she always did. Proof? you say? In more-or-less chronological order, then:
As we all remember her in Dynasty — with the big hair:
And nowadays…
(click to embiggen — and note the freckled cleavage!!!!)
Beautiful back then, stunning now.
I know I’ve featured Anita Ekberg on these pages many times before, as well as giving her a little solo outing; but can one ever have too much Ekberg, I ask? I think not. So here are a few I haven’t posted before:
Stunning? I report, you decide.
Actor David Niven once described the Young sisters (Polly Ann, Elizabeth and Loretta) thus: “Each one was prettier than the others”, and who am I to argue with his judgment? So as we looked at Loretta last week, let’s look at the oldest of the three (the fourth, Georgiana, was a half-sister, but we’ll get to her later).
Say hello to Polly Ann Young:
I think Niven was right… and we’ll look at Elizabeth next week.
I think I first fell in love with Loretta Young in The Bishop’s Wife — one of the better Christmas movies of all time — and mostly, it should be said, because of that sexy contralto voice.
Not that the rest was too horrible.
And she didn’t look too bad as an older woman, either:
Classy and lovely, always.
Part of a showbiz family (see below), Lisa Gaye was lovely (and a devout Christian). Certainly, the movie studios thought so, as she was signed to a four-year contract when she was only 17. But judge for yourselves:
And not just a pretty — okay, gorgeous — face, either.
In Technicolor:
Never as well known as her sister (Debra Paget), you can certainly say hers was a handsome showbiz family. Seen here with Debra and brother Frank :
Lovely formal clothing, not a tattoo in sight… how I miss those days.
She was named after Audrey Hepburn, and her parents must have had some extraordinary foreknowledge, because Audrey Tatou is probably the closest thing we have to the classy, gamine and always-elegant Hepburn. Let’s start with her face:
…then zoom out a little:
…just a bit more:
…and into the tout ensemble:
I know, she’s slender to the point of skinny, quite unlike my usual preference.
But then again, Audrey Hepburn was just as skinny, and it’s to her that we’re comparing her namesake, and not to the pumped-up, pneumatically-enhanced and overblown actresses of the modern era.
Exquisite. Absolutely wonderful.
By the way, I happen to think that the Tatou Audrey is a far better actress than the Hepburn Audrey. On her own (in Amélie) she was brilliant, and in The Da Vinci Code she more than stood up to the towering talent that surrounded her: Alfred Molina, Ian McKellern, the incomparable Jean Reno and of course, leading man Tom Hanks.
Not just a pretty face, she.