Jennifer O'Neill

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February 20, 1948

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Jennifer O'Neill's mother was still pregnant when she and her husband visited Jennifer's future grandfather, a bank president residing in Rio De Janeiro. Thus it was that O'Neill was born in the shadow of Sugar Loaf Mountain. Raised in New England and trained at New York's Professional Children's School, she became a successful cosmetics model in her teens. In films from 1968, O'Neill made her starring bow in 1970's Rio Lobo. Apparently director Howard Hawks intended to "create" O'Neill in the same way that he elevated another model, Lauren Bacall, to stardom in 1944's To Have and Have Not; alas, Hawks and O'Neill didn't see eye to eye, and it would be two years before the actress would achieve any measure of genuine stardom. In 1972, she became every pubescent boy's dream girl when she played Dorothy, the twentyish war widow who turns to teenager Gary Grimes for affection, in Summer of 42. Her career moved in fits and spurts after that triumph. O'Neill also starred on the 1983 series Bare Essence (1983), in which she was well cast as "international beauty" Lady Bobbi Rowan; in addition, she has continued making occasional films into the next century.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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