Joey Heatherton

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Joey Heatherton
Born	Davenie Johanna Heatherton September 14, 1944 (1944-09-14) (age 65) Rockville Centre, New York, USA
Spouse(s)	Lance Rentzel (1969-1972)

Joey Heatherton (born September 14, 1944) is an American actress, dancer and singer who reached the peak of her popularity in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Biography

Early life

Born Davenie Johanna, Heatherton is a native of the Long Island village of Rockville Centre, a suburb of New York. While living in Rockville Centre she attended St. Agnes Cathedral School, a Catholic grade and high school. Her father was a Broadway star (Babes In Arms) and television pioneer Ray Heatherton (1909 – 1997).

Career

Heatherton began her career as a child actress and received her first sustained national exposure in 1959 as a semi-regular on The Perry Como Show, playing an exuberant teenager with a perpetual crush on the fiftyish "Mr. C." Another middle-aged crooner who was the object of her on-screen adoration was Dean Martin who invited her to perform numerous times on his popular 1965-74 NBC Thursday night TV variety show, starting with the premiere episode of September 16, 1965. From June to September 1968, along with Frank Sinatra, Jr., she co-hosted Martin's summer substitute musical comedy hour, Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers. She also made multiple appearances on the many other variety shows proliferating 1960s television, such as The Andy Williams Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Ed Sullivan Show and This is Tom Jones. She first appeared on television on her father's show "The Merry Mailman", a popular children's show in New York.

Particularly memorable was her guest shot on a May 1969 Tonight Show, where she energetically coached Johnny Carson on the finer points of dancing "The Frug." Vietnam War veterans and that era's TV viewers remember her as a long-time member of Bob Hope's USO troupe who, between 1965 and 1977, entertained the GIs with her singing, dancing and provocatively revealing outfits. Excerpts from the USO tours were televised as part of Hope's long-running series of NBC monthly specials, culminating in the top-rated Christmas shows, where Heatherton's segments were regularly featured.

Acting

Additionally, throughout the 1960s, she interspersed her variety show appearances with dramatic turns in three theatrical films and on numerous episodes of series such as Route 66 (playing a 15-year-old temptress in the November 18, 1960 teleplay), Mr. Novak, Channing, Arrest and Trial, The Nurses, and Breaking Point.

Heatherton also appeared in the movies Twilight of Honor (1963), Where Love Has Gone, (1964) and My Blood Runs Cold (1965), alongside veteran actors such as Claude Rains, Bette Davis and Susan Hayward Each of the three films has her character involved in murder. In Twilight of Honor, her film debut, she appears as the sluttish young wife of a Southern small-town "rebel" (Oscar-nominee Nick Adams) who is accused of murder precipitated by her infidelity.

The only one of the three films to be made in color, 1964s Where Love Has Gone was a big-budget glossy melodrama based on Harold Robbins' roman-a-clef about the scandalous Lana Turner–Cheryl Crane–Johnny Stompanato manslaughter/murder case, with Heatherton, who was born the same year as Crane, playing the daughter of the Turner character (Susan Hayward).

Finally, Blood was the second of three 1965 horror-suspense films directed by TV's William Conrad (Two on a Guillotine and Brainstorm were the other two). Joey's leading man was 1960s heartthrob Troy Donahue.

1970s

In 1972, she had a hit record with the 1957 Ferlin Husky song Gone. Her LP album did not do as well on the charts as her single.

By the 1970s, Heatherton's career was slowing down, but she was still popular enough to do a series of memorable TV ads for RC Cola and Serta Mattresses. A brief high point came in July 1975 when she headlined Joey & Dad, a four-week Sunday night summer replacement series for Cher's 1975-76 variety show. The 7:30-8:30 pm CBS production was a musical comedy hour in the final days of that genre. "Dad," of course, was Ray Heatherton and, in a nostalgic moment, he put on the familiar old uniform and sang his "I am the Merry Mailman" theme song. Each episode would involve Ray Heatherton waxing nostalgic over life with his daughter, while rooting through his attic.

Later years

In subsequent years, Heatherton performed in Las Vegas and acted in a few scattered TV shows and films, including 1972s critically-drubbed, all-star, European-made Bluebeard (with Richard Burton in the title role), in which she appeared topless, and a starring role as Xaviera Hollander in 1977s post-Watergate scandal-inspired The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington.

In April 1997, Heatherton appeared nude in an issue of Playboy. Her most recent acting role was in the 2002 Damon Packard film Reflections of Evil.

Personal life

In 1969, Heatherton married Lance Rentzel, a wide receiver for the NFL Dallas Cowboys. In 1970, Rentzel was arrested for indecent exposure in front of a 10-year-old girl. They separated shortly after that and divorced in 1972.

Filmography

Award nominations

External links

• Joey Heatherton at the Internet Movie Database
• Joey Heatherton at TV.com