Sybil Danning

Sybil Danning
Danning in April 2006
Born	Sybille Johanna Danninger May 24, 1952 (1952-05-24) (age 57) Ried im Innkreis, Austria
Other name(s)	Cybil Danning Sybille Danninger
Occupation	Film, television actress
Years active	1968 - present
Spouse(s)	Horst Lasse (1991 - present)

Sybil Danning (born May 24, 1952^[1]) is an Austrian actress known for her many roles in B movies, science fiction films, and action films.

Early life

Danning was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria as Sybille Johanna Danninger. Her father was an American of Dutch and German descent; her Austrian mother later married a United States Army major who moved the family to the United States when his tour of duty in Austria with the occupation forces was over.^[2]

Danning became an actress after leaving home about 1968 at the age of sixteen^[3].

Career

Danning made her film debut in 1968, portraying the legendary German mermaid "Lorelei" only clothed with her long blond tresses. The next year, she had a role in one of Robert De Niro’s first movies, "Sam’s Song".

Danning next trained for three years with a drama coach in Munich. In 1972, she was included in the cast of Bluebeard, along with Raquel Welch and Richard Burton, playing a high-caliber prostitute. The same year, she was also in the "Eye of the Labyrinth", a giallo thriller.

Also noteworthy were her movies The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, once again acting with Raquel Welch, both movies being by Ilya and Alexander Salkind productions.

In 1978, Danning decided to move to Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, for acting. Leaving everything in Europe behind, all of her friends and family, and with no contract, no agent, and no idea what the future would bring^[4].

The 1980 movie Battle Beyond the Stars saw her portray an extra-terrestrial Amazon named Saint-Exmin. This performance earned her "The Golden Scroll Award of Merit" from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films.^[5]. The cheaply-made movies Jungle Warriors, Panther Squad, and S.A.S. San Salvador followed in quick succession.

In 1983, Danning appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine and in a nude Playboy pictorial inside ^[6].

Next, Sybil co-starred with Christopher Lee in Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf, playing Stirba, an evil werewolf queen. She soon began to guest-star in many American television series, notably A Man Called Sloane, Vega$, Simon & Simon, Masquerade, The Fall Guy, and V (The TV series). In 1986, Sybil was seen with the troubled rocker Wendy O. Williams in Reform School Girls, a campy "Women in Prison" movie. After the sketch parody Amazon Women on the Moon, Sybil founded her own production company, Adventuress Productions, Inc., and that one produced "L.A. Bounty", in which she starred and helped write the script^[7].

Danning was the host of her own collection of 26 action-adventure movies that bear the title Sybil Danning's Adventure Video for the USA Home Video company^[8]. Danning would appear at the beginning, spout one-liners, introduce the video, and then return at the end to wrap it up. In 1989, Danning re-teamed with the producers of Bluebeard, The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, and The Prince and the Pauper to play a succubus in the TV series Superboy.

In 1990, Danning's acting career was cut short by an accident in a gymnasium while she was rehearsing a movie stunt. For the next two months she rested, while working with writers on her first screenplay-writing experience, but the pain worsened. Doctors had misdiagnosed her condition as either a strained muscle or a damaged nerve, and they prescribed painkillers and massages. Finally, a surgeon who was recommended by Jack Nicholson discovered that Danning had two severely herniated discs, and he put her into the hospital that same afternoon.

Danning next had a series of painful epidural treatments, ones in which hypodermic needles were inserted between her vertebrae, followed by traction. At that point, Sybil could not walk, and she was always either in bed or in a wheelchair. At first, she was determined to overcome her orthopedic problem without surgery, but the pain became too overwhelming. Sybil finally consented to a new microdissectomy technique on the day after Thanksgiving, 1990. She spent the following year recovering and watched the duration of the Persian Gulf War from her hospital bed^[9].

In 2003, Danning returned to public performances. She started by appearing in the fan memorabilia convention circuit, with appearances in California, Chicago, Illinois, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and New Jersey. The Chiller Theater in New Jersey included footage of Danning in her first appearance in its 2004 documentary, UnConventional^[10].

The year 2007 marked Danning's return to the big screen, most notably in the movie Grindhouse, in a faux trailer titled Werewolf Women of the SS. This was followed by her appearance in Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween.

References

External links

• Sybil Danning at the Internet Movie Database
• Official site for Sybil Danning