Five Ladies

Also when I was a kid I learned to love the quirkier actresses who I'd see on the screen. These were women who were accomplished at their craft, but who were not classic beauties in the normal sense. Still, I found these ladies overwhelmingly attractive, and I still do. For the most part they were never "stars", and their careers, at best, held flashes of what we normally consider success. They were there for a while and then gone. But I really liked watching them as a young fellow, and I look for their performances wherever I can.

The first time I saw Sandy Dennis was in the movie UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE. I don't know what it was about her, but even at that age (I couldn't have been more than nine or ten) I found her very attractive. She set the stage for my attraction to quirkier women.

A woman of the 1960s and early 70s who I thought was a truly beautiful woman was Susan George. My pals at the time thought that I was crazy. "She has bad teeth!" and "Her eyes are weird!" Or similar comments would ensue if I mentioned how good looking I thought she was. So I began to keep my thoughts to myself. She was a real beauty to my way of thinking.

Joan Greenwood was another actress I first saw when I was really young. But again, whatever it was about her, she pretty much pushed all my buttons and closed all my circuits. I found everything about her completely hot--her voice, the way she moved, the delivery of her lines. Yeah, I think I wanted to bone her before I knew what that meant.

Barbara Harris is an actress that I found completely attractive. Not in the way one finds Claudia Cardinale attractive. But in a more subtle manner. She's always interesting to watch and she sometimes makes my heart melt.

I suppose Karen Black comes the closest to the model of classical beauty of all of my favorite actresses of my youth. I never had to deal with howls of derision from my buddies if I mentioned that I reckoned that she was hot. I've never figured out if she's all that great an actress, though. I was generally too busy thinking about how good looking she was. Plus, she made a lot of really crummy films. But what a babe.



Carole and I are getting ready to head out to Los Angeles for the signing event for the anthology THE BLEEDING EDGE. With so many authors from the book in attendance, it's now a ticket-only event. Pretty much sold out, I reckon.