Raquel Welch and Sharon Tate Friends? When Is the New Tate Biography to be Released? And Sharon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame???

According to Kirk Crivello 's book, "Fallen Angels" he writes that when Sharon was making "The Sandpiper" :  Sharon became friendly with the girl who photo-doubled Elizabeth Taylor in the beach sequences.  Her name was Raquel Welch.

Taylor was jealous of Sharon from the start and had Tate's scenes cut from the film.  I have also heard a rumor that one of the reasons Taylor did not want Sharon around was because of Burton's promiscuous behavior.  Had Burton got a good look at Sharon, would she have been competition for Taylor's man?  Could be?  Welch herself has recently confessed to having an attraction for Burton and this article shows that Burton was certainly a ladies man :

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/04/01/raquel-welch-reveals-her-passion-for-richard-burton-91466-26154509/

Raquel Welch reveals her passion for Richard Burton

By Robin Turner

SHE was the beauty who burst from her cave woman brassiere to become an American sex symbol.

He was the brooding, working-class Welshman who became one of Hollywood’s most glamorous stars.

Now, 69-year-old big-screen veteran Raquel Welch has hinted she and Richard Burton could have been more than just friends on the set of their 1972 movie Bluebeard.

Welch – born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois – appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show in the US this week to talk about her new memoir Raquel Welch: Beyond the Cleavage (£12.99 Weinstein Book, released in the USA today and available in the UK soon).

She told the chat show host about some of the leading men she had dated and known including Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Dean Martin, Burt Reynolds and Richard Burton. Welch wrote of Burton (born Richard Jenkins in Pontrhydyfen, Port Talbot): “He’s like a heat-seeking missile, a smoking hot romantic.”

Oprah Winfrey repeated the line then asked: “Who were you talking about there?”

Welch confirmed:“I was talking about Richard Burton, who I did a movie with in Budapest. He was just so charismatic and just really something.”

When Welch admitted to spending time with Burton while they filmed Bluebeard Oprah Winfrey said with raised eyebrows: “Spending time with, I love that expression.”

Raquel Welch’s career as a sex symbol really took off after her scantily-clad appearance in the 1966 box office hit One Million Years BC.

Her marriage to former manager Patrick Curtis was just about over when she started filming Bluebeard in 1972 and she would divorce Curtis later that year. Her leading man, Richard Burton, playing a murderous World War I era German aristocrat, who had a reputation for flirting with his leading ladies.

His Henry VIII film with Genevieve Bujold was known in the acting circles as “Anne of a Thousand Lays”.

And former film publicist Michael Munn said in his book on Burton, Prince Of Players, that the Welshman had flings with Marilyn Monroe, Jean Simmons, Lana Turner, Claire Bloom and Susan Strasberg.

“I was like a hungry bear with salmon jumping into my paws, Sybil (his first wife) was incredibly tolerant,” Munn claimed he told him.

Raquel Welch said of Bluebeard, in which she played a former nun: “I gave up my habit for Richard Burton. My nun had some rather libidinous leanings, she was kind of a sexpot underneath.”

Until now, Welch has never hinted at any romance with the late Welsh actor, who at the time of the movie was also going through marital problems. Like Welch, Burton would also get divorced that year when he finalised his first split from Elizabeth Taylor.

Author and journalist Penny Junor, who has written a biography of Burton, said: “I think any affair that Burton might have had is credible. He was very promiscuous.

“He had an awful lot of women in his time. He made it a rule to try to conquer any leading lady that he had in the early days. The reason he ended up with Elizabeth Taylor was that she had a similar rule that she would only sleep with men she married.”

Swansea-born author Paul Ferris who also wrote a Burton biography, yesterday thurs said yesterday: “I did not know of any liaison with Raquel Welch when I wrote my book but his family, who helped with the biography, were understandably protective of him at the time because he was still alive and they were very fond of him. But it would not come as a surprise if there was a romance there as he was very attractive to women and I’m pretty sure he’d have been attracted to someone like Raquel Welch.”

Joan Collins wrote in her memoir that when she rejected Burton’s on-set advances, he embarked on a series of liaisons with other women including workers on the set. Collins playfully told Burton that she believed he would sleep with a snake if he had the chance, to which Burton is alleged to have replied “only if it was wearing a skirt, darling”.

Burton was born in 1925, the 12th child of a miner. His home in Pontrhydyfen was so crowded he was farmed out to relatives in Taibach, Port Talbot, where he grew up.

Though he made his name on the London stage as a brilliant young actor, Burton became an international star as much for his marriages to Elizabeth Taylor as his movies.

Replete with yachts, jewels and drunken fights, the Burton-Taylor alliance was even condemned by the Vatican for “erotic vagrancy”.

Burton, a heavy drinker who smoked five packets of cigarettes a day, died in 1984 aged 54.

He was buried in Celigny, Switzerland with a copy of Dylan Thomas’s poems.

In her book Raquel Welch: Beyond The Cleavage, the star reflects on her life from growing up in California and bursting onto the scene in One Million BC to a failed marriage to becoming a single mother and, at last, becoming a famous actress.

She starts the book by saying: “Contrary to popular opinion I did not hatch out of an eagle’s nest, circa One Million Years BC clad in a doeskin bikini.

“In fact, I was more surprised than anyone to find myself on location in such an exotic setting, high atop a volcanic mountain in the Canary Islands.”

“With the release of that famous movie poster, in one fell swoop, everything in my life changed and everything about the real me was swept away. All else would be eclipsed by this bigger-than-life sex symbol.”

Now separated from her fourth husband, Welch made a string of movies after Bluebeard including the Three Musketeers and the Four Muskaeteers, Bedazzled, Legally Blonde and Forget About It.

Also, here is an interesting interview with Welch on her new book:

http://entertainment.msn.com/video/?g=6f4fb1a4-bd82-4456-99f6-6e75d15046d6&from=en-us_msnhp>1=28101

A fairly recent photo of author Sanders.

According to Amazon, the biography of Sharon by "The Family" writer Ed Sanders is due out February 5, 2011.  So be on the lookout for that one.  It is officially titled: Sharon Tate: The Biography.  Let's hope it is a good one for those of us who can't get enough Sharon. ;)

And even though this is an interesting article on Sharon, it says at the bottom that she did receive a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?  News to me?  Although, of course, she certainly deserves it.

http://www.hollywoodusa.co.uk/HolyCrossObituaries/sharontate.htm

A Hairdresser and his Dresser Wife Remember Sharon Fondly...

I have interviewed another couple who knew Sharon.  Harold Leighton did the stars hair and his wife Maxine dressed the stars in London in the 1960s.  Harold and Maxine (yes, they were and are still married) had quite a client list that included: Joan Collins, Raquel Welch, Julie Christie, Romy Schneider, Ursula Andress, Dusty Springfield, Marlo Thomas, Glenda Jackson, Natalie Wood.  And the men included: Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, Rod Steiger and Dudley Moore and so many others!  The list of men and women go on and on.

Harold and Maxine early in their relationship.

They both remember Sharon fondly and say she had a great sense of humor.

Harold says: "God bless her, one of the most perfect women. One of the most beautiful women of her era if not the most beautiful! She was fun to share time with with such great humor.  She was sharp and we have very fond memories of her and being with her."

With their sons here.

Maxine says: "One of our most gorgeous clients was model Sharon Tate. She was the most beautiful looking woman with a faultless body and glowing skin, even without one jot of makeup on her face. On her first visit to the boutique, she came with her film producer lover Martin Ransohoff.

“Martin introduced himself to me as her mentor and producer. ‘I want Sharon to come here whenever she needs new clothes,’ he said. ‘I have heard so much about your look and taste Maxine, so please give her whatever you choose, no matter the cost.’

"Sharon said: ‘I love that Sonia Rykiel sweater and knitted skirt,’ – and with that she took off the shirt she was wearing and dropped her skirt to try on the clothes. Low and behold, there was not a bra in sight – only the most perfect boobs and just a G-string in satin and lace! I have never seen such a wonderful figure on any woman."

One of Harold's hair styles from the 60s. 

Harold adds that "she was understanding if you did not have her size of garment, that would make her come back in the following days when another shipment of merchandize would arrive from Paris." 

"She came into my boutique every other day," Maxine continues,"sitting down for a chat and ending up with a bag full of goodies! Every time she walked into the salon Harold was informed immediately and would rush upstairs to have a coffee, chat and plan a photo shoot."

...And another...

"Our boutique was on Hampstead High Street in the 60s," says Harold. "Sharon became a fan of Maxine’s ‘French Look’ and shopped almost weekly. She could not stay away and then Maxine sent her down to my salon under her boutique and I did her hair and later I did her hair for her Wedding at the Chelsea Register office on Kings Road. When you see the photographs of her being married to Roman Polanski--that’s my hair with all the flowers in it."

...And another.

 
There are some wonderful photos taken of Sharon with jewelry and such in her hair.  Harold also did her hair for these shots.  "Roman Polanski told me he wanted to give her some jewelry for their first anniversary.  I was there when thousands of of pounds' worth arrived at her flat for her to choose a one.
 
" 'Let's cover her with the jewels for a photograph,' Roman said and he was right, it made a wonderful study. 

Sharon with Harold during the famous jewelry photos.

 
"At another session, Sharon was all but naked, and I was nervous about doing her hair.  With her impish sense of humor, she decided to make things worse for me.
 
"She sat up like a lovely, half-naked bear, wrapped both arms around me and said, teasingly: 'Now Harold, does that make you happy?'

Harold today.

 
"We had such fun.  It was the hub of French fashion in Hampstead and in today's market would have been the shop where the Paparazzi would live outside the salon and boutique."

Sharon Tate Article Nouvelle Starlet and Kerstien Matondang's Coppertone Ad

Here is another article from my collection that I hope you enjoy:

From: Films of the Golden Age, Fall 1997

Sharon Tate - Nouvelle Starlet

By Eve Golden

In the late 1960s, she was one of the most promising starlets in Hollywood.  Breathtakingly beautiful, hard-working and genuinely well liked, Sharon Tate had a future easily as bright as other newcomers like Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway and Candice Bergen.  But a handful of lunatics changed all that, and Sharon became better known as one of the decade's most famous murder victims.  She only made nine films, but Sharon had been on her way to becoming one of the industry's brightest stars as the 1970s dawned.

She was born in Dallas, Texas, on January 24, 1943, the daughter of Major Paul Tate and his wife, Doris.  Already a beauty at six months, she won the Miss Tiny Tot contest.  Sharon and her two younger sisters had adventurous childhoods: their father, working with Army Intelligence, spent much of the 1950s moving his family from Dallas to Tacoma, Houston, El Paso and San Francisco.  In 1959, when Sharon was 16, they moved to Verona, Italy, where she attended high school and quickly became multi-lingual.

 

It was in Italy that she also began mulling over an acting career.  Richard Beymer was making a film near Sharon's school, and introduced the teenager to his agent.  Nothing came of this, but Beymer had put a flea in her ear.  She came back to the U. S. in 1963 and began seriously looking for work.  "I was shy and bashful when I reached Hollywood," she said in 1965.  "I only had enough money to get by and I hitch-hiked a ride on a truck to the office of an agent whose name I had."

 

An audition for the TV series 'Petticoat Junction' didn't pan out, but her test was seen by Martin Ransohoff of Filmways Productions.  Impressed, he put her under a seven-year contract and set out to "develop" her in the old-fashioned Hollywood manner.  Ransohoff sent Sharon to New York's Actor's Studio, and to classes in dancing, singing, body-building and modeling.  "I'm sure the three years I spent in training to be an actress will pay off," Sharon told The New York News in 1966.

 

By that time, she had also gotten her first few jobs.  She can be briefly glimpsed guesting on 'Mr. Ed' and as secretary Janet Trego, Mr. Drysdale's secretary, in a few episodes of 'The Beverly Hillbillies.'  She did commericials, including one for cigarettes which nearly did her in: "The commericial required many takes," Sharon recalled. "Just when they were ready fro the final one, I passed out from taking too many puffs on my first attempt at smoking."

 

Ransohoff helped get her small roles in 'Separate Beds' (1963), 'The Americanization of Emily' (1964), and 'The Sandpiper' (1965), to help her get accustomed to filming.  Her first major role was in the dreadful, pretentious British-made thriller from 1965, 'Eye of the Devil', also known as '13'.  The film starred David Niven and Deborah Kerr as a middle-aged couple living in a chateau.  Sharon was thrilled to be in such company, even in a less than sterling project.  She portrayed Odile, a spooky local girl who wanders about looking creepy and uttering ominous  lines.  No one got much of a chance to act in this film, and it made no real impact on the budding starlet's career.

Sharon Tate was an odd duck in the swinging Hollywood of the mid-1960s.  Strictly brought-up, she was sweet and innocent in a town that was neither.  One actor called her "one of the toughest lays in town.  Strictly a one-man woman."  She reportedly had an unhappy relationship with a French actor for two years, then was briefly engaged to her hairstylist, Jay Sebring. The two broke up, but remained friends.  Then, at a London party in 1966, she met Roman Polanski.

 

The 33-year-old director and actor was already famous for his dark films 'Knife in the Water' (1962), and 'Repulsion' (1965).  He also had quite a reputation: one ex-girlfriend described him as "the quintessential male chauvinist pig.  He treats women like objects, like toys, like his latest pet car.  It can be fun to share his limelight for a while, but ultimately it becomes boring."  Ransohoff loaned Sharon to Polanski for his horror comedy film 'The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967).  Sharon and Polanski became involved, despite their obvious cultural differences.  He himself later said, "It took the longest time for me to get her to go to bed with me.  She was not someone who went easily to bed with a man."  They moved in together in Belgravia, London, and Sharon learned to love London's Swinging '60s scene:  "There are so many talented young people with fantastic, original ideas here," she said in 1967.  "...The Mod Look, the long, straight hair for girls and long hair for boys, mini skirts...it all started here and eventually got to America.  Americans are too inhibited but they are slowly coming around to realizing what a swinging world we live in."  But the fast Polanski crowd was too swinging even for her.  According to Mia Farrow, Sharon experimented with pot and LSD, but never really got into drugs.

 

Sharon's only film with Polanski turned out to be something of a disappointment.  Visually, it was stunning, capturing a vision of 19th century Eastern Europe in the dead of winter.  But the performers were given little to do.  'Vampire Killers' veered between bad sitcom dialogue and gory thrills, and never seemed to quite settle on a style. Sharon, in a red wig, looked beautiful and somewhat detached.  The film did not do well in the U.S., and Polanski tried to help it along by shooting nudes of Sharon for the March 1967 issue of Playboy.  Aside from raising questions of taste, this did nothing.

 

Sharon's first real U. S. exposure came with MGM's big-budget beach comedy 'Don't Make Waves' (1967), starring Tony Curtis.  Sharon had a small but showy role as Malibu, a sky-diving beach bunny whom Curtis steals from her body-building boyfriend.  The film wasn't up to much, but critics noted Sharon's combination of beauty and deadpan humor.  She, however, did not share their enthusiasm.

"It's a terrible movie," she accuarately noted before it had even been released, then admitted that "sometimes I say things I shouldn't.  I guess I'm too outspoken."

To be continued tomorrow...

I don't think Sharon's films were that bad.  At least she showed potential especially in comedic roles.

Her venture into the 'Valley of the Dolls' and more will be discussed in the article tomorrow.

 

I noted Kerstien Matondang's great video site yesterday and today she told me she has added another.  This time it is with Sharon's voice and images doing a Coppertone ad for when she made 'Don't Make Waves.'  Please be sure to comment on it and tell Kerstien what you think?  Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLf-HaeuVqo

Photo of the Week and Another Article on Sharon Tate

Here is the photo of the week of Sharon holding her new puppy by a Christmas tree:

Note on this photo session:  This was Sharon's first Christmas spent in England during the production of "Eye of the Devil".  The puppy's name is Guiness and the then four month old Yorkshire Terrier was a gift to Sharon from the production team of the film.  The photo session was photographed by Stephan C. Archetti.

Another short article on Sharon:

TV and Movie Play magazine for April 1968

Sharon Tate: Why She Prefers Love Without Marriage by Joan Selig

Remember that old refrain: Love and marriage, love and marriage. Go together like a horse and carriage?

Not for Sharon Tate, they don't. Sharon has her own ideas on love, sex and marriage. And they aren't conventional.

Lots of actesses have had affairs. But generally, they pretend it's just friendship or dates. And some Hollywood dames with uncounted "Friendships" maintain the utmost air of propriety.

Not so for Sharon Tate.  Sharon is different.  She confessed to living with director Roman Polanski to a reporter for a national magazine.  And another national mag featured her posing on a bed "in a house which Polish director Roman Polanski rents for her."  Presumably with visiting priviliges.  Yet, why does Sharon prefer this "arrangement."  Why be a mistress instead of a wife?  Are she and Roman unable to marry?  They are both quite eligible.

Sharon has never married. Polanski is divorced from his first wife, a Polish actress.

Don't they love each other?

Quite the contrary, she and Polanski are very much in love and more devoted than many of the legally married couples in Hollywood. They are truly inseparable. Whether simply relaxing at home or on the town, they're always together. In fact, no one ever sees either of them with another date. And that is a bit of a record in this town.

Why then, since she and Roman love each other and there are no legal barriers--why then doesn't Sharon rush her man to the altar?

The answer is that Sharon wants to be a sex goddess- a super star. And she appears to be going the whole route.

Sharon evidently doesn't believe in hiding her beautiful body.She posed semi-nude for that famous mens magazine and she does completely nude scenes(well, she does have those teeny weeny bikini panties) in Valley of the Dolls. Real sexy scenes, like rolling over and over in bed.

The nudity bit is part of the standard sex goddess buildup. Brigitte Bardot, the late Marilyn Monroe, Jane Fonda-- you name the star and she's taken off her clothes. (Interestingly enough, Raquel Welch, who has superb natural endowments but who refuses to wear less than a scanty bikini hasn't made it to super stardom.)

The article shows a photo of Sharon and has a caption that reads:

Sharon plays Jennifer North, the doomed Monroe-like super-sex-star. But she wants to be a real-life goddess as well. Will she pay the same tragic price?

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Photo of the Week, Woman who claims people tell her she looks like Sharon??? & more

Here is a photo I found of Sharon were she looks very 1960s 'mod'!

Also, there is a woman claiming people tell her she looks like Sharon Tate among a few others? 

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/quinn-219139-alvarado-says.html

No offense but I don't see it?  Do you?

Here is a short article I found on Sharon:

Newsweek March 4, 1968

The New American Beauties

Every year another British lovely marches on screen, swings her purse, tosses her mane or hugs the camera, and becomes the star of the year. Before the British were the Italians - sexy, shapely and abandoned. Always there are the French, who come in all styles from the life-loving to the world-weary. But when was the last American actress to electrify the world's moviegoers? Probably you would have to go all the way back to Marilyn to find an answer - that is, until Faye Dunaway came along...

...Unless you're Marilyn Monroe - she had it, and all the bad movies in the world couldn't obscure it - the star needs the right movie at the right time. "Bonnie and Clyde" was that kind of movie for Faye Dunaway, and she was ready for it. All over Hollywood are other girls who are waiting, and looking for their Bonnie, and in the meantime seeking alternate roads to stardom. The ways are many.

...Candice Bergen, Mia Farrow, Raquel Welch, Katharine Ross, Leigh Taylor-Young, Gayle Hunnicutt...

Astoundingly photogenic, infinitely curvaceous, Sharon Tate is one of the most smashing young things to hit Hollywood in a long time. She began as the invention of wheeler-dealer Martin Ransohoff and in her five years on the Hollywood treadmill, she has, surprisingly, made progress. In fact, in her last film, "Valley of the Dolls," she managed to be the only living doll. Now married to the brilliant and volatile Polish director Roman Polanski, perhaps she will begin to fulfill her tremendous potential.

Remembering her husband's "Repulsion", she dreams: "I'd like to be an American Catherine Deneuve. She plays beautiful, sensitive, deep parts with a little bit of intelligence behind them." And then about her past, "They see me as a dolly on a trampoline." Her gorgeous hazel eyes open wide at the thought of Faye Dunaway. "Dunaway!" she sighs. "Oooooooohhhh! She's a woman. She's there, you know it, and there's no way around it." But Sharon Tate is still looking for Sharon Tate. "Sometimes," she sighs, "I think it would be better to be a sex symbol, because at least I would know where I was. But," she adds quickly, "I'd lose my mind."