Haircolorist for Sharon Tate Still Working Today and Swiss Take Their Time About Polanski Extradition

Here is a lovely article mentioning Sharon Tate as an A-lister according to her former colorist Jo Hansford:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/fashion/Interview-Jo-Hansford-colourist.6252016.jp

Interview: Jo Hansford, colourist 

Published Date: 27 April 2010

By Ruth Walker

SCORES of A-listers, from models Elizabeth Hurley and Yasmin le Bon to domestic goddess Nigella Lawson and actress Natascha McElhone, wouldn't trust anyone else with their trademark tresses. Natalie Imbruglia is due an appointment any day now and Fearne Cotton was recently spotted with the stylist's products, having gone dramatically from blonde to brunette.

And though, as the First Lady of Colour, she commands a minimum of £400 for highlights – one woman even travels from Scotland every month rather than take her ahir elsewhere - Jo Hansford left school at 15 with no qualifications and even less idea about the world of hairdressing.

"I never intended to be a colourist," she says from her salon in Mayfair, pampered pooch Stella, a key member of the team, barking away in the background (she's been shut in another room to give her owner some peace but she's not very happy about it and is making her feelings known in no uncertain terms). "I'd never even been to a hairdresser because we had no money. I just wore my hair up in a ponytail."

In fact, the Londoner had set her heart on working as a make-up artist for television and had even won an apprenticeship at the BBC. But she needed to be 19, "and, as I left school at 15 because I hated it so much, I thought, 'What am I going to do for four years?'"

The BBC suggested she take up hairdressing, because she would need those skills for television as well, and the local careers office offered her a choice of two apprenticeships: one in Ealing, the other in Mayfair.

"I thought Mayfair sounded more interesting but I had no idea where it was," she laughs. "It was a massive salon next to Claridge's and my boss was this terrible old queen who made me cry every day. But he was a genius and he taught me so much. I hated the hairdressing – it was all backcombing and rollers in those days – but at one point I had to go into the back room and when I saw all the colours it was love at first sight. I never took up the apprenticeship with the BBC."

Still, there were no training courses so she had to teach herself as she went along. "My mother, bless her, lent me her front room and I used to get all the neighbours in. I had some terrible disasters. But it earned me pocket money and it taught me confidence."

When the salon closed in the late 1960s, she moved on to Vidal Sassoon, which is when her career really took off. "It was magic, working with the master. The energy, the adrenaline, it was amazing. I never wanted to leave. Everybody came to Sassoon: Vanessa Redgrave, Catherine Deneuve, Sharon Tate. I did a lot of film work too – David Hemmings and Richard Burton. And Tony Richardson – once he clocked on to me, he would always ask me to work on his films, which was a great compliment."

But with all those big heads in one room, didn't things ever get a bit – er – hair-raising? "Only the C-lists have demands," she insists.

"All the A-list are lovely – they're very professional, grounded, unpretentious. It's no big deal. It's all the Bs and Cs who think they're amazing. They're a pain in the bum, really. In fact, I've had to get rid of a couple of people. I just said, 'I'm sorry I cannot do this any more.' It's not worth it."

However, even after 40 years in the business, she still relishes a challenge. "I had a lovely girl who came in with very thick, long brown hair with a fringe and she said, 'I want to look like Bree from Desperate Housewives.' I was like, 'Yes! Fantastic!' I couldn't believe my luck."

But those who want to bring a touch of drama to their hair this year might be disappointed. "More solid colour is coming into force this year, rather than great chunks of streaks," says Hansford. "It's all about shine, condition, grooming. Cuts are as important as colour, but this season it's really nice, sharp haircuts – lots of bobs, and the fringe is back in again too."

Due to popular demand, she has launched her own range of hair products, the latest of which is a leave-in spray conditioner, which will be on the shelves next month. "If you put volumising shampoo on your hair then put conditioner on it, you're flattening it all down and destroying the effect," she says. "But with this, you just spray round the edges, comb it through and leave it."

The range has met with high praise indeed. "We had an e-mail saying Sienna Miller loves it. Hurley loves it, even Camilla loves it. That makes me feel confident."

Jo Hansford hair products are available at Harvey Nichols and John Lewis and online at

http://www.johansford.com/

I think it's great that--out of all the Hollywood people--she could have listed she listed Sharon among Deneuve and Redgrave!  True A-listers!

And more news on Polanski:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=10476948

New Vintage Translated Turkish Interview with Sharon Tate...

Thanks to Andrea, we have a new translated article on Sharon.   A friend of mine did it for me today.  I hope everyone enjoys it.

Hayat - 1967

According to the British this will be the year of Sharon Tate: 1967

In recent years, British stars have emerged to be the new cinema sensations, Julie Christie, Vanessa Redgrave, Samantha Eggar and now a new star is slated for stardom.

Everyone has a common opinion: If you like the photos of an actress in advertisements then generally you will like the star. Movie star Sharon Tate, a 23-year-old blonde of English origin, is a complete exception to this rule. She has avoided advertising herself to the public.  She has even hid under a black wig out in front of television audiences. Sharon, is not recognized as a star yet on posters or marquees of theaters.  Fame has become a suitable adventure to be found for this young lady.

How many years has she been hidden ?

Everything is riding on this girl who came to the eyes of Hollywood cinema three years ago.  Martin Ransohoff discovered her and drew up a seven-year contract. For a period of 30 months Sharon fully learned how to be an actress and she has longed for the moment to be introduced. 

Sharon, recently met with a journalist in London and gave answers to various questions. Let us now turn our attention to this interesting conversation:

Q: Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Brigitte Bardot are actresses called sex symbols.

A: For actresses we cannot control everything that is said about us. It is not possible.  Having said that, I do not mind being called that.

Q: Do you look upon yourself as a 'sex symbol'?

A: Everyone says I am a beautiful girl. But sexy... that's another thing altogether.

Q: What are your thoughts about the fashions of today?

A: I do dress from Paris. I am glad women wear something more comfortable than say in the 1920s.  Now, the apparel is more sharper and full of commericial lines.

Q: In the "Vampire Killers" film you have a naked bath scene.  Do you have on anything at all in this scene?

A: No. The director Polanski said: "You don't have to allow it to embarrass you.  The crew will eventually not even think about it if you don't.  But, of course, you can just ignore them if you want to!"  In this way, it was easier to do my job.  Polanski is a genuine artist.

A: So you like him?

A: I think he is a good and valuable person.

Q: What characteristics should your ideal man have?

A: To have an emotional yet strong character.

Q: For example, such as Roman Polanski?

A: Yes.

Sharon Tate is a caring young girl who is on her way to the great climb of fame.

Another interview with Sharon at the beginning of her career & more

New York Sunday News December

December 18, 1966

Sharon Tate is on a crash program to get to the top

It's difficult to imagine Sharon Tate as having ever been shy.

Wearing an abbreviated miniskirt, she seems to enjoy the commotion she causes wherever she goes. Sharon also affects thick, black, false eyelashes, brown eye shadow around her lips, and long ash-blonde hair that falls freely about her shoulders. Her presence in a crowd is as insignificant as a floodlight in a blackout.

Yet just three years ago, Sharon was a "painfully shy girl of 20 with blonde pigtails," according to her own recollection. The Dallas-born youngster had never acted or had a smidgen of dramatic training. But that didn't faze Filmway's top executive, Martin Ransohoff. When he first glimpsed her in the reception room of his office, Ransohoff ordered that she be singed to a seven-year contract.

Today, Sharon Tate is an actress. Some even label her a star though she has yet to be seen in a movie. Her first two MGM films--"13" and "The Vampire Killers"--won't be released for at least two months, and Sharon's latest movie "Don't Make Waves," isn't scheduled for screening until next summer.

And so no one really knows whether Ransohoff's gamble to make an instant star with his crash program technique has succeeded. Sharon, naturally, is convinced that she has made the show business grade. "I'm sure the three years I spent in training to be an actress will pay off," she says.

The training consisted of intensive schooling (10 hours a day, five days a week) in dramatics, singing, dancing, body building, walking, talking--everything except breathing. Sharon soon began to lose her shyness and gain a sense of permanency in her surroundings.

Up to then, Sharon had led a tumbleweed type of existence. As an Army 'brat' (her father is Maj. Paul James Tate), she spent a great deal of her childhood packing and moving from one military base to another. Before Sharon was 15, she had lived in Tacoma, Houston, El Paso and San Francisco--just to name a few cities. When Maj. Tate was shipped overseas in 1959, he took his wife and Sharon with him. As a result, Sharon boasts a fluency in Italian and a diploma from a Vicenza, Italy, high school.

It was in Italy, too, that she met actor Richard Beymer, who was on location for the film, "The Adventures of a Young Man." Beymer gave her the old line that "she ought to be in pictures"--only he meant it. Sharon scoffed at the notion, but then came around to the idea when the actor introduced her to his agent.

On Sharon's return to this country, she tried out for a TV cigarette commercial at the agent's urging. She landed the job despite the fact that she had never smoked before. (Today, she goes through half a pack a day.) "The commercial required many takes," Sharon recalls. "Just when they were ready for the final one, I passed out from taking too many puffs on my first attempt at smoking."

Sharon was still a bit dazed at the enormity of breaking into show business when she stepped into Ransohoff's Filmways office. Ransohoff felt instinctively that she had movie star potential. However, it was only after she had several months of acting lessons that he placed her in CBS-TV's "Beverly Hillbillies". Sharon portrayed Janet Trego on the series, but wasn't given any TV credit. Ransohoff wanted to spring her on movie audiences as a "surprise."

Now that Sharon is an actress in the technical sense of the word, anyhow, she has set her goal on becoming "a light comedienne in the Carol Lombard style." But the 5'5 1/2, 117 pound newcomer does not care to hear that she resembles the late actress. "I don't think I look a bit like her," Sharon pouts. "It's not that I think I'm a sexpot, either. I don't have voluptuous hips and I'm not heavy-chested."

For the time being, Sharon isn't giving movies a thought. She left recently for London to continue her romance with Poland's famed, shaggy-haired director, Roman Polanski. "I've known him for nine months," says Sharon. "We have a wonderful relationship. I don't know if I'll marry him. He hasn't asked me yet." If Sharon does wed, her film career and Ransohoff's half a million dollar investment in her will go down the drain. "I'll give up acting the second I'm married," says Sharon, which leads many observers to believe it won't happen for some time.

Most actresses would rather shed a husband than a career, but Sharon is an unusual girl. What actress, for example, would go out her way to point up the scars on her face? Sharon has a noticeable diagonal scar under her left eye. She also has a small one to the side of the left eye, and another one--"caused by chicken pox"--on her forehead.

"I suffered the big scar," says Sharon, "when I fell on a piece of corrugated tin when I was five. I wouldn't dream of having the scar removed. I am very proud of it. It's me."

More news:

There are two movies that have been filmed on location in Italy that are coming out soon.  I mention this because Sharon graduated High School there and some of the locations may very well be places that she saw and visited when she was there.

1)  Is a movie called "Letters to Juliet".  An American girl on vacation in Italy finds an unanswered "letter to Juliet" -- one of thousands of missives left at the fictional lover's Verona courtyard, which are typically answered by a the "secretaries of Juliet" -- and she goes on a quest to find the lovers referenced in the letter.  It stars Vanessa Redgrave and Amanda Seyfried.

2)  Is a movie called "When In Rome".  Beth is a young, ambitious New Yorker who is completely unlucky in love. However, on a whirlwind trip to Rome, she impulsively steals some coins from a reputed fountain of love, and is then aggressively pursued by a band of suitors.  It stars Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel.

Both will be released next year.

Tomorrow another special issue of Photo Comparison of the Week.