Joey Heatherton

Joey Heatherton
Heatherton dancing on the USS Ticonderoga, December 27, 1965
Born	Davenie Johanna Heatherton (1944-09-14) September 14, 1944 Rockville Centre, New York, USA
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1959–present
Spouse(s)	Lance Rentzel (m. 1969–1972)

Davenie Johanna "Joey" Heatherton (born September 14, 1944) is an American actress, dancer, and singer.

Early life

Heatherton was raised in Rockville Centre, New York, a suburb of New York City. There she attended St. Agnes Cathedral School, a Catholic grade and high school. Her father Ray Heatherton was a Broadway star (Babes in Arms) and television pioneer.

Career

Heatherton began her career as a child actress, appearing in 1959 as a member of the ensemble and an understudy in the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music, and received her first sustained national exposure that same year as a semi-regular on The Perry Como Show, playing an exuberant teenager with a perpetual crush on Perry Como. She also appeared extensively on The Dean Martin Show; Dean Martin invited her to perform numerous times on the 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 1960s television shows 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.

In 1964, she appeared on The Tonight Show, where she energetically coached Johnny Carson on the finer points of dancing "The Frug." During that era, she also appeared in Bob Hope's USO troupe between 1965 and 1977, entertaining the GIs with her singing, dancing and provocative 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. She appeared as a mystery guest on What's My Line on November 7, 1965, which was the last show that Dorothy Killgallen appeared on.

Acting

Throughout the 1960s, Heatherton 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, The Virginian, 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. In Twilight of Honor, her film debut, she played the young wife of an accused murderer (Oscar-nominee Nick Adams).

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

In 1966 she did an impressive two-part episode of I Spy with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, playing a cute and sexy girl returning an original Leonardo Da Vinci painting to a Roman museum.

Finally, she appeared in Blood, the second of three 1965 horror-suspense films directed by William Conrad, alongside Troy Donohue.

1970s–present

In 1972, Heatherton had a #24 pop hit with the 1957 Ferlin Husky song "Gone". Her album, The Joey Heatherton 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 television 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 in which she performed alongside her own father. Each episode would involve Ray Heatherton waxing nostalgic over life with his daughter, while rooting through his attic.

In subsequent years, Heatherton performed in Las Vegas and acted in a few scattered television shows and films, including the 1972 Bluebeard (with Richard Burton in the title role). Additionally, she played the starring role as Xaviera Hollander in 1977's Watergate-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 Dallas Cowboys. In November 1970, Rentzel was arrested for exposing himself to a 10-year-old girl. They separated shortly afterward and divorced in 1972.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1960	Route 66	Karen Emerson	Episode: "Three Sides"
1962 to 1963	The Doctors and the Nurses	Janet Clark Ellen Denby	2 episodes
1963	The Virginian	Gloria Blaine	1 episode
1963	Twilight of Honor	Laura Mae Brown	Alternative title: The Charge is Murder
1963	Mr. Novak	Holly Metcalfe	Episode: "To Break a Camel's Back"
1963	Arrest and Trial	Edith	Episode: "Some Weeks Are All Mondays"
1964	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Cress	Episode: "Runaway"
1964	Channing		Episode: "The Trouble with Girls"
1964	Breaking Point	Dory Costain	Episode: "I, the Dancer"
1964	Where Love Has Gone	Danielle Valerie Miller
1965	My Blood Runs Cold	Julie Merriday
1966	I Spy	Katie	2 episodes
1968	Of Mice and Men	Curley's Wife	Television movie
1969	It Takes a Thief	Dodie DuBois	2 episodes "A Matter of Grey Matter"
1969	The Jackie Gleason Show	Emily Gogolak	Episode: "The Honeymooners: Happiness Is a Rich Uncle"
1969	The Ballad of Andy Crocker	Lisa	Television movie
1970	Love, American Style	Tippy	Segment: "Love and the Hitchhiker"
1971	The Powder Room		Television movie
1972	Bluebeard	Anne
1973	Old Faithful	Herself	Television movie
1977	The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington	Xaviera Hollander
1981	Laverne & Shirley	Herself	Episode: "Night at the Awards"
1986	The Perils of P.K.
1990	Cry-Baby	Milton's mother
2002	Reflections of Evil	Serta Spokeswoman

Award nominations

Year	Award	Category	Title of work
1964	Golden Laurel Award	Top Female New Face	–
1966	Golden Laurel Award	New Faces, Female	–
1964	Golden Globe Awards	Most Promising Newcomer - Female	Twilight of Honor

External links

• Joey Heatherton at the Internet Movie Database
• Joey Heatherton discography at Discogs