Joey Heatherton

Infobox actor
name = Joey Heatherton


imagesize = 200px
caption = deletable image-caption
birthname = Davenie Johanna Heatherton
birthdate = birth date and age|1944|09|14
location = Rockville Centre, New York, USA
spouse = Lance Rentzel (1969-1972)

Joey Heatherton (born September 14, 1944) is an American actress, dancer and singer who reached the peak of her popularity in the 1960s.

Biography

Early life

Born Davenie Johanna, Heatherton is a native of the Long Island village of Rockville Centre, a suburb of New York. While living in Rockville Centre she attended St. Agnes Cathedral School, a Catholic grade and high school. Her father was the vaudevillian and television pioneer Ray Heatherton (1909 – 1997).

Career

Heatherton began her career as a child actress and received her first sustained national exposure in 1959 as a semi-regular on "The Perry Como Show", playing an exuberant teenager with a perpetual crush on the fiftyish "Mr. C." Another middle-aged crooner who was the object of her on-screen adoration was Dean Martin who invited her to perform numerous times on his popular 1965-74 NBC Thursday night TV variety 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 the many other variety shows proliferating 1960s television, such as "The Andy Williams Show", "The Hollywood Palace", "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "This is Tom Jones".

Her two 45rpm record releases, "Hullaballoo" (Coral, 1965) and "When You Call Me Baby" (Decca, 1966) sold poorly but, since the '70s, both have become very sought after in the UK among Northern Soul collectors, the Decca offering now changing hands among dealers and collectors for three-figure sums.

Particularly memorable was her guest shot on a May 1969 "Tonight Show", where she energetically coached Johnny Carson on the finer points of dancing "The Frug." Vietnam War veterans and that era's TV viewers remember her as a long-time member of Bob Hope's USO troupe who, between 1965 and 1977, entertained the GIs with her singing, dancing and provocatively revealing 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.

Acting

Additionally, throughout the 1960s, she 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", "Arrest and Trial", "The Nurses", "Breaking Point" and several others. During the 1960 planning and pre-production stage of "Lolita", Heatherton was Stanley Kubrick's first choice for the role, but the casting fell through on Ray Heatherton's concern that his daughter's public image would become forever linked with the unsavory sex-kitten title character, ultimately played by the even-younger Sue Lyon.

Even though "Lolita" was not to be, the movies "Twilight of Honor" (1963), "Where Love Has Gone", (1964) and "My Blood Runs Cold" (1965), showed that Heatherton could hold her own with veteran actors such as Claude Rains, Bette Davis and Susan Hayward, but they did not result in a sustainable film career. Each of the three films has her character involved in murder. In "Twilight of Honor", her film debut, she appears as the sluttish young wife of a Southern small-town "rebel" (Oscar-nominee Nick Adams) who is accused of murder precipitated by her infidelity.

The only one of the three films to be made in color, 1964's "Where Love Has Gone" was a big-budget glossy melodrama based on Harold Robbins' roman a clef about the scandalous Lana Turner–Cheryl Crane–Johnny Stompanato manslaughter/murder case, with Heatherton, who was born the same year as Crane, playing the daughter of the Turner character (Susan Hayward). A number of critics commented that producer Joseph E. Levine showed at least some good taste by not offering the part to Turner herself. Fact|date=January 2008

Finally, "Blood" was the second of three 1965 horror-suspense films directed by TV's William Conrad ("Two on a Guillotine" and "Brainstorm" were the other two). Joey's leading man was 1960's Troy Donahue, but the movie was indifferently received by the public.

Career decline

In 1972, she had a hit record with the 1957 Ferlin Husky song "Gone". Her LP 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 memorable TV 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. The 7:30-8:30 pm CBS production was a musical comedy hour in the final days of that genre. "Dad," of course, was Ray Heatherton and, in a nostalgic moment, he put on the familiar old uniform and sang his "I am the Merry Mailman" theme song. Each episode would involve Ray Heatherton waxing nostalgic over life with his daughter, while rooting through his attic.

Later years

In subsequent years, Heatherton performed in Las Vegas and acted in a few scattered TV shows and films, including 1972's critically-drubbed, all-star, European-made"Bluebeard" (with Richard Burton in the title role), in which she appeared topless, and a starring role as Xaviera Hollander in 1977's post-Watergate scandal-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".

In popular culture

*Between 1977 and 1982, Heatherton was parodied by Catherine O'Hara on the Toronto-produced series "Second City TV" (shortened to "SCTV" in 1981). O'Hara's character, Lola Heatherton (derived from “Lola” Falana, and the second part of the name was derived from Joey “Heatherton”), was a neurotic and insecure TV star of little talent—a constant guest on "SCTV"'s own fictional talk show called "The Sammy Maudlin Show", who responded to audience applause with the line, "I want to bear all your children...ha ha ha ha ha."
*In "The Simpsons" episode "The Trouble with Trillions," Moe explains that if he was granted one wish for pulling a thorn out of the Pope's butt he would choose a night with Joey Heatherton. However, when confronted with the choice of wearing an ironed shirt or his night out with the famous starlet, he is extremely tempted to choose the ironed shirt instead. In the episode "Strong Arms of the Ma," when Homer sees Marge's six-pack, he declares he's married to Joey Heatherton. In the episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" Skinner says he was shot in the back at a USO show while trying to get Joey Heatherton to put some pants on.
* In Carl Hiaasen's comic novel "Skinny Dip", the heroine Joey Perrone was named after Joey Heatherton.Fact|date=August 2008
* In the "Friends" episode "The one with the fake Monica" Joey is considering to change his name to something more neutral. When Joey finds out that the name "Joseph Stalin" also belonged to Joseph Stalin, apparently an oppressive dictator, Chandler suggests Joey Heatherton.
* Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule's 2004 album "Underdog Victorious" includes a song called "Joey" about Heatherton's rise and fall in popular culture.

Filmography

Award nominations

External links

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Persondata
NAME = Heatherton, Joey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Heatherton, Davenie Johanna
SHORT DESCRIPTION = actress, singer
DATE OF BIRTH = September 14, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH = Rockville Centre, New York
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =