Barbara Parkins

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Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the age of sixteen Parkins and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where she enrolled at Hollywood High School and began to study acting. Her earliest employment was as a backup singer and dancer in the nightclub acts of major stars, including comedian George Burns. She made her film debut in a low-budget crime caper, "20,000 Eyes", in 1961, and also guested in a number of television series, including "Leave It to Beaver", "The Untouchables", and "Perry Mason".

Parkins was involved in two of the most highly publicized projects of the 1960s—the ABC primetime serial "Peyton Place" and the film adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's best-selling novel, "Valley of the Dolls".

In "Peyton Place", Parkins received lead billing for her role as small town bad girl Betty Anderson. As initially conceived, the character was scheduled to die in a car crash six weeks into the season, but audience reaction to Parkins was overwhelmingly favorable, and it was decided to keep her in the story line. She was the only female star to remain with the series through its entire run (1964-1969). In 1966, she was nominated for an Emmy Award as Best Actress in a Lead Role in a Dramatic Series, but lost to Barbara Stanwyck for "The Big Valley". Eventually shedding her "other side of the tracks" image, Betty endured many of the trials and tribulations of soap opera life, and the character achieved such popularity that when the show ended its run, producer Paul Monash developed a spin-off series, "The Girl from Peyton Place", for Parkins. However, when co-star Ryan O'Neal, who played her husband, declined to participate, the project was shelved.

In "Valley of the Dolls", Parkins played Anne Welles, the naive small-town girl described as "the good girl with a million dollar face and all the bad breaks"—a character based on author Susann. The film was trashed by the critics, although Parkins was one of the few to emerge unscathed. Nonetheless, it was a huge commercial success and eventually became a campy cult classic. Susann herself, who hated the movie, felt Parkins was the only redeeming feature in it.Fact|date=January 2008

After visiting London in 1968 when she served as a bridesmaid at the wedding of "Dolls" co-star Sharon Tate and director Roman Polanski, Parkins decided to move to England, where she starred in several productions. Among them were "Puppet on a Chain", "Shout at the Devil", and "The Mephisto Waltz", with Alan Alda and Jacqueline Bisset. Parkins tried to capitalize on her sex symbol image by posing for nude pictorials in the May 1967, February 1970, and May 1976 editions of Playboy Magazine. She spent most of the mid-70s appearing on American television in several mini-series, including "Jenny: Lady Randolph Churchill" with Lee Remick, "Captains and the Kings" with another "Dolls" co-star, Patty Duke, and "The Testimony of Two Men" with William Shatner. She also appeared in guest shots on "Fantasy Island", "The Love Boat", "Hotel", and "Vega$".

In the late 1970s, Parkins moved to France and married, and in the late 1980s she gave birth to her only child, daughter Christina.

In the 1980s, she continued to work in television movies, including "To Catch a King", in which she portrayed the Duchess of Windsor, and opposite Sharon Stone in "The Calendar Girl Murders". She returned to the role of Betty Anderson in "Peyton Place: The Next Generation", a one-shot sequel to her popular series, in 1985.

In 1991, she starred in a Canadian mystery series entitled "Scene of the Crime", then spent most of the remainder of the decade in semi-retirement. She emerged in the late 1990s to participate in two Susann-inspired projects, the biopic "Scandalous Me" and a segment of the Lifetime series "Intimate Portrait". In 1995 she was chosen by Empire magazine as number 81 on their list of 100 Sexiest Stars in film history.Fact|date=January 2008

She has not worked as an actress for the past few years. In 2006, she participated with Ted Casablanca on the audio-commentary for the DVD release of "Valley of the Dolls" and attended the release party on June 13, 2006.

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