Joey Heatherton

Joey Heatherton
Background information
Born as:	Davenie Johanna Heatherton
Born	Sep 14, 1944 Rockville Centre, New York, U.S.
Education:	Saint Agnes Academy
Spouse(s):	Lance Rentzel (1969 - 1972) divorced
Occupation:	Actress, singer, dancer
Years active	1959–present
Editor's note about articles in this category

Davenie Johanna "Joey" Heatherton (born September 14, 1944) is an American actress, dancer, and singer. A sex symbol of the 1960s and 1970s, she is best known for her many television appearances during that time. Heatherton was a frequent performer on variety shows and also had a number of acting roles. She performed in front of U.S. troops for over a decade on USO tours presented by Bob Hope. Heatherton starred in several feature films, including My Blood Runs Cold (1965) and The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977).

Early life

Davenie Johanna Heatherton was born in New York City and raised in Rockville Centre, New York, a town in Nassau County close to New York City. She was nicknamed "Joey" as a child, a portmanteau of her first name, Davenie, and her middle name, Johanna. Her father, Ray Heatherton, was a Broadway star (Babes in Arms) and television pioneer. He was famous in the greater New York area as the star of the long-running children's television show The Merry Mailman. Her mother, also named Davenie, was a dancer who met Ray Heatherton when both were performing in Babes in Arms. Heatherton has a brother, Dick (born October 19, 1943), who later became a disc jockey.

Heatherton attended Saint Agnes Academy, a Catholic grade and high school. At the age of six, she began studying ballet at the Dixon McAfee School of Dance and went on to study for four years under George Balanchine. She then continued her education, exploring modern jazz dance, voice, and dramatics.

• Joey Heatherton gallery
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Career

Early career

Heatherton began her career as a child actress. She first appeared on television on her father's show The Merry Mailman, a popular children's show in New York. In 1959, at age 15, Heatherton joined the ensemble and understudy cast in the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music, and that same year, she gained her first major national exposure as a semi-regular on The Perry Como Show (later called Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall), where she played an enthusiastic teenager with a constant crush on Perry Como. Heatherton also released her first single, titled "That's How It Goes" / "I'll Be Seeing You," but did not achieve a hit with it or with the three additional singles she released over the next few years. Heatherton returned to Broadway in 1960, co-starring in the short-lived production There Was a Little Girl alongside Jane Fonda. Her first television role as a dramatic actress also came that year when she guest-starred as a wealthy, spoiled teen on an early episode of Route 66. During the early 1960s, Heatherton was often cast as a troubled teenager because of her "sexy-kid look."

1960s

Starting in the mid-1960s, Heatherton began to draw attention for her sensual dancing on television, which some viewers found shocking and some critics criticized as "sleazy eroticism." In 1964, Heatherton appeared on The Tonight Show, where she taught Johnny Carson the finer points of dancing "The Frug." Heatherton gained significant publicity after her guest appearance on the January 1965 premiere episode of the teen dance show Hullabaloo. She appeared on several more episodes of the show and released "Hullabaloo," a song she performed on the show, on Coral Records. At Dean Martin's invitation, Heatherton also made numerous appearances on The Dean Martin Show, starting with the premiere episode on September 16, 1965. She was a mystery guest on the game show What's My Line? on November 7, 1965, the last live telecast featuring Dorothy Kilgallen.

From June to September 1968, along with Frank Sinatra, Jr., Heatherton co-hosted Martin's summer-substitute musical comedy hour, Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers. She also made multiple appearances on other 1960s television variety shows, such as The Andy Williams Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Ed Sullivan Show, and This Is Tom Jones.

Heatherton dancing on the USS Ticonderoga, December 27, 1965

From 1965 to 1977, Heatherton performed live with Bob Hope's touring USO troupe, 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.

Throughout the 1960s, Heatherton interspersed her variety show appearances with dramatic turns on episodic television series, including Mr. Novak, The Virginian, The Nurses, I Spy, and It Takes a Thief.

Heatherton also appeared in the movies Twilight of Honor (1963), Where Love Has Gone (1964), and My Blood Runs Cold (1965). In her film debut, Twilight of Honor, she played the young wife of an accused murderer (Oscar-nominee Nick Adams). The only one of the three films shot 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 portraying the daughter of the Turner character (Susan Hayward). The William Conrad thriller My Blood Runs Cold marked Heatherton's first leading role in a film, opposite Troy Donahue.

1970s–present

By the 1970s, Heatherton's career was slowing down, but she remained popular enough to appear in a series of TV ads for RC Cola and Serta mattresses. She performed in Las Vegas and acted in several TV shows and films, including the 1972 thriller Bluebeard (starring Richard Burton), where she did her only onscreen nude scene. That same year, Heatherton released her first album, The Joey Heatherton Album. Its lead single, a cover of Ferlin Husky's 1957 song "Gone," stayed on Billboard's Hot 100 for 15 weeks, reaching a peak at #24. "Gone" also reached #38 in Australia. The second single, "I'm Sorry," peaked at #87. In 2004, the album was re-released with a nude photo of Joey on the cover, taken by photographer Harry Langdon Jr. She posed topless for the shot while filming Bluebeard.

Personal life

In April 1969, Heatherton married Lance Rentzel, a Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, in New York City. In November 1970, Rentzel was arrested for exposing himself to a 10-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty, promised to undergo psychiatric treatment, and was given a suspended sentence. Heatherton filed for divorce in September 1971 and her career lost its luster; some say Heatherton never recovered from the psychological shock of Rentzel’s offense. The divorce became final in 1972.

On July 8, 1985, Heatherton was arrested and charged with interfering with a government agent's duties and disturbing the peace after she allegedly slapped and pulled the hair of a clerk at Manhattan's U.S. Passport Agency office. Heatherton was acquitted of both charges in September 1986.

Also in July 1986, Heatherton was arrested and charged with theft of services for refusing to pay a $4,906 bill from a hotel and spa in Long Island where she stayed in 1984. She pled not guilty.

On August 30, 1986, Heatherton was arrested for assault in Hillcrest, Rockland County, New York, after she stabbed Jerry Fisher, her former boyfriend and ex-manager, in the hand with a steak knife during an argument. Fisher was later treated at a local hospital and released. After her arrest, Heatherton told police who she was, but they did not believe her. Heatherton then handed one of the officers her purse to verify her identity. While looking through it, the officer found a foil packet with less than a gram of cocaine. Heatherton was charged with assault and misdemeanor drug possession. In October 1987, a court ruled that the search was unconstitutional because Heatherton was not advised that she had the right to refuse a purse search. As a result, the misdemeanor drug possession was dropped. Jerry Fisher later dropped the charge of assault against Heatherton.

Filmography

Wikipedia article: Joey Heatherton Filmography

External links

• Joey Heatherton at the Internet Movie Database
• Joey Heatherton at the Internet Broadway Database
• Appearance on What's My Line? on November 7, 1965 (Coincident with Dorothy Kilgallen's final appearance as a panelist)

More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Joey_Heatherton ]

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