| Show Star ProfileBy Peer J Oppenheimer Roger Vadim says she has more sex appeal than anyone he has met InKoger Vadim well-know- n French director of Brigitte Bardot and prehusband of sently part-tim- e Jane Fonda insists that Angie Dickinson “has more sex appeal than anyone I ever directed I’ve never met anyone like her!” ex-husba- nd He recently finished “Pretty Maids All in a Row” in which Angie costars with Rock Hudson “I had eight beautiful young girls in the cast all trying to prove something But when Angie walked on the set the other girls simply didn’t exist She's totally honest vulnerable and feminine” What about her age? Offhand I couldn't remember a sex symbol who was pushing 40 Vadim smiled “American men will learn to appreciate what Frenchmen have appreciated for generations: older women are far sexier” I told Angie of Roger Vadim's reaction when I joined her at Harrah's Club at Lake Tahoe where her husband Burt Bacharach composer-conductwas performing “That's lovely!' she exclaimed wholeheartedly How does Angie feel about directors thinking of her this way? “I love the idea But I am not really the same to all people Some think I am really sexy and some say 'Are you kidding? When they think of a sexy girl they think of the Jane Russell-Marily- n Monroe type” Today Angie is delighted with her image but she resented being pushed in that direction by studio publicists when she started her career Partly she thinks this was due to her upbringing— the first eight years in Kulm North Dakota then in Southern California My parents were so strict 1 was never allowed to go to jtpything but children's movies Disney that sort of thing I would never have 100-perce- nt or 14 Family Weekly April It 1971 dreamt that someday I would do nude scenes in a picture! But times have changed” She went to parochial school from seventh grade through high school and her grades were good enough to get her a scholarship to college where she concentrated on sociology' and biology After graduation she became a secretary in an aircraft plant One day some of the other girls in the plant urged Angie to enter her picture in a beauty contest “I accepted because I was intrigued by the prizes They were offering a beautiful wrist watch a trip to Las Vegas and a lot of other silly little things that sounded nice and I couldn't afford at the time Also quite incidentally they offered a small part in a movie" She won got one line in a film which she recalls “was enough to give me the movie bug” From the very beginning Angie got like having her the big beauty build-u- p legs insured by the studio for one million dollars-Anshe resented it She wouldn't even pose for pin-ud ps HiI didn't want to be a sex symbol I wanted to be a great actress!” She laughed “I was so stupid I would have been much better off if 1 had concentrated on being a sex symbol And right now if you asked me 'Do you mind being a sex symbol? I'd say 'I hope I am!” It seemed to me it was one thing for an audience to think of someone as a a sex symbol but quite another to be married to one Particularly if the husband in question is the highly successful musician Burt Bacharach “But he likes me to be sexy” says Angie “and he doesn't mind the love scene I do either” first Angie's brush with Burt came was in New York publicizing her picture "Captain Newman” She was interviewed by Burt's father Bert Bacharach While they were talking he said “You might have heard of my son He's the greatest musician” Angie who had while she no idea who he was said "Sure ” sure ESefore they parted the older Bacharach asked whether it was all right for his son to call her when he visited Los Angeles Angie agreed Burt did call and in May of 1965 they eloped A year after they were married their daughter was bom “She was three months premature and Burt arid I didn't even want to name her because she wasn't expected to live We waited and waited because we didn't want to cry every time we heard her name if she died But the nurses were marvelous so optimistic They said 'She's going to be all right and if you won't give her a name we will! Without either Burt or my knowing about it they named her Nikki We liked the name so much we just kept it She not only lived but is perfectly all right now” Angie tries hard to make her marriage work When she first got married she traveled went with Burt wherever he turned down numerous roles him When I saw her at Harto be rah's in Tahoe she told me she goes to She with of his performances usually watching him from the wings every one According to her husband Burt Bacharach "Angie is the best thing that ever happened to me" Legions of movie fans can see why Initially she helped him with his work as well When they were first married and Burt was asked to score films—his credits include “Alfie” “What's New Pussycat?” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”—he would ask Angie to read the scripts “He felt that as an actress I 'might be able to evaluate them better than he could He would ask me whether I thought a certain passage would fit a particular sequence or if it were needed at all and I would tell him what I thought” Angie may be getting competition from Burt in the acting field and isn't too happy about it "A lot of parts were offered to him already including the lead in The Love Machine' I think if the right part came along he would accept it But I hope he wont There's already too much going on for us” Burt shrugs off any serious intention of becoming an actor—while reading all the scripts submitted to him But he's more outspoken when it comes to his wife: "Angie is the best thing that ever happened to me You can have one success after another and earn thousands of dollars but if you don't have someone —the right someone — to share it with it all becomes pointless” rardly it seems that Angie's life is complete but a remark she made as I left made me wonder just how complete For years she has not been anxious to accept a part that would take her away from her husband But when I asked her what her professional situation was now she said “I am totally free and willing to go anywhere to do a good film I wish Burt weren't such a big star He's away so much and has so much to do That's why I feel I might as well go back to concentrating on my own career again It's pointless for me to just stay at home and give up my work if he's not with me And if I can be a sex symbol at my age so much the better!” |
