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Barbara Nichols
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Barbara Nichols (December 30, 1929 - October 5, 1976) was an actress who was something of a cross between a sex symbol and a character actress, a voluptous and attractive woman who usually played brassy secondary comic roles in a number of major films in the 1950s and 1960s.
Nichols was born Barbara Nickeraeur in Queens, New York. She began modeling for pinup magazines in the early-1950s and for a period worked as a stripper. In the mid-1950s she moved to Hollywood and began regularly appearing in second leads in a number of films including Miracle in the Rain (1956), A King and Four Queens (1956), The Naked and the Dead (1957), Pal Joey (1957), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), and That Kind of Woman (1958). On Broadway, she appeared in the 1952 revival of "Pal Joey" and in "Let It Ride" (1961).
Nichols was a very popular model in cheesecake magazines of the era and was considered a minor rival to Marilyn Monroe's throne as the era's sexiest blonde along with several other blonde bombshells including Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, Cleo Moore, Diana Dors and Sheree North, although unlike the rest of them, Nichols rarely starred in films yet she had showy supporting roles in major films starring the likes of Clark Gable, Susan Hayward, Sophia Loren, and Doris Day. One of her few starring roles was in the 1966 science fiction film The Human Duplicators.
Nichols was also a frequent guest star on many television series including The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, and The Beverly Hillbillies. Her last film was Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood in 1976.