Valerie Perine, who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Bob Horse’s 1974 Lenny Bruce biopic “Lenny” and featured prominently in Richard Donner’s “Superman” films as Lex Luthor’s lover Miss Teschmacher, died Monday in Beverly Hills. She was 81 years old.
Her friend Stacey Souther announced her death on Facebook, writing: “It is with deep sadness that we share the heartbreaking news of Valerie’s passing. She faced Parkinson’s disease with incredible courage and compassion and never complained. She was a true inspiration who lived life to the fullest and what a life it was. The world is not as beautiful without her in it.”
Souther continued, “Please consider donating, sharing, and helping us spread the word about her funeral with GoFundMe. Her final wish is to be buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, but after battling Parkinson’s disease for over 15 years, her finances have run dry. Let’s come together to make her final wish a reality. She truly deserves it.” Souther shared the GoFundMe link for her burial.
Perine was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015.
Lenny was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Actress for Perrine. Stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce is a complex and controversial figure, and a biopic of his mentor starring Dustin Hoffman has provoked a wide range of strong reactions from critics. Roger Ebert said, “The acting around Hoffman is primarily designed to reflect Hoffman’s personality. However, Valerie Perine, who plays Honey, develops her character in an interesting way. The film remains ambiguous about some aspects of her personality (see above). (There’s a ménage à trois that’s played for erotic effect during the film and used to provoke ambiguous fights.) But she projects a kind of tainted sexuality, and she finally gives us a stripper without a heart of gold.
In a touching scene in 1978’s Superman, in which Christopher Reeve’s Man of Steel lies in a swimming pool, near death from the Kryptonite that Lex Luthor has put on him, Perine shows that Miss Teschmacher is more than just a beautiful woman corralled by an evil genius. Although obviously saddened by Superman’s suffering, she also wants him to stop a nuclear missile (one of two launched by Luthor) headed for Hackansack, New Jersey, where her mother lives, and she helps Superman escape.
Most recently, Perine received critical acclaim for her relatively small role in Nancy Meyers’ blockbuster hit What Women Want ($374 million worldwide, second-highest grossing romantic comedy of all time). In the 2000 film, Mel Gibson’s character supernaturally gains the ability to read women’s thoughts. And the discovery he makes was very disappointing for the confident womanizer. Roger Ebert said, “At work, his two assistants (Valerie Perine and Delta Burke) adamantly approve of everything he does, but mind-reading reveals they don’t think about it at all.” Variety described this moment in the film as “one of the funniest gags in the movie.”
In the 2000s, Perine made guest appearances on television series such as “Just Shoot Me!” He then appeared in “Third Watch” and “Silver Skies” (2014) was his last big screen appearance.
Valerie Richie Perine was born in Galveston, Texas. Her mother was a dancer in Earl Carroll’s Vanities. Perine’s father was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and was frequently transferred, so the family moved frequently.
Perine was featured in the May 1972 gravure issue of Playboy magazine and appeared on the magazine’s cover in August 1981. In 1973, when PBS aired Bruce Jay Friedman’s Steambath on Hollywood Television Theatre, she became the first actress to intentionally appear nude on American television, fully exposing her breasts in a side shower scene. program.
After some time as a Las Vegas showgirl, Perine first appeared on screen in George Roy Hill’s Kurt Vonnegut adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), playing the beautiful Hollywood starlet Montana Wildhack. In 1973, she played the female lead in The Last American Hero, in which Jeff Bridges played a moonshine runner turned NASCAR driver and Perine played a girl Bridges takes an interest in but “turns out to be a groupie at a racetrack offering his prize to the winner,” said Tony Mastroianni of the Cleveland Press.
After appearing in Lenny in 1974, she co-starred with Rod Steiger in Arthur Hiller’s W.C. She appeared in Sidney Pollack’s Robert Redford and Jane Fonda vehicle “The Electric Horseman” (1979), and the New York Times said: “Mr. Pollack also carefully casts supporting roles, with special The film stars country music star Willie Nelson as Sonny’s laid-back rodeo buddy, Valerie Perine as Sonny’s kind but infinitely patient ex-wife, and John Saxon in an interesting role as the ruthless Amco president. ” The actress also appeared in the 1980 musical comedy “Can’t Stop the Music” with the Village People.
After Superman II, she starred as the wife of Jack Nicholson’s disgruntled Border Patrol agent in Tony Richardson’s The Border (1982) and opposite Michael Caine in the adventure comedy Water (1985).
The actress tried her hand at series regularity in Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills (1986), co-starring Harvey Korman, but the CBS show, co-created by Steve Martin, lasted only six episodes.
In the 1987 feature-length comedy Made to Order, Ally Sheedy played a brat who is taught life lessons by his fairy godmother, suddenly becomes lonely and homeless, and eventually takes a job as a couple’s housekeeper. Roger Ebert said, “This couple, played by Valerie Perine and the late Dick Shawn, are the highlight of the film. They are the kind of people Mel Brooks had in mind when he talked about “rising from vulgarity.” They are simple, stupid, and ridiculously in love with material possessions, and even more so with each other. ”
The actress co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor and Mark Harmon in the 1989 television movie adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth, directed by Nicolas Roeg.
In the 1990s, Perine made guest appearances on series such as “Northern Exposure,” “Homicide: On the Street,” “ER,” “Nash Bridges,” and “The Practice.” She also appeared as Dolores Pierce on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns from 1998 to 1999, and then landed a role in Nancy Meyers’ hit comedy What Women Want in 2000.
