‘Summer and Smoke’ Star, Pamela Tiffin Dies At 78
Pamela Tiffin, the brunette beauty who gained film stardom in her late teens for her roles in “One, Two, Three” and “Summer and Smoke,” is dead at 78.
The actress and model died in a New York hospital Wednesday of natural causes, Tiffin’s daughter Echo told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday.
Tiffin’s friend reported that she had moved to Deadline.
Following the disclosure of the star’s demise, Hollywood history author Michael Troyan tweeted. He said: “Remembering a lovely legacy at 20th Century Fox: Pamela Tiffin.”
Tiffin’s Life/Career
Tiffin was 19 years old when she made her silver-screen debut as Nellie Ewell in the 1961 film version of Summer and Smoke, a Tennessee Williams drama.
Tiffin earned a 1962 Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. Two of her rivals were Jane Fonda and Ann-Margret, portraying Laurence Harvey’s once-amoral psychiatrist’s virginal love interest.
In the Billy Wilder film “One, Two, Three,” Tiffin received a second nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the same ceremony, playing spitfire Scarlett Hazeltine, the 17-year-old daughter of James Cagney’s boss who runs amok in West Germany.
For “The Lively Set” and “For Those Who Think Young,” she teamed with teen star James Darren twice in 1964.
The following year, she appeared in the western “The Hallelujah Trail” opposite Burt Lancaster and Marcello Mastroianni in the Italian comedy “Kiss the Other Sheik.”
In the 1966 Paul Newman-Lauren Bacall mystery “Harper,” one of her last high-profile Hollywood performances was.
According to the Internet Broadway Database, Tiffin made her Broadway debut that year in the revival of “Dinner at Eight”. She also received a Theatre World Award for her performance.
In a 2015 interview for the Oklahoma Gazette, “Pamela was that rare commodity in the (the 1960s); the beautiful girl next door who could be quite funny,” explained Tom Lisanti.
“Actresses, who looked like her were not supposed to have her comedic ability and were to play the ingenue only.”
When her seven-year marriage with Clay Felker was collapsing during the late 1960s, Tiffin left Hollywood for Rome. There she specialized in performing comedy roles as a blonde.
She starred in the February issue of Playboy magazine in 1969.
Before virtually leaving the company, Tiffin worked mainly in Italy through the mid-1970s.
According to IMDb, her last film role was in the 1989 Italian miniseries “Quattro storie di donne.”
Tiffin admitted during a 1997 interview with Lisanti that her reputation might have been more storied if she had pursued superstardom.
Tiffin also admitted that she was supposed to strive for more, but she did not.
