Description:
Cybill Shepherd, former beauty queen and model, rebounded
from a disastrous early career in motion pictures to become a highly respected
television performer. Born on February 18, 1950 in Memphis, Tennessee, Shepherd
won the 1966 Miss Teenage Memphis contest. Turning to modeling, Shepherd at
5' 8" and 140 lbs. was more full-figured than Twiggy and her clones who
were popular in the late 1960s, and she quickly became a success, being named
the 1968 Model of the Year.
Shepherd's debut in The Last Picture Show (1971) was memorable,
as was her next film, Neil Simon's The Heartbreak Kid (1972) on which director
Elaine May encouraged her to improvise. Shepherd, still only 22-years old, might
have flourished under the old studio system if she had been brought along gently,
up through the ranks. But she had fallen in love with her "Picture Show"
director, Peter Bogdanovich, and he had other plans for her. Blinded by love,
he thought the tyro actress had the makings of a star.
Bogdanovich cast her as the eponymous heroine in his disastrous
adaptation of Henry Miller's novella Daisy Miller (1974), a role beyond her
talents at that point. She was excoriated by the critics and the movie was soundly
drubbed by industry insiders as a folly. After seeing the film, Oscar-winning
director William Friedkin terminated his involvement with The Director's Co.,
a production company that he, Bogdanovich and Coppola had been signed to by
Paramount, as he was appalled by Bogdanovich's casting of his inexperienced
girlfriend in the lead. Thus, Friedkin was no longer associated with Bogdanovich
when he and Shepherd were humiliated by the failure of his next vanity project,
"At Long Last Love," a musical featuring the songs of Cole Porter.
Cybill Shepherd Pictures/Movies
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