June 29 - Liliane Montevecchi Died

Liliane Montevecchi, a veteran stage and screen performer who personified elegant old-world French glamour with an extravagant touch of camp, died June 29 in New York City. She was 85. The Paris-born former prima ballerina became an MGM contract player in the 1950s but found more enduring fame three decades later on Broadway. She played the part of Forty Nina, a stripper, in the Elvis Presley movie "King Creole".

She was lured to Hollywood in the 1950s, one of several foreign-born ballerinas to make the transition in that decade, along with Leslie Caron, Moira Shearer and Zizi Jeanmaire. Montevecchi became an MGM contract player, landing small roles in The Glass Slipper with Michael Wilding, Daddy Long Legs with Fred Astaire, Moonfleet with Stewart Granger, The Sad Sack with Jerry Lewis, King Creole with Elvis Presley and The Young Lions, with Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin. But unlike Caron, her screen career failed to blossom into significant fame, though she attended classes at The Actors Studio in New York alongside Marilyn Monroe.

(Source: Hollywood Reporter)