Why didn't Paula Prentiss become a huge star?

She was groomed to become the next Doris Day, but she never quite reached the superstar status that Doris did. I don't get it, because she was beautiful, talented and immensely likable. I guess she never got the breakout role that she deserved. It's also strange that she never got her own sitcom or TV drama.

She should have been cast as the mother in THE EXORCIST and in Mary Tyler Moore's role in ORDINARY PEOPLE. She would have been better in both roles than Ellen and Mary were.

[quote]She's crazy

Credentials to become a gay icon at least.

In addition:

No one was "groomed" for anything in the 1960s because the studio system was dead, save for a few under contract to Universal.

Two, Doris Day was a singer, a band singer, and most of her first decade were musicals. Not Paula's thing.

Three, see R1.

She was more of a Big Ethel than a Betty or Veronica

Her sister Ann Prentiss was violent and crazy, and it derailed both her career and Richard Benjamin's.

Ann tried to have her own father and Richard Benjamin rubbed out. Spent almost 20 years in prison.

She was fabulous in What's New Pussycat as Liz Bien(Lesbian). She had great chemistry with Peter O'Toole..

Smart and sexy. At the time they still wanted dumb and sexy.

The dad molested both sisters when they were children. Ann totally cracked as r5 says, and Paula had a breakdown during the filming of What's New Pussycat.

I thought she was fantastic in The Stepford Wives and much more watchable than Katherine Ross. She also had a very small part in The Parallax View. She really was a good actress and a lot of leading parts should have gone to her.

Truffaut wondered the same thing about Prentiss in one essay of his, OP. He lived her but he said that in the end it's always a matter of chemistry with the audience: if the audience clicks with you you'll be a star but if the audience doesnt click, a whole studio campaign and media pushing wont make you a star.

So what were her great, star-making roles? She was fun in Stepford Wives, I really couldn't name anything else.

She was a delightful comic actress, stealing The World of Henry Orient from Peter Sellers and Angela Lansbury and those two bratty girls.

Both Ann and Paula Prentiss were molested by their dad. Ann killed him because of the abuse she had suffered.

One of my very favorites actresses of all time, along with Joan Hackett. Both underrated. Both very talented. But both had problematic personalities. Paula was, as pointed out above, pretty nuts. She was institutionalized several times -- there was a Paula Room at Payne Whitney. Horrible family. Etc. Hackett wasn't crazy but she was very difficult, and tried to direct her directors until too many said, enough. That said, I can't get enough of either of them. Best of the 1960s.

An interesting story updating their relationship (they're both 80 now).

She says she threatened to jump from a catwalk during the filming of "What's New, Pussycat?" and spent nine months in a psychiatric hospital.

Too tall, quirky voice. Not sexy.

But I very much liked her turns in The World of Henry Orient (the kind of part that defined her) and The Stepford Wives. But she started out on in stuff like "Where the Boys Are" where she was outshone by the likes of Yvette Mimieux and Dolores Hart and even Connie Francis.

WEHT Yvette Mimieux?

She was in a sitcom with Richard Benjamin called He and She

R5, Ann Prentiss was nutzo but she had the same fabulous Paula VOICE, and she was a lesbian. Those are points for me.

Love her and I love [italic]the World of Henry Orient[/italic]. I first saw it when I was a kid and was entranced with the weird world they had created for themselves.

Wasn't she also in What's New Pussycat?

I seem to remember that she was nicely touching in a secondary role in the WWII film In Harm's Way as the wife of naval officer Tom Tryon (and we could do a thread on him, could we notA!).

totally forgot about her (and him). thanks for the memories.

R22 - The World of Henry Orient is a film I turn to in fits of Oh How I Miss New York in the Sixties" films - the score by Elmer Bernstein always makes me teary. The city is most definitely part of the cast of the film. (I have a parallel list for Oh How I Miss London in the Sixties".)

It's really a unique film, and I must give some mention not only to the charming young actresses, but to Angela Lansbury's wonderfully brittle turn as the cold, distant Mum.

Paula was never leading lady material, always the second (or 3rd or 4th) banana.

She did possess a wonderfully throw-back screwball comedienne quality that might have taken her a little further in the 1930s. Howard Hawks might have loved her. But she still wouldn't have given Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur or Myrna Loy much competition.

"WEHT Yvette Mimieux?"

No one the fuck cares! She made homophobic fun of boring Richard Chamberlain during the making of Joy in the Morning (1965). Sure he was never believable as straight, but come on.

Paula could have been lead material, even as supporting she was FAB

Paula also holds the distinction of having done the first full frontal nudity in a legitimate American film. Straight guys are forever in her debt.

Always thought they were kind of an adorable couple. They aged well, always looked good and contemporary through the years.

She's been on those little talking head vignettes on TCM recently discussing her on-screen partnership with Jim Hutton (Timothy's father.) They made several films together, including the classic "Where the Boys Are."

and I do also recall how I preferred Ann with her crazed, cross-eyed glance. I didn't realize at the time that it was for schnizzle!

She was an apPrentiss, not a star.

I love her voice, with that hint of a Texas accent. She was actually in a late Hawks comedy (Man's Favorite Sport, with Rock Hudson) but films like that were becoming an anachronism by the mid 60s

Reminds me of Anne Sexton—same lanky beauty, husky voice, and (sadly) messed up sexual history.

During the making of What's New Pussycat she fucked Peter o'Toole. I've never heard of her having any other affairs. It might have been a symptom of the breakdown she was about to suffer.

You forgot the crazy part for Sexton, R35.

R31, Mayer would have said the same thing about 5'7" Doris Day.

She is one of my favorite actors! I love Man's Favorite Sport. Sexy, tall, and so smart. I agree with the above poster about Joan Hackett. Both underrated.

Very simple: she had that breakdown during the filming of What's New Pussycat and had some trouble getting cast after that.

She was one of the women in the Neil Simon adaptation Last of the Red Hot Lovers.

She would have been wonderful in The Exorcist. And I do think she would have been better than MTM in Ordinary People.

It is kind of shocking that she didn't become a huge TV star. I could see her in a Mary Tyler Moore Show or Rhoda type comedy in the 70s.

A friend who worked on WNP said PP climbed into the cat walk after slitting her wrists. The blood fell down onto the set as she screamed like a maniac. Very upsetting for everyone in the production.

I liked her. She had quirky appeal. At 5'10", she was a bit too tall for a leading lady, so she was frequently paired with 6'5" Jim Hutton. Apart from Hutton and Rock Hudson, most of the bankable leading men were short, perhaps limiting her onscreen pairings and probably the number of parts.

5'10" Ingrid Bergman made it despite her height, but she had the studio system to sustain her star power.

She and Richard Benjamin hosted SNL together in 1980. I think they're the only couple who have hosted together.

She is hysterically funny as Bobbie Michelle in Last of the Red Hot Lovers.

And I love one of her last leading lady roles in The Black Marble.

She could have been a much bigger star, but she was too emotionally fragile after the What's New Pussycat melt down plus word in the biz was that she was nuts.

Coulsn't be more different from Dorris Day--tall, not petite; dark features not strawbury blonde; no freckles; better comic timing than Doris, but quirky voice. She and Jim Hutton were cast together in several filsm because they both were tall (and had onscreen chemistry).

Would have been terrible in Ordinary People--lacks the well managed brittleness of MTM which was perfect for the role. It would have been too close to home for her, having all that crazy in a film. OTOH, I still find it funny that her sister put a hit out on Richard Benjamin of all people--he usually played nebbishes, although he was chilling in Diary of a Mad Housewife. Very sad about Ann and the horrible life they must have had with their father.

I think she also aged prematurely or just badly. I was shocked at her appearance in Buddy, Buddy (1981).

Buck would never have wanted her to play his mother.

The contrived responses in this thread are nothing more than bad comedy. OP was seemingly interested in Paula Prentiss but can't resist bringing up her sexual abuse, her sister's abuse and murderous act. All the seemingly nice things said only to follow with a swipe about her past. Not exactly stealth.

Is this thread a pod project that involves two troll farm minions or four? Did you have to draw a topic out of a hat and you lost? Or will they cut off your daughter's big toe if you don't reach 50 responses in 20 mins?

Whatever the motivation for this thread, it really sucks.

Lana Turner starred with her in the Bob Hope vehicle "Bachelor In Paradise" and, enraged that budding, gorgeous young Paula was getting more wolf-whistles from the crew on-set than she was, the 42 year old Lana set out to DELIBERATELY destroy Paula's career, whispering tales of mental instability and unprofessionalism to producers and directors who might have otherwise hired her.

They were supposed to be reteamed in 1980's "Witches Brew" (directed by Paula's husband, Richard Benjamin) but Prentiss wisely declined, and poor Terri Garr was suckered into that flop.

R36 How did Paula Prentiss "fuck Peter o'Toole"? With a dildo?

[quote] She should have been cast as the mother in THE EXORCIST and in Mary Tyler Moore's role in ORDINARY PEOPLE.

She was originally cast in both roles, but a wise Gary Morton called her and told her to turn both parts down.

I loved Paula Prentiss, her voice was mesmurizing to me seemed she knew how to use a drawl to great effect. Saw every film, loved “He & She.” Prentiss deserved to be a greater success than she was. I am glad to know that she and RB are still around. I adored her, really liked him.

I agree sister Ann became an issue - Paula would have even more to overcome not in the least that they also greatly resembled each other. Cant imagine how horrific and brutal their childhood must have been. If Ann murdered thier father it was most likely the only justice rendered. Things must have been very ugly between these two brutalized women. Never knew Ann was a lesbian.

Still a Paula fan. yes I do think trolls manufactured this thread.

I watched Altman's CALIFORNIA SPLIT recently and Ann Prentiss was in it. She and Gwen Welles played a couple of hooker pals of the Elliott Gould character. Both were good though Ann is too similar to her sister.

The film reminded me of what an annoying actor Gould was in the 70's, doing constant rehashes of his M*A*S*H performance. Though he's even more tiresome in Altman's LONG GOODBYE, a really bad film that got inexplicable good reviews at the time.

He and She is one of those shows that should have been a hit but missed anyway.

I think that she is/was charming. I also agree that she was too tall and I suppose too "quirky" to ever have been a bankable leading lady. After discovering "The Stepford Wives" maybe 15 years ago, it became one of my favorite films and thought that Paula was by far the most interesting actor in the film. I searched out her work and like other posters above really liked Where the Boys Are and in particular - Man's Favorite Sport?. I wish that she had more of a filmography, but I am thankful for the movies that she did make.

R52 is another patient at Payne Whitney.

1967 was a great year in pop culture.

She and Dick replaced Elaine May and Alan Arkin in Power Plays at the Promenade.

I love Paula’s dramatic 60’s make up. She’s great! Love her work.

Imagine it was her in One Day At A Time instead of Franklin!!

[quote] he said that in the end it's always a matter of chemistry with the audience: if the audience clicks with you you'll be a star but if the audience doesnt click, a whole studio campaign and media pushing wont make you a star.

Tell me about it!

Richard Benjamin said the ratings for He & She were huge compared to what today's TV shows get, but they weren't enough back then to get a second season. It would be the #1 rated show today if you compared ratings. Millions of people watched that show and loved it.

R68 -- Yes, the ratings were comparatively high because there were only three networks then, so every show, even the worst losers, had higher comparative ratings that most any show today. Duh.

I know this is a dumb question, but if Paula got top billing over Richard, why did they call the show He and She? Why not She and He??

She was not too tall. Film productions get around height discrepancy with no problem. It was her personal issues that kept her from advancing which is a pity because she had great screen presence and she could act.

I do remember that she suffered from mental illness. I go way back.

Wasn't she on One Day at a Time? Season 2?

DB cut her off from others, too. Iron fist.

I saw her (along with her husband) in the American premier of the play(s) "The Norman Conquests". She was just horrible. Which the reviews pointed out when the show got to NY. That was mid-1970s or so.

Limited acting ability.

I thought it was her late sister, Ann Prentiss, who suffered from mental illness, not Paula.

She actually looks pretty good today, for an old, old, lady.

Can someone explain the decade-wide gap between a tv movie in 1983 and then a Murder She Wrote appearance in 1992? And she never really got back into the business, just two more appearances in the 90s, two more after that.

Could they really be as happy together as they look in that pic r81?

I certainly hope so.

Richard Benjamin was fantastic in The Last of Sheila. It's strange that Herbert Ross didn't cast Paula as his wife in the movie. I bet Lee Radziwell was jealous of her and didn't want Paula tempting her husband.

I love Joan Hackett in Last of Shiela. One of the other lost actresses of the 60s, along with Paula P. and Elizabeth Hartmann

He was still married to Twinkle-Toes Nora when that was filmed, r85.

She looks like Sydney Penny’s mother.

Herbert Ross didn't cast Paula because Joan Hackett was a far more talented actress. It's really quite simple.

I thought Herbert Ross was homosexual.

bisexual, presumably, since he was married to Nora Kaye forever. And Radziwill, but I always assumed there was no sex involved in that marriage.

Herb was gay but he was married to prima ballerina Nora Kaye. And Nora had a pre-marriage affair with uber gay Arthur Laurents, too, so she must have had quite a cock.

Basically, between them, Nora Kaye and Harold Lang slept with everyone who was anyone in the NY theater world of the 1940s.

It felt like Paula and Susan Saint James were always in competition with one another.

Susan is another popular actress from that era who suddenly disappeared without rhyme or reason. You can add Yvette Mimeux, Hope Lange and Carol Lindley to that list.

[quote]You can add Yvette Mimeux, Hope Lange and Carol Lindley to that list.

Yvette MIMIEUX and Carol LYNLEY

R72, ever hear of sexism?

"Ann is too similar to her sister"

Like that's a bad thing? No to me.

Herb Ross was in love with his wife Nora Kaye, but he was a homo, not "bi." Nora Kay was a fag hag fucker.

Paula was wonderful in her brief role in "The Parallax View," with Warren Beatty. I mean, wow.

Paula was also good in her similarly brief role in The Stepford Wives. That was when she was best, in a relatively small supporting role.

Yvette Mimieux also looks pretty good. She just turned 77.

I think Paula was too tall. She was 5'9" in an era when, when she started out, the Sandra Dees and Yvette Mimieuxs were the ideal in America. It was the Gidget era. And she was odd, to boot. She was in her tall oddness a perfect foil for Katharine Ross in The Stepford Wives, and for Dolores Hart and Mimieux in Where the Boys Are.

Europe was different.

What’s New, Pussycst? was full of tragic actresses. Capucine had one of the saddest and loneliest lives. Romy Schneider’s later life was full of grief. At least Ursula Andress was happy.

None of those actresses, Lange, Mimieux, Lynley, were A List or particularly talented, so, of course, their careers faded with their looks.

And I believe the first two married very wealthy men so perhaps they weren't ambitious either and felt no need to play mothers in movies-of-the-week.

R93 I was always get a shock when someone mentions "Harold Lang".

I'm assuming you mean Broadway's Harold Lang but movie lovers think of the English Harold Lang who specialised in queers and freaks.

Ya wanna see what Mr. Lang brought to the table?

I'm guessing that Paula, married to Richard Benjamin since 1961, put her career more or less on hold to raise a couple of kids, like a lot of mid range actresses of the time did. Sure she'd take on projects here and there but it's likely she was a family first type of mother.

The clips of He Said/She Said are wonderful. Full eps available on youtube?

And one of the best lines of The Stepford Wives was on on the tennis court when Tina Louise was complaining about her horny oversexed teenage boys. Paula retorted: "Send 'em over to my house!" Cackle.

Yvette at r99 looks like she's aged beautifully. Very healthy, it's nice to see for a change!

R106 - I looked her up and was surprised to see that she was French-Mexican, and that she was married to Stanley Donen. She does look pretty good for 77.

My favourite of Prentiss's bits from The Stepford Wives is when she calmly pulls the knife out of her thigh that Katharine Ross has plunged into her, but with the wires cut, her programming goes awry, and she goes about the kitchen suddenly very robot-like trying to make a cup of coffee, spilling it on the floor, and saying , "I though we were friends, I thought we were friends, what you need is a nice cup of coffee . . ." I thought it was her best moment in the film, both horrifying and riotously funny.

"Oh, Jo-ANNA. Why would you do a thing like that? When I was just going to make you coffee. Make you coffee. Make you coffee..."

Herbert Ross should have been thrown in jail for not casting Paula in Steel Magnolias. She would have been perfect and probably got an Oscar nomination. And she should have gotten the lead in Terms of Endearment.

He could have had her play identitical cousins or something in the Turning Point--no need for that hag Shirley MacLaine or hammy Anne Bancroft.

[quote]Susan is another popular actress from that era who suddenly disappeared without rhyme or reason.

I think having a son killed in a plane crash is enough "reason." That, and being married to a big shot at NBC.

My ex boyfriend's Aunt used to date Richard Benjamin when they attended the High School of Performing Arts back in the late 50's. His Aunt comes from a rich New York Central Park West retailing family. When Benjamin was giving interviews about Goodbye Columbus, he said he had dated a rich girl like Brenda, Ali Macgraw's character so he knew what it was like to be uncomfortable around rich girl's parents. Today his Aunt looks about 30 years younger than Paula, is far prettier, wealthier and lives in a Penthouse once owned by the Gershwins. She and Richard still keep in touch.

Benjamin and Prentiss have been married now 58 years. If it's a competition with the "aunt", I think Paula may have won.

Congratulations, r114, that was the most pointlessly mean post on Datalounge today

Thanks R115, R113 here. The reason my friend's Aunt didn't marry Richard is her parents did not see their daughter having a good life with him. Also, they thought he was way too interested in their money. Today, she is a widow who inherited two fortunes, one from her parents and one from her husband who died young. She is also beautiful and sort of looks like Jill St. John with a better nose job and a great facelift. Richard wanted to leave Paula for her once she became a widow but Paula was too fragile so he stayed. They might have had a brief affair. All her friends and Richard's friends think they will end up together if he outlives Paula.

R109 - thanks for putting up the link to that priceless scene from The Stepford Wives. When I think of Paula Prentiss, that's the scene that comes to mind and she totally took it from Ross.

R114 isn't wrong, though, nor were they particularly mean.

Indeed, r118; I thought r114's post was right on the money, and an appropriate response to the pointless "aunt" story--which doesn't benefit from the gratuitous detail provided in r116's post.

r113/r116 is quite the yenta.

One of my exe's older brother very briefly dated Paula in the early '60s. Also, my high school speech teacher went to Northwestern with Paula Ragusa.

I always loved Paula--here is Ann on Mannix; she plays crazy sublimely!

I wonder what Joan Crawford would have thought of Paula?

When Paula was on Mannix which did she do? Knock him unconscious; or shoot him in the shoulder.

WTBA was Paula's first movie and chosen with no acting experience. She and Connie narrate on the DVD. It was a very big movie and I believe the biggest movie for MGM that year.

That was a bad year for MGM.

I keep looking for a thread that isn't mean, filled with incorrect information and littered with cheap, nasty shots. Don't know why I ever found some of the information on DataLounge interesting. With advent of Trump and the all encompassing cruelty and bigotry throughout the US, and the vile disease-filled migrant camp primed to launch epidemics, I can't take many of the threads anymore.

R124, PAULA WAS NOT ON MANNIX

Paula Prentiss was a trailblazer. Gifted in both drama and comedy, she made a small role in the in the Parallex View part of the center of the film. A woman with knowledge, evidence and in emotional distress dismissed as hysterical (well done Beatty) and she was right. Her childhood was rough. A lot of damaged people turn to acting as a way of expressing themselves. In her case, her instant rise to popularity and her quirky, fascinating performances were something rarely seen at the time. She didn't have the foundation to withstand the pressure.

He & She was fantastic and should have run for eight years.

It was just two years ahead of its time. But it was nominated for a bunch of Emmys, including Best Comedy Series and best writing, and there was quite an outcry when it was canceled, which might have encouraged CBS to stick with other slow-burning, urban-appealing programs like All in the Family and the MTM show two years later.

Trivia: Joanna Cassidy was originally cast as Bobbie in The Stepford Wives, but she was fired after filming had started and replaced by Paula.

Interesting, because I think Paula would have been perfect in Joanna's later part as Brenda's psycho mother on Six Feet Under.

Paula Prentiss turned 81 yesterday, 4 March.

Happy B-Day Paula - One day late. Always liked her. Henry Orient and Stepford are enough to make me a fan. I remember watching and liking He & She.

The troubles she and her sister had really speaks to the fact that their father's molestation did lifelong damage to them.

It's great that she and Benjamin have remained together.

I always liked her. Loved her voice.

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