A Hottie, a Hillary, and a Hillbilly

Today's trio of birthday girls form an unlikely sisterhood of fabulosity. As we've stated on previous occasions, we make no distinction between the greatness of being a Really Fabulous Blonde, a Beloved B Movie Star, or a Dead Gay Icon. (And, in some cases, one can be all three at the same time.)


VIRNA LISI SPOOFS THE NASCENT FEMINIST MOVEMENT FOR ESQURE, 1965

Virna Lisi (September 8, 1937) possessed an almost otherworldly beauty, on a par with, or perhaps even exceeding, Marilyn Monroe at her most luminous. Strangely, this didn't translate into a particularly notable film career, although it's been a long one -- she's still going strong today, after making her debut in 1953. However, her looks and physique were such that, even in her native Italy, most of her pictures capitalized on those attributes, rather than her talent. Lisi made a brief splash in swingin' 60's Hollywood, most memorably in the sharp Jack Lemmon comedy, How to Murder Your Wife (1965). In 1994, Ms. Lisi won belated acclaim for her acting chops, when she appeared as Catherine de Medici in La Reine Margot. Her efforts netted her Cesar and Cannes Film Festival awards, as well as Italy's equivalent of the Oscar, the David di Donatello Award.


ONE OF MANY POSTHUMOUS RELEASES CAPITALIZING ON PATSY CLINE'S DEATH; DECCA, 1963

Would we still be so fascinated by Patsy Cline (September 8, 1932 - March 5, 1963), had she not died so young? We'll never know, but there's no denying that the public has been fascinated ever since, buying 45 million posthumous Patsy Cline records. Cline has also been the subject of a major made-for-cable biography (Sweet Dreams, 1985, starring Oscar-winner Jessica Lange), been lauded as the inspiration for such contemporary vocalists as k.d. lang, and undoubtedly was the first (and sometimes only) exposure to country music for many a gayling. In fact, Cline is one of the few icons of Les Boys who appeals equally, perhaps even more so, to the lesbian community. Her outsized personality, emotional voice and tragic death no doubt all play parts in this, but the bottom line is that Cline was a trailblazer, a major crossover star who happened to die tragically young, at age 30, in a plane crash.

Sidenote: many stories exist which tell of Cline's legendary sass and spunk, which, as a woman in the male-dominated country music field of the 1950's and early 1960's, she had to call upon more often than not. Sometimes, though, her sparring partner was also female: in one such case, the devastatingly sophisticated, acid-tongued and -penned New York columnist, Dorothy Kilgallen. In 1961, Cline and several other Grand Ole Opry stars were booked at New York City's prestigious Carnegie Hall; in her column, Kilgallen described the musicians as "hicks from the sticks," and then advised that "everyone should leave town. The hillbillies are coming." Cline's response? "Miss Dorothy called us Nashville performers 'the gang from Grand Ole Opry - hicks from the sticks.' And if I have the pleasure of seeing that wicked witch, I'll let her know how proud I am to be a hick from the sticks."


ELEGANT HILLARY BROOKE, C. 1947

She was famed for her soigne style and cultured speech, but Hillary Brooke (September 8, 1914 - May 25, 1999) was actually a dame from Astoria, Queens. She cultivated her vaguely British accent in order to separate herself from the pack of other good-looking blondes crowding the Hollywood scene; as such, she created a nice little niche for herself. If Hillary Brooke never became a major star, she was a popular and visible one, called upon whenever producers needed a glamour girl who could also project elegance and sophistication. She gained her greatest fame as the "straight woman" to Abbott and Costello on their 1950's television program; her aloof grandeur was a comic counterpoint to the comedian's lowbrow slapstick. Unlike the teaming of Margaret Dumont and The Marx Brothers, however, Abbott and Costello never made Brooke's character the unwitting butt of a joke; they simply let the comedy stem naturally from her regal demeanor and treated her with genuine, almost awed respect. In 1960, Hillary Brooke retired and concentrated her efforts on charity work. She died of a blood clot in her lung at age 84.