Playboy Playmate of the Month November 1969. Mimi Mimi Born Mary Eileen "Mimi" Chesterton, titian beauty Claudia Jennings was raised in Milwaukee. In 1966, she moved to Evanston, Illinois, the first suburb north of Chicago, where she graduated high school in 1968. After joining the Hull House theatre company in Chicago, she took a job as a receptionist at the offices of Playboy magazine i ... show all
Playboy Playmate of the Month November 1969. Mimi Mimi Born Mary Eileen "Mimi" Chesterton, titian beauty Claudia Jennings was raised in Milwaukee. In 1966, she moved to Evanston, Illinois, the first suburb north of Chicago, where she graduated high school in 1968. After joining the Hull House theatre company in Chicago, she took a job as a receptionist at the offices of Playboy magazine in September 1968. Photographer Pompeo Posar asked her to test, and with a potential $5,000 check at stake -- enough for a ticket to Hollywood -- she agreed. She eventually appeared as Playmate in November 1969, and later as 1970 Playmate of the Year. Jennings became the most perennially popular Playmate of the 1970s, as well as the number one female star of "Drive-In" movies such as "The Unholy Rollers (1972)" and "'Gator Bait (1974)". From 1970-75, she lived with songwriter/producer Bobby Hart but, after their split, her personal life began to spiral. After narrowly missing the role of Kate Jackson 's replacement on "Charlie's Angels" (1976)" to Shelley Hack in May 1979, she began a tumultuous relationship with Beverly Hills realtor Stan Herman . Following their split later that summer, Jennings turned her life around, but sadly fell asleep at the wheel of her VW convertible on her way to pick up her things from Herman's home in Malibu on the morning of October 3, 1979. She was 29. hide
Genres:Drama Countries:Canada Directors:David Cronenberg Actors:William Smith | Claudia Jennings | John Saxon | Nicholas Campbell | Don Francks | Cedric Smith | Judy Foster | Robert Haley | George Buza | David Graham | David Petersen | Chuck Chandler | Cheri Hilsabeck | Sonya Ratke | Michael Bell
An early departure from director David Cronenberg's canon of visceral horror, 1979's Fast Company profiles one of his personal passions, racecars, in a gritty melodrama that also features exciting racetrack footage. Veteran toughguy William Smith is top-billed as a champion drag racer who clashes with the unscrupulous oil-company executive (John Saxon) who sponsors his team. Though lacking the gruesome clinical obsessions of his horror features (Cronenberg admits on the disc's commentary that the film was a tax shelter for its Canadian producers), Fast Company is also fascinated with internal machinery (here, car engines instead of human bodies), and it's easily Cronenberg's most approachable film, with plenty of automotive action alongside the solid performances (the cast includes B-movie queen Claudia Jennings in her final performance).
Genres: Drama