ANGIE DICKINSON

'Angie Dickinson' (born September 30, 1931) is a Golden Globe-winning American television and film actress, perhaps best known for her role as the sultry Sergeant Leann (not Suzanne) "Pepper" Anderson in the 1970s crime drama, ''Police Woman''.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Early career

Leading lady

''Police Woman''

The 1980s

1990s and later

Personal life

Award nominations

Emmy Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Filmography

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Dickinson, the second of three daughters, was born 'Angeline Brown' in Kulm, North Dakota, to Frederica and Leo H. Brown, who was a small-town newspaper publisher and editor.^[1] Dickinson's first job was selling Hershey's Kisses for five cents, so her sisters could buy ice cream cones. In 1942, her family moved to Burbank, California. She graduated from Bellamarine Jefferson High School in 1947, at 15 years of age. The previous year, she won the Sixth Annual Bill of Rights essay contest. She studied at Glendale Community College and in 1954 graduated from Immaculate Heart College with a degree in business. Taking a cue from her publisher father, she originally intended to be a writer. While a student, 1950-52, she worked as a secretary at the Burbank Airport (now Bob Hope Airport) and in a parts factory.

Early career

In 1953, she placed second in a beauty pageant. After conquering the beauty pageant trail, and beginning to establish a name for herself on the big screen, Dickinson became one of the more versatile, popular and younger leading character actors of the 1950s and 1960s, guest-staring in dozens of TV series. Soon after her first marriage to Gene Dickinson, she decided to pursue an acting career under the name Angie Dickinson. She was approached by NBC to guest-star on a number of variety shows, including ''The Colgate Comedy Hour''. She became a member of the Rat Pack where she met Frank Sinatra who became a lifelong friend. The two would later star in the film ''Ocean's Eleven''.
On New Year's Eve 1954, she made her acting debut in an episode of ''Death Valley Days''. This part led to other roles in such productions as ''Buffalo Bill Jr'', eight episodes of ''Matinee Theatre'', ''General Electric Theater'', ''The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp'', ''Broken Arrow'', ''Gunsmoke'', ''Cheyenne'', ''Meet McGraw'', ''The Restless Gun'', ''Perry Mason'', ''Mike Hammer'', ''Wagon Train'', ''Men Into Space'', and a memorable turn as the duplicitous murder conspirator in a 1964 episode of the classic ''The Fugitive'' series with David Janssen and fellow guest star Robert Duvall. In 1965, she had a recurring role as Carol Tredman on ''Dr. Kildare''.

Leading lady

Though Dickinson enjoyed a moderately successful movie career for nearly two decades, and worked with many major directors and top leading men of the 1950s and '60s, she did not rise above the status of attractive, reliable working actress--- real stardom came later. Her film career began with small roles in ''Lucky Me'' (a 1954 cameo) with Doris Day, ''The Return of Jack Slade'' (1955), ''Man with the Gun'' (1955), and ''Hidden Guns'' (1956). She had her first starring role in ''Gun the Man Down'' (1956) with James Arness, and the Sam Fuller cult film China Gate (1957) which depicted an early view of the internal conflicts in Viet Nam.
Dickinson rejected the Marilyn Monroe/Jayne Mansfield style of overdone platinum blonde stardom, because it would narrow her acting options. At first, she allowed studios to lighten her naturally-brunette hair only to honey-blonde. Casting directors and audiences began to notice Dickinson's enigmatic charisma and her ironic, albeit seductive, delivery--at once femininely fluttery and undeniably edgy. She was armed with a fine physique, great legs, deepset brown eyes that could read as either warmly receptive or aloofly dismissive. Her striking face, which photographed as oval from the front but angular in profile, resembled that of a Venusian goddess. Her atypical screen presence initially caused critics to praise her-- if not always the films in which she played. Those same critics also lamented the decline of the Old Studio System, so that promising newcomers such as Dickinson were not properly groomed, valued or protected.
She eventually, albeit reluctantly, became a notable Hollywood sex symbol. She also starred in B-movies early on, mostly westerns, including ''Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend'' (1957) co-starring onscreen with actor James Garner, which earned her more respect from the industry. It was another western that propelled her into Hollywood's A-list, Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo (1959), in which she played a flirtatious gambler named ''Feathers'' who is almost locked up by the town sheriff played by her childhood idol John Wayne. The film co-starred Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan. When Hawks sold his personal contract with her to a major studio without her knowledge, she was understandably peeved and her hopes that the legendary director would mould her into the next Lauren Bacall seemed dashed.
In the early 1960s, Dickinson starred in numerous movies, making her one of the more prominent leading ladies of the decade, co-starring in ''The Bramble Bush'' with Richard Burton and ''Ocean's Eleven'', (both released in 1960) with Frank Sinatra. These were followed by the political potboiler ''A Fever in the Blood'' (1961); a Belgian Congo-based melodrama ''The Sins of Rachel Cade'' (1962) in which she played a missionary nurse tempted by earthly lust; and the European travelogue ''Rome Adventure'' (also known as "Lovers Must Learn") in 1962, where Dickinson gets to dish comparatively wicked seductress dialogue; and Jean Negulesco's ''Jessica'' (1962) with Maurice Chevalier, in which she plays the straightlaced-but-carnal young woman of Italian heritage working as a midwife but resented by the wives of the town's lusting men. Angie would also share the screen with friend Gregory Peck in the comedy-drama ''Captain Newman, M.D.''
In ''The Killers'', a film originally intended to be the very first made-for-TV movie but sent to the theatres due to its violent content, Angie is slapped by a villainous boyfriend, played by future U.S. President Ronald Reagan in his last movie role. (Dickinson was also rumored to have been romantically involved with John F. Kennedy at one time, thereby providing two intriguing connections to American presidents). She also co-starred in the so-so comedy ''The Art of Love'' (1965), in which she plays the love interest of both James Garner and Dick Van Dyke.
She also enjoyed moderate success in a string of movies made during the latter 1960s and early 1970s: the Arthur Penn/Sam Spiegel production, ''The Chase'' (1966), flooded with present-and-future stars like Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Miriam Hopkins and others. Despite the potential in front and behind the camera, the more controversial aspects of the Lillian Hellman script were blocked, and the film languished in mediocrity--- although today its cast makes it an obvious curio.
Dickinson's best movie of this era was arguably John Boorman's stark urban cult classic Point Blank (1967) with Lee Marvin as a betrayed thief out for revenge and his money. The film did not acquire an audience and critical appreciation until several years later. In 1969, she starred in another Western, ''Young Billy Young'' with Robert Mitchum and Jack Kelly, and in ''Sam Whiskey'' where she gave young Burt Reynolds his first on-screen kiss. In 1971, she played a lascivious high school teacher in the dark comedy ''Pretty Maids All in a Row'' with Telly Savalas and Rock Hudson, and a scary doctor in the sci-fi flick ''The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler''. One of her best and best-remembered movie roles is the tawdry widow Wilma McClatchie in the Depression romp 'Big Bad Mama' (1974) with William Shatner and Tom Skerritt. Her nude scenes set tongues wagging because of their boldness and because this was then considered quite a risky move for an established actress of a certain age (she was 42).

''Police Woman''

Dickinson returned to the small screen in March 1974 to play a character on an episode of the critically-acclaimed hit anthology series ''Police Story''. That one guest appearance proved to be so popular that NBC had decided to turn it into a weekly detective series to be called ''Police Woman'', which would make her the first successful female TV police officer. (Beverly Garland and Anne Francis had actually done it first, but their shows had been short-lived). Dickinson played Sgt. Leann "Pepper" Anderson, a cool, sexy and classy blonde member of the Los Angeles Police Department Criminal Conspiracy Unit during which she would often adopt any number of undercover guises to lure the thugs to justice--- a tough but lovely broad.
The role redefined and consolidated Dickinson's star status and as an over-40 sex symbol. The series became the first successful primetime drama series in history to feature a woman in the title role. She became a pop icon of the 1970s, as ''Police Woman'' was shown in over 70 countries, becoming the Number One show in many of them, including in the United States briefly during the Summer reruns in its first season. (It was essentially NBC's feminine answer to the six successful 1970s crime drama series, ''Hawaii Five-O'', ''Kojak'', ''The Streets of San Francisco'', ''McMillan and Wife'', ''The Rockford Files'' and ''Switch'' (a year later), five consecutive series airing concurrently on three different networks).
Co-starring on the show was a familiar actor, Earl Holliman (who replaced Bert Convy, who had portrayed Crowley in the pilot episode), as Sgt. Anderson's half-Italian commanding officer and long-time friend, Sergeant Bill Crowley, and then unknown-stars, Ed Bernard and Charles Dierkop as Investigators Joe Styles and Pete Royster, respectively... On the first day of shooting, both Dickinson and Holliman realized the chemistry between the two worked very well, and the writers quickly began writing to this. (The obvious connection of her character's name, 'Sergeant Pepper,' to the legendary Beatles album went unacknowledged.)
On occasion, Dickinson gave her boss's daughter a chance to play the role of her autistic young sister, Cheryl, during the 1974 season; the role lasted only a few episodes. In its first season particularly --- generally regarded as the show's best year (before the content was subsequently softened and some of the energy drained) ''Police Woman'' was a ratings winner among many other popular 1970s detective series. In early 1976, she and Holliman were both invited to the Television Broadcasters' Awards to praise the actor's achievement. He lauded the veteran actress's career accomplishments, including her work with such late actors as Frank Sinatra and John Wayne, both of whom acted with Dickinson earlier in her career.
By the end of its fourth season in 1978, ''Police Woman'' had by far its most difficult year, with the ratings dropping due to increasing schedule changes by NBC and a level of crispness mostly missing from the program--it was now far from the dynamic, focused, trendsetting series it had been in 1974-1975. The scripts lacked the intelligence they had at the outset; rote direction replaced the formerly taut, even cinematic, style.
Subsequently, NBC decided to cancel the series after four seasons and 91 episodes. But by all accounts, Dickinson enjoyed playing the alluring cop on one of television's most influential cop shows ever, and will likely always be fondly remembered for it. (The same year the show came to an end, she reprised her Pepper Anderson role on the television special, ''Ringo'', co-starring with Ringo Starr and John Ritter; she also parodied the part in the 1975 and 1979 Bob Hope Christmas Specials for NBC; she would do the same years later on the 1987 Christmas episode of NBC's ''Saturday Night Live''.)
The impact of ''Police Woman'' resulted not only in a rash of sexy-but-strong female-driven series (mostly of a more fanciful nature) like ''Charlie's Angels'', ''The Bionic Woman'' and ''Wonder Woman'' during the late-'70s, but Angie Dickinson's show inspired a spate of applications from women for employment to police departments around the country--- the effect was seismic; in recent years, journalists have been surprised by how often the ''Police Woman'' series has been referenced when asking long-time female law enforcement officials about what inspired them to join the force.
In 1987, the Los Angeles Police Department awarded Dickinson an honorary Doctorate, which led her to quip "now you can call me 'Doctor Pepper'".

The 1980s

After appearing in TV mini-series like ''Pearl'' (1978), Dickinson returned to the big screen in Brian De Palma's thriller ''Dressed to Kill'' (1980), which earned her a 1981 Saturn Award for Best Actress. Loved by some and derided by others (largely for its violence and a certain crassness), the film featured Dickinson in a 35-minute role early in the film which ends with her character's brutal murder in an elevator. Critics hailed her performance and today the film is viewed as a serious example of the macabre genre, with her silent stalking through the maze of a New York City museum being one of the film's stylistic highlights.
Despite the career highs of ''Police Woman'' in the '70s and ''Dressed to Kill'' in 1980, Dickinson's focus as an actress now had begun to wane somewhat — in the 60s and early 70s, no one questioned her ability.
She had a less substantial role in ''Death Hunt'' with Charles Bronson in 1981, as well as ''Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen''. She won the 1981 Saturn Award for her role as Kate Miller in the Brian De Palma film ''Dressed to Kill''. Earlier that year, she had been the first choice to play 'Krystle Carrington' on the ''Dynasty'' TV series, but turned down the role (which went to Linda Evans). ''Cassie & Co.'' was an unsuccessful attempt at a TV comeback. She then starred in several TV movies such as, ''One Show Make it Murder''(1983), ''Jealousy'' (1984), ''A Touch of Scandal'' (1984), ''Hollywood Wives'' (1985), and ''Stillwatch''(1987).
On the big screen, she reprised her role as Wilma in ''Big Bad Mama II'' (1987), and completed the TV movie ''Kojak: Fatal Flaw'', in which she was reunited with Telly Savalas. She co-starred with Willie Nelson and numerous old buddies in the 1988 TV western ''Once Upon a Texas Train''. In 1982, when she was 50 and yet to undergo any surgery, a panel of Hollywood designers and make-up artists ranked her first in a list of Best Female Star Bodies.

1990s and later

In 1993, Dickinson appeared in the futuristic shocker TV-miniseries ''Wild Palms'', produced by Oliver Stone, in which she played the militant sister of a Political Figure Tony Kruetzer. The same year, she starred as a ruthless Montana spa owner in Gus Van Sant's bizarre ''Even Cowgirls Get the Blues''. Uma Thurman and a cast of stellar cameos could not save the picture, which has been called the Single Worst Movie of the 1990s. In 1995, she played Burt Reynolds's wife in the thriller ''The Maddening'', appeared in the remake of ''Sabrina'' with Harrison Ford, and played the mother of Rick Aiello and Robert Cicchini in the comedy ''National Lampoon's The Don's Analyst''.
During the first decade of the new millenium, she played an alcoholic homeless mother to Helen Hunt in ''Pay it Forward'' (2000) with Kevin Spacey; mother to Gwyneth Paltrow in ''Duets'' (2001); and as Arliss Howard's mother in the critically well-received though little-seen ''Big Bad Love'' (2001) with Debra Winger. She appeared in the original ''Ocean's Eleven'' (1960) with Frank Sinatra, and in the 2001 version with George Clooney, a remake of a Rat Pack heist film in which she had appeared four decades earlier. In the summer of 2004, she appeared on the 2nd season of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown. After announcing her name, host Dave Foley said "Sometimes, when we say ''Celebrity'', we actually mean it."
Dickinson is a recipient of the state of North Dakota's Roughrider Award.

Personal life

Angie was married to Gene Dickinson, a former football player, from 1952 to 1960. She was married to musician/composer Burt Bacharach between 1965 and 1981. After marrying Burt Bacharach, Dickinson put her career on hold, although she still appeared in the occasional picture, such as the western ''The Last Challenge'' (1967) with Glenn Ford, and the dreary comedy ''Some Kind of Nut'' (1969).
While playing the no-nonsense cop Sergeant Pepper in ''Police Woman'', her marriage to Burt Bacharach was in serious turmoil due to the overwhelming hours involved in starring in a series compounded by his reported affairs. She went through a divorce from Bacharach that she did not want while working on ''Dressed to Kill'' (1980).
Their daughter, Lea Nikki, known as Nikki, was born three months prematurely in 1966 and was eventually diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Her problems caused Dickinson to decline many roles as she focused on caring for her. Nikki spent 9 years at the Wilson Center, a psychiatric residential treatment facility for adolescents located in Faribault, MN. Although she had earned a degree in geology, poor eyesight resulting from her premature birth made it impossible for her to pursue a career in that field. Unable to cope with the effects of Asperger's, she ultimately committed suicide in her Los Angeles condo in January 2007.

Award nominations

Emmy Awards

Nominations in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series :

★ 1975 - ''Police Woman''

★ 1976 - ''Police Woman''

★ 1977 - ''Police Woman''

Golden Globe Awards

Golden Globe Award wins Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Drama Series :

★ 1975 - ''Police Woman''
Unsuccessful nominations in the category of Best TV Actress - Drama :

★ 1976 - ''Police Woman''

★ 1977 - ''Police Woman''

★ 1978 - ''Police Woman''

Filmography

★ ''Lucky Me'' (1954) ★ ''Tennessee's Partner'' (1955) ★ ''The Return of Jack Slade'' (1955) ★ ''Man with a Gun'' (1955) ★ ''Hidden Guns'' (1956) ★ ''Down Liberty Road'' (1956) (short subject) ★ ''Tension at Table Rock'' (1956) ★ ''Gun the Man Down'' (1956) ★ ''The Black Whip'' (1956) ★ ''Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend'' (1957) ★ ''China Gate'' (1957) ★ ''Calypso Joe'' (1957) ★ ''Run of the Arrow'' (1957) (dubbing voice for Sara Montiel) ★ ''I Married a Woman'' (1958) ★ ''Cry Terror!'' (1958) ★ ''Rio Bravo'' (1959) ★ ''Frontier Rangers'' (1959) ★ ''I'll Give My Life'' (1959) ★ ''The Bramble Bush'' (1960) ★ ''Ocean's Eleven'' (1960) ★ ''A Fever in the Blood'' (1961) ★ ''The Sins of Rachel Cade'' (1961) ★ ''Rome Adventure'' (1962) ★ ''Jessica'' (1962) ★ ''Captain Newman, M.D.'' (1963) ★ ''The Killers'' (1964) ★ ''The Art of Love'' (1965) ★ ''The Chase'' (1966) ★ ''Cast a Giant Shadow'' (1966)

★ ''The Poppy Is Also a Flower'' (1966) ★ ''The Rock'' (1967) (short subject) ★ ''Point Blank'' (1967) ★ ''The Last Challenge'' (1967) ★ ''Sam Whiskey'' (1969) ★ ''Some Kind of a Nut'' (1969) ★ ''Young Billy Young'' (1969) ★ ''Pretty Maids All in a Row'' (1971) ★ ''The Outside Man'' (1972) ★ ''Big Bad Mama'' (1974) ★ ''The Angry Man'' (1979) ★ ''Klondike Fever'' (1980) ★ ''Dressed to Kill'' (1980) ★ ''Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen'' (1981) ★ ''Death Hunt'' (1981) ★ ''Big Bad Mama II'' (1987) ★ ''Even Cowgirls Get the Blues'' (1993) ★ ''The Maddening'' (1995) ★ ''Sabrina'' (1995) ★ ''The Sun, the Moon and the Stars'' (1996) ★ ''The Last Producer'' (2000) ★ ''Duets'' (2000) ★ ''Pay It Forward'' (2000) ★ ''Scene Smoking: Cigarettes, Cinema & the Myth of Cool'' (2001) (documentary) ★ ''Big Bad Love'' (2001) ★ ''Ocean's Eleven'' (2001) (Cameo) ★ ''Elvis Has Left the Building'' (2004) ★ ''3055 Jean Leon'' (2006) (documentary)

References

1. http://www.filmreference.com/film/81/Angie-Dickinson.html

External links

★