Linda Bent

Linda Jean Bent ( Opie; March 30, 1939 – July 24, 2024) was an American actress and model, best known for her appearances in beach party films in the mid-1960s.

Early life Born Linda Jean Opie, she was crowned Miss La Jolla only one year apart from her future beach party film co-star Salli Sachse.

Career

Her first appearance was as a surfer girl in the film Muscle Beach Party (1964). She also appeared in Bikini Beach and Pajama Party, both also from 1964.

She made appearances in various beach party films, including Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). She often appeared in the beach party films as part of a group of beach girls that usually surrounded the films' recurring leading couple of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Bent in particular was often paired with Salli Sachse, with both wearing similar topknot hairdos, and they were known as "Bookend Girls", as they were often positioned on the opposite ends of a crowd of surfers in the films.

Later life Bent retired from acting following the death of her husband, but in August 2006 she was reunited with beach party film regulars like Sachse, Mary Hughes, and Patti Chandler for an interview for an article celebrating surf culture in the 1950s and 1960s for Vanity Fair.

Bent later remarried to a man described on her 2006 Vanity Fair interview as turning out to be "violently abusive", a marriage which produced a son. The marriage was described as having ended as of 2006.

Filmography Muscle Beach Party (1964) as Surfer Girl (credited as Linda Opie) Bikini Beach (1964) as Beach Girl Pajama Party (1964) as Pajama Girl (credited as Linda Opie) Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) as Beach Girl How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) as Bookend #1 Fireball 500 (1966) as Leander Fan