Yvette Mimieux

Yvette Carmen Mimieux (January 8, 1942 – January 18 , 2022) was an American film and television actress who was a major star of the 1960s and 1970s. Her breakout role was in The Time Machine. She was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and a Photoplay Award during the course of her career.

Early life Mimieux was born in Los Angeles on January 8, 1942, to René Mimieux, who was half French and half German, and Maria Montemayor, who was Mexican. Mimieux had two siblings, a sister, Gloria, and a brother, Edouardo. Her first acting appearances were in episodes of the television shows Yancy Derringer and One Step Beyond, both in 1959, at the age of 17.

Career MGM Mimieux appeared in George Pal's film version of H. G. Wells's 1895 novel The Time Machine (1960) starring Rod Taylor, in which she played the character Weena. It was made for MGM, which put her under long-term contract. Her first film was Platinum High School (1960), a low-budget teen crime drama produced by Albert Zugsmith for MGM starring Mickey Rooney and released two months before The Time Machine. Her performance in Platinum High School earned her a 1960 Golden Globe Awards nomination for "New Star Of The Year - Actress". Arthur Freed wanted to team her and George Hamilton in a remake of The Clock, but it was not made.

Mimieux had a central role in the romantic drama Light in the Piazza (1962), playing a mentally disabled girl. The film paired her romantically with Hamilton. The film lost money, but was well regarded critically. She later said: "I suppose I have a soulful quality. I was often cast as a wounded person, the 'sensitive' role."

In 1962, Mimieux was slated for a role in A Summer Affair at MGM, but it was not made.

Mimieux had a small part in Pal's The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), another commercial disappointment. Later that year, she appeared in Diamond Head (1963) with Charlton Heston. Mimieux went to United Artists for Toys in the Attic, based on the play by Lillian Hellman and co-starring Geraldine Page and Dean Martin. At MGM, Mimieux guest-starred on two episodes of Dr. Kildare alongside Richard Chamberlain in 1964. She played a surfer suffering from epilepsy, a performance that was much acclaimed and led to a 1965 Golden Globe nomination for "Best Actress In A Television Series".

Mimieux did The Desperate Hours (1967) for TV and was reunited with Rod Taylor in the MGM war movie Dark of the Sun (1968). In 1968, she narrated a classical music concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

In 1968, Mimieux was top-billed in the sex comedy Three in the Attic, a hit for AIP starring Christopher Jones, and then appeared in the critically acclaimed 1969 movie The Picasso Summer alongside Albert Finney. In 1970, she was the female lead in The Delta Factor, an action film co-starring Christopher George.

Television

Mimieux had one of the leads in The Most Deadly Game (1970–1971), a short-lived television series from Aaron Spelling. She replaced Inger Stevens, who had been slated to star,— but died one month before production began. For this role, Mimieux was nominated for the 1971 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Actress — Drama Series. After making the television movies Death Takes a Holiday (1971) and Black Noon (1971), she sued her agent for not providing her with movie work despite having taken her money.

Mimieux played the head stewardess in MGM's hostage thriller Skyjacked (1972), starring Charlton Heston and James Brolin and was in the Fox science-fiction film The Neptune Factor (1973).

By the early 1970s, Mimieux was unhappy with the roles offered to actresses:The women they [male screenwriters] write are all one-dimensional. They have no complexity in their lives. It's all surface. There's nothing to play. They're either sex objects or vanilla pudding.

Mimieux had been writing for several years before this film, mostly journalism and short stories. She had the idea for a story about a Pirandello-like theme:the study of a woman, the difference between what she appears to be and what she is: appearance vs reality...[the more I thought about the character] the more I wanted to play her. Here was the kind of nifty, multifaceted part I'd been looking for. So instead of a short story, I wrote it as a film.

Mimieux appeared in the TV movie Forbidden Love (1982) and Night Partners (1983) and guest-starred on The Love Boat and Lime Street. She made Obsessive Love (1984), a television film about a female stalker which she co-wrote and co-produced:There are few enough films going these days, and there are three or four women who are offered all the good parts. Of course I could play a lot of awful parts that are too depressing to contemplate.... [Television] is not the love affair I have with film, but television can be a playground for interesting ideas. I love wild, baroque, slightly excessive theatrical ideas, and because television needs so much material, there's a chance to get some of those odd ideas done.

Mimieux had the lead in the short-lived TV series Berrenger's (1985) and a supporting role in the TV movie The Fifth Missile (1986). She guest-starred in a TV movie Perry Mason: The Case of the Desperate Deception (1990). Her last film was a supporting role in Lady Boss (1992). She was married for a second time to film director Stanley Donen from 1972 until their divorce in 1985.

Mimieux died 10 days after her 80th birthday at her home in Los Angeles on January 18, 2022.

Filmography

A Certain Smile (1958) — (uncredited) Platinum High School (1960) — Lorinda Nibley The Time Machine (1960) — Weena Where the Boys Are (1960) — Melanie Tolman The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962) — Chi Chi Desnoyers Light in the Piazza (1962) — Clara Johnson The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) — The Princess ("The Dancing Princess") Diamond Head (1962) — Sloane Howland Toys in the Attic (1963) — Lily Berniers Looking for Love (1964) — Yvette Mimieux Joy in the Morning (1965) — Annie Brown née McGairy The Reward (1965) — Sylvia Monkeys, Go Home! (1967) — Maria Riserau The Caper of the Golden Bulls (1967) — Grace Harvey Dark of the Sun (1968) — Claire Three in the Attic (1968) — Tobey Clinton The Picasso Summer (1969) — Alice Smith The Delta Factor (1970) — Kim Stacy Skyjacked (1972) — Angela Thacher The Neptune Factor (1973) — Dr. Leah Jansen Journey Into Fear (1975) — Josette Jackson County Jail (1976) — Dinah Hunter The Black Hole (1979) — Dr. Kate McCrae Circle of Power (1981) — Bianca Ray The Fascination (1985) The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1985, documentary) — Weena (in The Time Machine) (archive footage)

Television work

Yancy Derringer (1959, Episode: "Collector's Item") — Ricky Alcoa Presents One Step Beyond (1960, Episode: "The Clown") — Nonnie Regan Mr. Lucky (1960, Episode: "Stacked Deck") — Margot Dr. Kildare (1964, 2 episodes) — Pat Holmes The Desperate Hours (1967, TV movie) — Cindy Hilliard The Most Deadly Game (1970–1971) — Vanessa Smith Death Takes a Holiday (1971, TV movie) — Peggy Chapman Black Noon (1971, TV movie) — Deliverance Hit Lady (1974, TV movie) — Angela de Vries The Legend of Valentino (1975, TV movie) — Natacha Rambova Bell, Book and Candle (1976, TV movie) — Gillian Holroyd Snowbeast (1977, TV movie) — Ellen Seberg Ransom for Alice! (1977, TV movie) — Jenny Cullen Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978, TV movie) — Betty Barry Outside Chance (1978, TV movie) — Dinah Hunter Disaster on the Coastliner (1979, TV movie) — Paula Harvey Forbidden Love (1982, TV movie) — Joanna Bittan Night Partners (1983, TV movie) — Elizabeth McGuire The Love Boat (1984, Episode: "Hong Kong Affair") — Leni Martek Obsessive Love (1984, TV movie) — Linda Foster Berrenger's (1985, canceled after 12 episodes) — Shane Bradley The Fifth Missile (1986, TV movie) — Cheryl Leary Perry Mason: The Case of the Desperate Deception (1990, TV movie) — Danielle Altmann Lady Boss (1992, TV Series) — Deena Swanson (final appearance)

Recordings The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm 1962 (MGM Records), as The Dancing Princess Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs Du Mal) 1968 (Connoisseur Society), reading excerpts of Cyril Scott's 1909 translation with music by Ali Akbar Khan