Lee Grant (Lyova Haskell Rosenthal) should have been on the A-list in 1952. She had just earned an Oscar nomination in a film starring Kirk Douglas, directed by William Wyler (12 “best director” nominations). Quite to the contrary, her career went into a tailspin. She had been placed on the infamous Hollywood Blacklist. Despite being an acclaimed actress, she was nearly out of work for a dozen years, forced to work under pseudonyms, picking up only an occasional TV series guest appearance. She finally came back to prominence in 1965 as a regular on Peyton Place, after which she was nominated for three more Oscars, winning one for Shampoo.
She was in the wrong generation for nudity. By the time Julie Christie won the first Oscar for a performance that included a nude scene, thus making nude scenes respectable for English-speaking performers, Lee was already 40 1. Despite a late start, she did appear in two topless scenes:
She was already 50 1 when she made her modest nude debut in Shampoo.
And she was 54 1 when she did her other nude scene in When Ya Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?
Footnote 1. I listed her true ages at the time she did those roles. She was then pretending to be much younger. As we’ve seen here many times, it was customary for Hollywood actresses to shave off as many years as they could get away with. Her birth year was 1925; it had been listed as late as 1931.
Disgraceful.
I remember seeing Red Ryder and was impressed by her breasts.
Since you are referencing a huge milestone that would be of interest to everyone who visits this site, can you please clarify this statement of yours: “By the time Julie Christie became the first Oscar-nominated actress to do a nude scene in the Code era”. Do you mean that she had already been nominated for an Oscar and then did a nude scene in a subsequent film? Or was she the first to be nominated for a film where she was nude? This is an important clarification.
Totally off topic: Since you are such a baseball fan, I’m surprised you didn’t have a post referencing that absolutely crazy “grounded into a double play” from Game 1 of the Dodgers – Brewers game last night. Any thoughts?
Both variations are true. Among all English-speaking performers:
Julie Christie was the first woman to win the Best Actress Oscar for a performance than included a nude scene.
Julie Christie was the first woman to win the Best Actress nomination for a performance than included a nude scene.
No Oscar-nominated or Oscar-winning actress before Julie Christie had ever done a nude scene in any performance, in the nominated film or any other.
However …
Back in the old days, Claudette Colbert had won a Best Actress Oscar and had done a nude scene, but (1) for two different films; (2) the nude scene came first, so she was not an Oscar nominee or winner at the time she did the nude scene. If you word the criterion carefully, you can say that Claudette Colbert was the first actress to have both a nude scene and a Best Actress Oscar on her resume.
Sophia Loren, years before her Oscar nomination, had done nude scenes in Era lui… sì! sì! (French version) and Two Nights With Cleopatra. That made her the second woman to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar with a nude scene on her resume and the second woman to win the Best Actress Oscar with a nude scene on her resume.
Neither Colbert nor Loren were Oscar nominees or winners at the time they did their nude scenes.
Always thought Lee was a babe, liked her ginger bob hairdo, & very nice boobs! More recently, creeped the fuck out of us in her one scene in Mulholland Dr.
Altho you can’t see much more than in Shampoo, Lee did get a massage from Carol Kane (playing her sis!) in the extremely weird Mafu Cage
She’s my favorite actor named for Civil War generals, just nosing out Stonewall McClellan
Or Seann Winfield Scott.
Or Frederic Bedford Forrest