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His other film that year was 20th Century Fox's Rally Round the Flag, Boys!, which placed him as the love interest to Tuesday Weld. |
You'll never guess who the gal in the middle is, playing a character named "Wiggles!" |
This being the earlier days of the fabled mag, she was mostly seen partially nude or semi-obscured, though there wasn't too much left to the imagination nonetheless. |
The pictorial had her portraying a ballerina removing various layers of the costume seen on the cover. She would give birth to a son in 1959 at age 21. |
We find her here being embraced by Alan Hale Jr. in Up Periscope (1959), unbilled as "Grass Hut Girl." |
But in 1961, she was cast as a stewardess in The Crowded Sky. Seen here with fellow flyer Anne Francis, they are collecting a ticket from Jean Willes. In between Francis and Willes, one can spot Gilson looking out a window. |
As I noted earlier, Gilson plays a Method actor. He's totally unsure how to proceed with a part he's up for - a coward. He can't identify with it and has nothing to draw from. |
He goes through a series of James Dean-ish contortions trying to determine how he will be able to properly express cowardice (while Kelly sits watching him, rolling her eyes!) |
Edwards' participation in the movie is far less pronounced. We don't really get a decent look at her until after the collision. Even then she must share the screen with higher-billed Francis. |
The elegant Edwards gives the passengers in the rear of the plane emergency landing instructions. |
The End. |
4 comments:
You blew me away with a brunette Dyan Cannon, "wiggles" is hilarious. This is a sad story but gave me a chance to get to know Saundra Edwards. She's gorgeous and in some shots is reminiscent of Ava Gardner, What a figure and good for her for being handy with a gun when you need to be. I do kind of remember him from "The Crowded Sky" he reminded me of Dennis Hopper a little. I didn't know actresses were able to have a real career after Playboy in the 50's, she looks amazing in all the photos
I was somewhat familiar with this sad tale but your post filled in so many details!
Sometime within the last year I watched the opus that is Young and Wild. As I often do when I see performers who have good size roles in a film but are unknown to me I'll do some investigating to find out a little about them. Usually I'll start with IMDB and when I saw that Gilson died at 28 I was shocked, it's always a shock when you run across something like that-I remember looking up Robert Francis after seeing The Caine Mutiny, he was so clearly being groomed for stardom but I'd never heard of him only to discover that he was killed in a plane crash at 25 after only four films. That was tragic but pretty clear cut, Gilson story is sad and sordid.
How awful for Saundra Edwards! No wonder she chose to not pursue a career in front of the cameras afterward. Had she had any kind of success at all she would have been faced with a barrage of surely upsetting questions from insensitive reporters.
Thanks for another fascinating Hollywood tidbit!
Gingerguy, he did have a Dennis Hopper-ish quality, though I figure he was quite a bit taller. I recently re-watched "The Crowded Sky" and it is so campy. The interior monologues of the characters while the camera zooms into their kissers! But I love the moment of impact. Saundra had lovely coloring, the dark hair and green eyes.
joel65913, I'm the same way. Always startled to discover a person only to find that they died very young. Francis is a fascinating case in that he was bound to become a movie lead sometime soon until... Some of these old time Hollywood scandals and tragedies; the mind reels at what they'd be like in today's "information age" (where so often a "celeb" heading out for coffee or a jog and being spotted is "big news!")
Gilson looked like he could have been Robert Mitchum's younger brother. In fact, he very much resembles Chris Mitchum, Robert's son. This explains Gilson's unbelievable appeal to beautiful women. He was involved with Joan Collins in the late 1950's, one of the most beautiful women ever in Hollywood. I think Gilson was repulsive to look at, but then again, I'm not female. Watch some of his TV guest roles, such as in The Lawman, and he just reeks of a bully. Turns out he was abusive to Playboy centerfold Saundra Edwards, whose toxic attraction to him endangered herself, their infant son, her sister, and the lives of Edwards' three children. He hit her while she was holding their 9-month-old son, hitting the baby as well. That is when she left him to go live with her sister and brother-in-law. She was a sick woman and obviously needed psychiatric counseling. I am glad that her career was ruined. Karmic justice.
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