Jill Haworth

Valerie Jill Haworth, born on 15 August 1945 in Hove, East Sussex, was an English-American actress whose career spanned film, television, and stage. Named Valerie Jill in recognition of Victory over Japan Day, the date of her birth, she grew up in Sussex and began taking ballet lessons at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School after her parents separated in 1953. She later trained at the Corona Stage School. Haworth died on 3 January 2011 in Manhattan at the age of 65 and is buried at Kensico Cemetery.

Haworth's screen career began in Britain with small roles in The 39 Steps (1959), directed by Ralph Thomas, where she appeared without dialogue as a schoolgirl, and The Brides of Dracula (1960), directed by Terence Fisher, in a similar capacity. Her breakthrough came when director Otto Preminger, searching across Britain and Germany for an unknown to play Karen Hansen in Exodus (1960), discovered her photograph in a modelling magazine connected to the Corona Stage School. Haworth was fifteen years old when she was cast in the role of the ill-fated Jewish-Danish refugee girl in love with Dov Landau, played by Sal Mineo. She and Mineo appeared together on the cover of the 12 December 1960 issue of Life magazine as part of a photo essay by Gjon Mili, and Haworth was featured in the 31 July 1960 issue of Parade magazine.

Under a five-year contract with Preminger, Haworth continued working with the director on two further productions. She played Lalage Menton in The Cardinal (1963) and Ensign Annalee Dorne in In Harm's Way (1965), a Nurse Corps officer whose character commits suicide after being raped by a superior officer played by Kirk Douglas. Preminger required her to reside in New York City rather than Los Angeles, where he feared she would become merely a starlet. His contractual hold over her also prevented her from taking roles in Lolita (1962) and David and Lisa (1962), both of which she had been considered for. Preminger did permit her to appear in three French films: Les Mystères de Paris (1962), Because, Because of a Woman (1963), and Ton ombre est la mienne (1963).

Haworth's television work began in 1963 with a guest appearance alongside David McCallum in the Outer Limits episode "The Sixth Finger." She made four appearances on 12 O'Clock High, playing an English girl named Mary in "The Sound of Distant Thunder" opposite Peter Fonda, a deaf girl named Nora Burgess in "To Heinie with Love," and Lieutenant Fay Vendry in both "Runway in the Dark" (1965) and "The Hotshot." Additional television credits included an episode of The Rogues (1965) and an appearance in one of the final episodes of Rawhide, "Duel at Daybreak," alongside Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson. During the filming of that Rawhide episode, she injured her back jumping from a runaway buggy and subsequently contracted pneumonia after standing waist-deep in a man-made pond for six hours of retakes, leaving her bedridden for two months. She also had a non-speaking extra role in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

Her Broadway career centered on the original 1966 production of Cabaret, for which she originated the role of Sally Bowles. The musical was based on Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin, and Haworth was approached for the part by producer Hal Prince while she was filming It! (1967). She held the role for nearly two and a half years before Judi Dench took over when the production transferred to London's West End in 1968. Her other stage work included Bedroom Farce and Butterflies Are Free.

Haworth's film work continued through the late 1960s and into the 1970s with a series of horror productions, including It! (1967), The Haunted House of Horror (1969), Tower of Evil (1972), Home for the Holidays (1972), and The Mutations (1974). During the making of Exodus, she and Sal Mineo became close friends and later romantic partners, and they remained friends until his murder in 1976. In her later years, she and Courtney Burr III contributed to Michael Gregg Michaud's biography of Mineo, and the book was dedicated in their honor. Haworth spent many years living on Manhattan's Upper East Side with her mother Nancy, who had trained as a ballet dancer.