Leslie Graves

Leslie Marie Graves (September 29, 1959 – August 23, 1995) was an American actress whose career spanned Broadway, television, and film. Her father, Michael Graves, was a theatre actor who introduced her to the entertainment industry around the time she was ten years old.

Graves made her Broadway debut in A Cry of Players, a play written by William Gibson that ran from 1968 to 1969, taking on a small role in the production. She subsequently transitioned to television, appearing in the first thirteen episodes of Sesame Street in 1969. Further television work followed, including an appearance in the 1971 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show titled "Baby Sit-Com" and a role in the 1973 series Here We Go Again.

In the late 1970s, Graves departed Hollywood and relocated to Texas, where she spent approximately three years working on a shrimp boat. She returned to Los Angeles in early 1980, and that same year photographer Phillip Dixon photographed her for Oui, a publication affiliated with the Playboy corporation, placing her on the magazine's cover in November 1980. A second Oui cover appearance followed in May 1981, with that shoot involving five photographers. During this period, rumors circulated regarding her connection to Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione and a dispute with Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner.

In 1982, Graves appeared in two films, Piranha II: The Spawning and Death Wish II, and CBS cast her as Brenda Clegg in the daytime soap opera Capitol. She departed the CBS series in late summer 1984 following a heroin overdose and a serious drug problem, though her exit was publicly characterized as stress-related. Her final public appearance was a nude photo shoot by Jean Rougeron, published in the October 1984 issue of Oui.

Graves was married and had two children. She died of an illness in Los Angeles on August 23, 1995.