Pamela Tiffin

Pamela Tiffin Wonso (October 13, 1942 – December 2, 2020) was an American actress and model born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to architect Stanley Wonso and Grace Irene (Tiffin) Wonso. Of Russian, Scottish, and British ancestry, Tiffin grew up in Oak Lawn, Illinois, where she studied tap and interpretive dance at the Gertrude Morgan School of Dancing in Chicago from age four to eleven. She began modeling at twelve through the Models Bureau agency, with her first assignment for 7 Up.

In 1959, Tiffin relocated with her mother to New York City, attending night classes at Hunter College. After signing initially with the Frances Gill Agency, her modeling career accelerated when she moved to the Plaza Five Agency. During this period she appeared frequently in Vogue and worked with photographers Mark Shaw and Horst P. Horst. Fashion photographer Lloyd Fromm encouraged her to meet Paramount Pictures casting director Boris Kaplan, which led to her acting debut in Music of Williamsburg, a short film directed by Sidney Meyers.

Her film career began in earnest over Thanksgiving 1960, when producer Hal B. Wallis spotted her on the Paramount lot during a visit to Los Angeles and persuaded her to take a screen test. She was subsequently cast in Summer and Smoke, directed by Peter Glenville, earning a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year. Director Billy Wilder, who had noticed her in a New York Times advertisement, cast her immediately after her audition in the comedy One, Two, Three (1961), in which she played the daughter of James Cagney's boss. That role brought her a second Golden Globe nomination, for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. She signed a seven-year contract with 20th Century-Fox as well as a separate contract with Wallis, and went on to win the lead in Fox's musical remake State Fair (1962), playing opposite Bobby Darin.

Tiffin continued working steadily through the mid-1960s, appearing in Come Fly with Me (1963), For Those Who Think Young (1964), The Lively Set (1964), The Pleasure Seekers (1964), and the Western The Hallelujah Trail (1965) with Burt Lancaster. She made her television debut as a guest star on an episode of The Fugitive and filmed an unproduced Fox pilot, Three in Manhattan, which was later broadcast as part of the anthology series Vacation Playhouse. She also studied at Columbia University during this period. Her most commercially successful Hollywood film was Harper (1966), in which she appeared alongside Paul Newman.

Immediately following Harper, producer Carlo Ponti selected Tiffin to replace Sue Lyon in a segment of the Italian anthology film Kiss the Other Sheik, opposite Marcello Mastroianni. She also starred in the Italian comedic thriller The Almost Perfect Crime (1966) with Philippe Leroy, a box office success that established her prominence in the Italian film industry. Returning to New York, she appeared as herself in Brian De Palma's short documentary The Responsive Eye before making her Broadway debut in 1966, playing Kitty Packard in the play Dinner at Eight. For that performance, Tiffin received a Theatre World Award in 1967.

She subsequently relocated to Rome, where she built a substantial second career in Italian cinema. Her Italian credits included The Protagonists (1968), Torture Me But Kill Me with Kisses (1968), The Archangel (1969) with Vittorio Gassman, Gang War (1971), The Blonde in the Blue Movie (1971), The Fifth Cord (1971) with Franco Nero, Deaf Smith & Johnny Ears (1973) again with Nero, and The Lady Has Been Raped (1973). Between Italian productions, she returned briefly to American work, guest-starring in the final episode of the ABC series The Survivors and appearing in the comedy Viva Max! (1969) opposite Peter Ustinov. She also performed in Uncle Vanya at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, directed by Harold Clurman, alongside Richard Basehart, Joseph Wiseman, and Lois Smith. Her final film before retirement was the Italian comedy released in 1974 produced by Vittorio Sindoni.

Tiffin left Rome in 1973 and returned to New York. In later years she made select public appearances, including the 1982 PBS special The Film Society of Lincoln Center: A Tribute to Billy Wilder and the 1984 documentary Dolce Cinema. She died on December 2, 2020.