Acting

June Wilkinson

The British-born stunner was born on March 27, 1940 in Essex, England. Initially trained in dance (Sussex School of Dancing) to become a ballerina, she was performing on stage from age 12. The one-time brunette began as a topless dancer at age 15 and joined the legendary Windmill Theatre in London as a fan dancer in 1957. Discovered by Hugh Hefner within a short time, June came to America and first appeared in Playboy magazine in September 1958. Hefner rather unimaginatively but appropriately dubbed her "The Bosom." The tag stuck and enhanced her eventual transformation from a stunning brunette to platinum blonde in 1960. A sensation on the pages of Playboy, she appeared again in both August 1959 and November 1960, and in several other issues over the years, although she would never become an official "Playmate." Under contract to Seven Arts, her attempt at movie stardom. After being unbilled in such lowgrade films as Thunder in the Sun (1959) and Mr. Tease and His Playthings (1959), she was showcased in Career Girl (1960), the tale of a girl trying to make it in Hollywood. Subsequent romps in "Golden Age" turkeys like The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960), Macumba Love (1960) (her best known), and The Continental Twist (1961) sealed her fate as a serious movie actress.