Valerie Perrine, 'superman' Actor Who Was Oscar-nominated For 'lenny,' Dies At 82

Valerie Perrine, nan Las Vegas showgirl turned Oscar-nominated character champion known for playing Lenny Bruce’s bad boy woman Honey Harlow successful “Lenny” and Lex Luthor’s caput Eve Teschmacher successful nan 1978 and 1980 “Superman” films, died Monday morning. She was 82.

Perrine’s decease was confirmed by Stacey Souther, her adjacent friend and nan head of nan 2019 documentary “Valerie,” which followed nan star’s debilitating conflict pinch Parkinson’s disease.

“It is pinch heavy sadness that I stock nan heartbreaking news that Valerie has passed away,” Souther announced connected societal media. “She faced Parkinson’s illness pinch unthinkable courageousness and compassion, ne'er erstwhile complaining. She was a existent inspiration who lived life to nan fullest — and what a magnificent life it was. The world feels little beautiful without her successful it.

“I emotion you, Valerie. I’ll spot you connected nan different side.”

Souther besides shared a GoFundMe nexus and a statement that Perrine’s last wish was to beryllium laid to remainder astatine nan Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn Cemetery. “After much than 15 years of fighting Parkinson’s, her finances are exhausted.”

Perrine was calved Sept. 3, 1943, successful Galveston, Texas, to parents Renee and Kenneth, a dancer and a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. A subject brat increasing up, Perrine moved often and spent clip successful Japan, Paris and Scottsdale, Ariz.

She attended nan University of Arizona, but her world aspirations were short-lived. She skipped town, trading her textbooks for a feather headdress and G-string successful Las Vegas. Soon she was a lead dancer successful nan star-spangled Lido de Paris show astatine nan Stardust Hotel. She told the New York Times successful 1974 that she spent immoderate of her $800 play paycheck connected experimenting pinch drugs: acid, mescaline, peyote, cocaine — you sanction it, she tried it.

Eight years aft her foray into Vegas showbiz, her movie profession kicked disconnected unexpectedly during a sojourn to Hollywood. An supplier astatine a friend’s meal statement took a liking to her, she told nan Los Angeles Times successful 2013. He asked if she had immoderate publicity photos. The only 1 she had was successful her topless Lido costume.

The sexy image made its measurement to nan table of Monique James, nan caput of caller talent astatine Universal. “She called maine successful and asked if I had ever acted earlier and I said ‘no,’” Perrine said. “She arranged a surface test.”

Paul Monash, nan shaper of “Slaughterhouse-Five,” which was based connected Kurt Vonnegut’s acclaimed caller astir World War II and clip travel, directed nan surface test. “They told maine to deterioration a bikini because they wanted to spot what my assemblage looked like. I didn’t person a bikini. I wore my G-string and that was it.”

“I had been moving successful Vegas each nan clip and had been connected nan formation successful St. Tropez, truthful being [naked] didn’t mean thing to me,” she told The Times. “It was my cognition that sparked his liking and nan measurement I publication nan line, ‘Oh, you’re a satellite child.’ He hired me.”

Soon after, she portrayed nan emotion liking of NASCAR driver Junior Johnson other Jeff Bridges successful nan 1973 sports play “The Last American Hero.” Perrine and Bridges dated concisely while moving connected nan film. The aforesaid twelvemonth she became nan first female to bare her breasts connected tv successful nan PBS telefilm “Steambath.”

Bridges described Perrine successful nan 2019 documentary “Valerie” arsenic having a “real consciousness of nosy and play.”

“She was excited astir life and excited wherever she was and it’s a contagious feeling,” he said. “Growing up successful a subject family and walking each complete nan world made her a really absorbing personification and arsenic an actress, she had nan expertise to bring each of that into her performances.”

In 1974, she tapped into her showgirl inheritance to represent nan drug-addled stripper Honey Harlow other Dustin Hoffman arsenic Lenny Bruce successful nan biopic “Lenny.” Her capacity garnered rave reviews. She nabbed nan lead character grant astatine nan Cannes Film Festival, BAFTA named her astir promising newcomer and she was nominated for an Oscar.

Perrine was possibly champion known for her portrayal of Eve Teschmacher, Lex Luthor’s caput and emotion liking successful nan 1978 “Superman” starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando. She played nan domiciled again successful 1980’s “Superman II.”

She besides starred successful nan 1980 disco flick “Can’t Stop nan Music” alongside nan Village People and Caitlyn Jenner. The movie flopped and Perrine was truthful mortified by nan film’s mediocre reception that she moved to Europe. She didn’t officially discontinue from acting until astir 2010, and by 2015 she had gone nationalist pinch her Parkinson’s illness diagnosis.

The 2019 documentary short “Valerie,” directed by Souther, dropped nan veil connected Perrine’s conflict pinch nan illness, pinch her nonaccomplishment of bodily autonomy captured successful nan film. She said “the shakes” caused her to struggle and nan level of attraction she required made her consciousness for illustration a baby.

Still intact, though, were her crisp wit and self-deprecating consciousness of humor. In nan movie a expert explains that location are times erstwhile physicians aren’t capable to pin down a test aliases location are aggregate diagnoses.

“The doctors don’t cognize what’s going connected pinch me,” Perrine says. “They can’t fig it out.”

“What do you deliberation it is?” nan expert asks Perrine.

“Karma,” she quips.