Jill St. John

John was actually born Jill Oppenheim in 1940 in Los Angeles. On stage and radio from age five, she was pretty much prodded by a typical stage mother.

Making her TV debut in The Christmas Carol (1949), Jill began blossoming and attracting the right kind of attention in her late teens.

She signed with Universal Pictures at age 16 and made her film debut as a perky support in Summer Love (1957) starring then-hot John Saxon. Moving ahead, she filled the bill as a slightly dingy love interest in such innocuous fun as The Remarkable Mr.

Pennypacker (1959), Holiday for Lovers (1959), Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963), Who's Minding the Store? (1963) and Honeymoon Hotel (1964). Whether the extremely photogenic Jill had talent (and she did!) or not never seemed to be a fundamental issue with casting agents. By the late '60s she had matured into a classy, ravishing redhead who not only came equipped with a knockout figure but some sly, suggestive one-liners as well that had her male co-stars (and audiences) more than interested.

An incredible piece of 1960s eye candy, Jill St. John absolutely smoldered on the big screen, a trendy presence in lightweight comedy, spirited adventure and spy intrigue who appeared alongside some of Hollywood's most handsome male specimens. Although she was seldom called upon to do much more than frolic in the sun and playfully taunt and tempt as needed, this tangerine-topped stunner managed to do her job very, very well. A remarkably bright woman in real life, she was smart enough to play the Hollywood game to her advantage and did so for nearly two decades before looking elsewhere for fun and contentment. Jill St.

A part of Frank Sinatra's "in" crowd, she worked with him on both Come Blow Your Horn (1963) and Tony Rome (1967). On camera, Jill's glossy femme fatales had a delightfully brazen, tongue-in-cheek quality to them. Off-camera, she lived the life of a jet-setter and was known for her romantic excursions with such eligibles as Jack Nicholson, David Frost, Bill Hudson, Roman Polanski and even Henry Kissinger.

One of two actresses (the other is Kim Basinger) to appear in both a live-action Batman production and a James Bond film. St. John appeared in the pilot for the Batman (1966) TV series with Adam West and in Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

She also co-starred with Bob Hope in the dismal Eight on the Lam (1967), but the connection allowed her to be included in a number of the comedian's NBC specials over the years.

The couple share credits on several productions, notably Banning (1967) as well as the top-tier TV movies How I Spent My Summer Vacation (1967) and Around the World in 80 Days (1989). Abandoning acting out of boredom, she has returned only on rare occasions.

She skillfully traded sexy quips with Anthony Franciosa in the engaging TV pilot to the hit series The Name of the Game (1968) and scored a major coup as the ever-tantalizing Tiffany Case, a ripe and ready Bond girl, in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) opposite Sean Connery's popular "007" character.

Originally was considered for the minor role of Plenty O'Toole in Diamonds Are Forever (1971); however, after the producers saw her, they offered her the lead. Naturally, she accepted.

Dated musician Bill Hudson of The Hudson Brothers; Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun; songwriter Sammy Cahn; singer Trini López; director Roman Polanski; talk show host David Frost; baseball player Sandy Koufax; lawyer Sid Korshak; plastic surgeon Steven Zax; producer Robert Evans; screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz; former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger; UN secretary general U Thant; Texas lieutenant governor Ben Barnes; Italian jewelry czar Gianni Bulgari; racehorse industry executive Ogden Mills Phipps; fashion designer Oleg Cassini; actors Michael Caine, Barry Coe, Sean Connery, Glenn Ford, Peter Lawford, George Lazenby, George Montgomery, Jack Nicholson, Alejandro Rey, Tom Selleck, Robert Vaughn and Adam West; criminal court judge Jerome M. Becker; investment broker Lenny Ross; ski instructor Ricky Head; Chicago businessman Delbert W. Coleman; Brazilian entrepreneur Francisco "Baby" Pignatari; automobile racing manager Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata; and Olympic ski champion Brownie Barnes. She was engaged to Miami real estate developer Robert Blum in 1974, but called off the engagement. She also had a long though intermittent relationship with Frank Sinatra (25 years her senior), whose daughter Tina Sinatra was once engaged to St. John's future husband Robert Wagner.

She has written a cookbook and appeared as a TV chef and "in-house" cooking expert on Good Morning America (1975). She also served as a food columnist for the USA Weekend newspaper. On the philanthropic front, she is founder of the Aunts Club, a Rancho Mirage-based group of special women who contribute at least $1,000 per year to provide financial support for a child.

In the 1980s, her fantasy was to downhill ski faster than any Olympic team.

She played against type as a crazed warden in the prison drama The Concrete Jungle (1982) and has had some fun cameos alongside Wagner both on film (The Player (1992)) and even TV (Seinfeld (1989)).

Recently sold her Brentwood ranchette, that she shares with Robert Wagner for a reported $14 million. The couple had lived there since 1983. [August 2007]

Virtually retired from the screen in 1986, but her marriage, and the resulting connection to a high-profile homicide case, keeps her name in circulation.

Of her four marriages, which included laundry heir Neil Dubin, the late sports car racer Lance Reventlow, son of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, and easy-listening crooner Jack Jones, she seems to have found her soulmate in present husband Robert Wagner, whom she married in 1990 after an eight-year courtship. Jill first met Wagner when they were both just beginning their careers as contract players at 20th Century Fox.

In the late 1990s they started touring together in A. R. Gurney's popular two-person stage reading of "Love Letters. " Jill's lifelong passion for cooking (her parents were restaurateurs) has turned profitable over the years.

She was glimpsed more recently in the films The Calling (2002) and The Trip (2002) and she and Wagner had small roles as Santa and Mrs.

Injured in a skiing accident and required hospitalization. [February 2005]

In 2006, Jill became a step-grandmother when Katie Wagner gave birth to a son: Riley John Lewis Wagner.