Cheri Caffaro

Slim, shapely and well-tanned blonde bombshell Cheri Caffaro was born in 1945 in Miami, Florida. Caffaro won a "Lifetime" magazine Brigitte Bardot lookalike contest when she was a teenager and worked as a model throughout the 60s.

Cheri achieved a Substantial amount of 70s exploitation cinema notoriety by portraying sexy, resourceful and formidable undercover government agent Ginger McAllister in a delightfully down'n'dirty trio of blithely seedy drive-in soft-core action romps: the supremely scuzzy Ginger (1971), the splendidly sleazy The Abductors (1972), and the pleasingly trashy Girls Are for Loving (1973). The "Ginger" pictures were a series of gleefully low-rent affairs with a funky distaff James Bond-type anti-heroine using both her brains and her body to thwart assorted nasty criminals. Caffaro brought a hard, fierce, steely edge and raw, earthy, unbridled sex appeal to the part of Ginger that's alluring and unnerving in equal measure.

Cheri was likewise solid and effective as a stuck-up spoiled rich woman in the tawdry A Place Called Today (1972), a tough revolutionary in the fun Savage Sisters (1974), and a cunning, deadly, yet enticing international lady assassin in the entertainingly tacky Too Hot to Handle (1977). Alas, Caffaro's moment in the acting spotlight proved to be fleeting. Cheri went on to co-write and co-produce the hilariously raunchy comedy hoot H. O. T. S.

(1979).

She also served as an associate producer for the cruddy horror flick The Demons of Ludlow (1983).

Los Angeles, California: Raises honey bees. [November 2011]