Sabrina (actress)
Sabrina | |
|---|---|
 Sabrina in London, 1955 | |
| Born | Norma Ann Sykes 19 May 1936 |
| Died | 24 November 2016 (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Other name | Sabby |
| Occupations |
|
| Spouse |
Harold Melsheimer
(m. 1967; div. 1974) |
| Website | Encyclopedia Sabrina – sabrina |
Norma Ann Sykes (19 May 1936 – 24 November 2016), better known as Sabrina or Sabby, was an early English glamour model and actress. She was nicknamed "Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe" alongside with actress Diana Dors and was also nicknamed "Britain's Jayne Mansfield", the reason is mostly because of her hourglass figure.: 128
According to film studies academic Pam Cook writing in British Stars and Stardom, Sabrina was one of "a host of exotic, glamorous (British) starlets ... modelled on the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Lana Turner."
Adrian Bingham and Martin Conboy, however, argue that Sykes represented possibly the first example of the modern 'glamour model' in the British context, due to the media's increasingly sexualised content of the 1950s and its appetite for female glamour. In contrast to American stars, they argue, Sykes was "famous only for her looks and not for any acting, dancing or singing abilities", and was helped by the media to become one of the biggest stars of the 1950s.
Early life and career
Norma Ann Sykes was born on 19 May 1936 at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Cheshire,[unreliable source?] to Walter and Annie Sykes. She lived in Buckingham Street, Heaviley, for about 13 years and attended St George's School there,[unreliable source?] before moving with her mother to Blackpool. She spent some time in hospital with rheumatic fever.[citation needed] At the age of 16, she moved to London, where she worked as a waitress and did some nude modelling, posing for Russell Gay in a photoshoot that led to her appearance on the five of spades in a deck of nude playing cards.
In 1955, she was chosen to play a dumb blonde in Arthur Askey's television series Before Your Very Eyes (BBC 1952–1956, ITV 1956–1958). Her appearances in episodes from 18 February 1955 to 20 April 1956 made her a household name.: 128 She was promoted by the BBC as "the bosomy blonde who didn't talk", but surviving kinescope episodes clearly show that she did.
Film career
Around July 1955, James Beney, of Walton Films, released a 100-foot, 9.5mm short glamour film, At Home with Sabrina.[better source needed]
In 1955 she made her feature film debut as Trixie in Stock Car, a Wolf Rilla-directed drama. She then appeared in a small role in the 1956 film Ramsbottom Rides Again. In her third film, Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957), she had a non-speaking role in which, despite sharing equal billing with the star Alastair Sim on posters and appearing in many publicity stills in school uniform, she was required only to sit up in bed wearing a nightdress, reading a book, while the action took place around her.: 129
The short film Goodnight with Sabrina (1959, 3:49 minutes) is included with Beat Girl (1960), remastered in 2016 by BFI Flipside.
Sabrina's penultimate film role was in the western The Phantom Gunslinger (1970), in which she starred alongside Troy Donahue. Her final film was the horror movie The Ice House (1969), replacing Jayne Mansfield, who had been cast two years previously, shortly before her death in a car crash.
Personal life
In 1958, she was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Leeds. On 27 November 1967, she married Harold Melsheimer (born 11 June 1927 in Germany), a Hollywood gynaecologist and obstetrician. They divorced ten years later.
In 2007, there were newspaper reports that Sabrina had become a hermit, "living in squalor" in a Spanish-style house on a street known as 'Smog Central', under the flightpath of Burbank Airport. Sabrina admitted that she was confined to the house due to back problems, but denied living in squalor.
Having suffered from ill health for many years, partly owing to botched back surgery, she died of blood poisoning in 2016, at the age of 80.
Cultural impact
- The comedy series The Goon Show contains numerous oaths to Sabrina's bosom, such as "By the measurements of Sabrina!" and "By the sweaters of Sabrina!"
- In "The Scandal Magazine", an episode of the radio programme Hancock's Half Hour, Sid James plays the editor of a sleazy gossip magazine that has carried an embarrassing story about Tony Hancock. James tells Hancock that his readers "will believe anything. ... If I told them that Sabrina was Arthur Askey's mother, they'd believe me." Hancock replies, "Well, I don't", pauses and asks, "She's not, is she?" James says emphatically "No", but Hancock reflects, "Mind you, there is a resemblance ...".
- In another episode, set in a dysfunctional boys school, Sabrina is referenced and the response is "Well, they'll know how to count up to 39 then."
- Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable gives a definition for "Hunchfront of Lime Grove" as "a somewhat unappealing nickname given to the generously endowed starlet known as Sabrina."
- In the 1950s members of the Royal Air Force dubbed parts of the Hawker Hunter jet fighter plane "Sabrinas" owing to two large cartridge collection pods on the underside of the aircraft.
- In the late 1950s, British lorry builder ERF produced a semi-forward control heavy goods vehicle (HGV) with a short protruding bonnet. These vehicles were nicknamed "Sabrinas" because they had "a little more in front".[citation needed]
- The Western Welsh Omnibus Company of Cardiff, South Wales had some coaches with protruding front windscreens which were nicknamed "Sabrinas" by the staff.[citation needed]
- The 1959 Triumph TR3S 1985 cc iron-block alloy-headed engine was called "Sabrina" because of its dome-shaped cam covers.
- In 1974, the British motoring press gave the name "Sabrinas" to the oversized pairs of protruding rubber bumper blocks (see dagmar bumpers) added to the MG MGB, Midget and Triumph TR6 sports cars, when U.S. safety regulations mandated sturdier impact protection. The name stuck and is used around the world.
- The tops of the rear strut mounts for the Lotus Elite Type 14 are known as Sabrina domes because of their shape and prominence.[citation needed]
Television appearances
- Before Your Very Eyes (BBC, 1955–1956, ten episodes)
- Double Your Money (ITV, 1955)
- Tarzan (NBC, one episode, 1967) as Millie
- This Is Your Life (ITV, subject: Arthur Askey, 1974) as guest
Film appearances
- Stock Car (1955) as Trixie
- At Home with Sabrina (short, 1955) as herself
- Ramsbottom Rides Again (1956) as girl
- Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1957) as Virginia
- Just My Luck (1957) [citation needed]
- Goodnight with Sabrina (short, 1959) as herself
- Make Mine a Million (1959) as herself
- Satan in High Heels (1962) as herself, singer: "I Would If I Could" and "What Have You Done for Me Lately" (Lawrence/Freeman)
- House of the Black Death (1965) as blond belly dancer
- The Ice House (1969) as Venus De Marco
- The Phantom Gunslinger (1970) as Margie
Notes
- ↑ Although it was not released until 1970, the film was produced in 1967.
References
- 1 2 3 Davenport-Hines, Richard (2012). An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-743586-9.
- ↑ "Norma Sykes Stock Photos and Pictures – Getty Images". Getty Images. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ Cook, Pam (2001). "The Trouble with Sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde Bombshell Phenomenon". In Babington, Bruce (ed.). British Stars and Stardom. Manchester University Press. pp. 167–178.
- ↑ Bingham, Adrian; Conboy, Martin (2015). Tabloid Century: The Popular Press in Britain, 1896 to the present (1st ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Peter Lang Ltd. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-906165-32-1.
- ↑ "Dr Harold Melsheimer & Sabrina Divorced, Joint Family Tree & History". famechain.com. Archived from the original on 14 June 2021. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- 1 2 Newnham, Grahame L. "Who Remembers Sabrina?". Grahame N's Web Pages. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ Holmes, Su (1 November 2015). Entertaining Television: The BBC and Popular Television Culture in the 1950s. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781526101600. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ Day, Jim. "Road less travelled". Grahame Rhodes Jazz. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ "Photographer Russell Gay". Pamela Green. 19 February 2019.
- ↑ "The Sabrina Naughty Nudie Cards". Encyclopedia Sabrina. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- 1 2 "Before Your Very Eyes". BBC Programme Index. 4 March 1955. Retrieved 16 March 2025.[dead link]
- ↑ Holmes, Su (2011). "Whoever Heard of Anyone Being a Screaming Success for Doing Nothing?" (PDF). Media History. 17 (1): 33–48. doi:10.1080/13688804.2011.532376. S2CID 54762761. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- ↑ Kynaston, David (2 November 2009). Family Britain, 1951–1957. A&C Black. ISBN 9781408803493. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ "Sabrina, the Blackpool Celebrity - 1956 Premium Photographic Print by Ken Russell at Art.com". art.com. Archived from the original on 30 January 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2017.[better source needed]
- ↑ "At Home with Sabrina". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
- ↑ "02 – May – 2009 – shadowplay". wordpress.com. Archived from the original on 27 May 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ Heilbron, Hilary (22 October 2012). Rose Heilbron: Legal Pioneer of the 20th Century: Inspiring Advocate who Became England's First Woman Judge. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781782250289. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ "Goodnight with Sabrina". BFI National Archive. 1959. Retrieved 12 July 2026 – via YouTube.
- ↑ "Beat Girl" (PDF). British Film Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 July 2023. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
- ↑ "Walk a Crooked Path". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
- ↑ "Beat Girl Blu-ray – Edmond T. Gréville". DVD Beaver. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ "She Nearly Caused Riot". Mirror. Perth, Western Australia. 19 November 1955. p. 3.
- ↑ "The Phantom Gunslinger (1967)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012.
- ↑ "Sabrina, model and sex symbol – obituary". The Telegraph. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
- 1 2 "Fifties Pin-Up Star Now Living in Squalor". Manchester Evening News. 4 September 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ "Encyclopedia Sabrina". Encyclopedia Sabrina.[not specific enough to verify]
- ↑ "Obituary Sabrina (Norma Ann Sykes)". The Sunday Times. 7 October 2017. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
- ↑ "Tributes to Sabrina". Encyclopedia Sabrina. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
- ↑ "Sabrina Sounds". The Encyclopaedia Sabrina. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- ↑ "Hancock's Half Hour, Series 5 Episode 2: The Scandal Magazine". BBC Programme Index. Archived from the original on 18 August 2025. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
- ↑ Willey, Russ, ed. (2011). "Hunchfront of Lime Grove". Brewer's Dictionary of London Phrase & Fable. Oxford Reference. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199916214.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-991621-4.
- ↑ Griffin, David. J. (2006). Hawker Hunter 1951 to 2007. Lulu Enterprises. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-4303-0593-4.
- ↑ Heseltine, Richard (7 July 2014). "Triumph TR2/3". Motor Sport. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ Clausager, Anders D. (1994). Original MGB. Bay View Books. p. 25.
- ↑ "Double Your Money – A Cherished Television Review". Cherished Television. Archived from the original on 19 May 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ "At Home with Sabrina". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
- ↑ Mobberley, Martin (23 July 2013). It Came From Outer Space Wearing an RAF Blazer!: A Fan's Biography of Sir Patrick Moore. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9783319006093. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ↑ "Goodnight with Sabrina". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
