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Blonde Pamela Austin was born Pamela Joan Akert in Omaha, daughter of Chester William Akert (1918-90) and his wife Virginia May (née Moon). She spent her pre-teens in Europe, where her father was stationed with the Air Force. Pamela studied singing and ballet in Hungary and Germany. Once her family returned to the United States, she continued to attend further dance classes at Sacramento State College. As a 17-year old, Pamela made her stage debut in the Broadway musical revue La Plume de Ma Tante (billed as a 'light soprano'). In 1961, she got her first gig in Hollywood in a nightclub act with Tony Martin. This expanded into a six months-long nationwide tour.

That same year, she began acting in films and is perhaps best remembered in that medium for her two appearances opposite Elvis Presley (both as girls named Selena, in Blue Hawaii (1961) and Kissin' Cousins (1964)). Her career gained momentum thanks to a series of TV and newspaper commercials for the automobile manufacturer Dodge. Dubbed the "Dodge Rebellion Girl", she featured in some twenty ads until her replacement by a 23 year-old in 1967. During the remainder of the 60s and 70s, Pamela made guest appearances in TV shows of diverse genres. She was featured several times in comedy skits, as well as song-and-dance routines on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967). The peak of her career was a starring role as the perennial damsel-in-distress in the zany slapstick comedy The Perils of Pauline (1967). It was based on the classic 1914 cliffhanger serial with Pearl White and inspired by the over-the-top antics of the 1960s Batman (1966) series. Intended as a TV pilot, it failed to gain traction, either commercially or with critics. Pamela had another lead, as amiable schoolmarm Betsy Potter in the cultish comedy western Evil Roy Slade (1972).

Pamela was briefly married (1963-64) to NFL defensive player Charley Britt of the Los Angeles Rams. Her second, also short-lived (1965-67), husband was Hollywood press agent Guy McElwaine. From 1974 until his death in 2019, she was married to the aeronautical engineer, MIT graduate and founder of Tre Corporation Leopold S. Wyler.

(1967) She starred in a ten-minute demonstration film that reworked the previous year&#39;s &quot;Perils of Pauline&quot; pilot into a contemporary setting.

(1968) Unsold pilot: Starred as the title character in a pilot for a comedy.adventure series called &quot;Perils of Pauline&quot;. This time Pauline serves as a reporter in the 1920s criss-crossing the US in search of news, aided by her handsome photographer (<a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0404953/?ref_=nmwrk">Bruce Hyde</a>) and menaced by her evil nemesis (<a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0832415/?ref_=nmwrk">Larry Storch</a>)

(1966) TV commercials: Dodge autos (as &quot;The Dodge Girl&quot;).

(1967) TV commercial: 1967 Dodge Coronet.

Other works

Pamela Austin

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