My Childhood Crushes #8 - Judi Bowker

I haven't done a post on this series in awhile and thanks to my friend Valarie for mentioning Clash of the Titans on her facebook page when I commented on a recent pic. Made me think of my next choice for my childhood crush...Judi Bowker. Unlike previous crushes of mine, Clash of the Titans marks the only thing I ever saw Judi in but it was love at first sight. She played the princess Andromeda who was to be sacrificed to the Kraken unless her hero suitor Perseus (Harry Hamlin) could retrieve the head of Medusa and face the Kraken in a well, umm, Clash of the Titans.

Titans came out in 1981 and it promptly hit HBO by 1982 and I know I saw it a hundred times during my teen years. Bowker was only 26 when she made this movie and she was gorgeous. With her long flowing tresses of hair and lithe body, you couldn't take your eyes off of her. Any man would face numerous tasks and risks his life for this lovely lass. Well I know I would. 

Like I said before, Titans was the only thing I have seen her in. But she has done a few other things.. Most notably a TV adaption of Anna Karenina (1985) playing Kitty and a TV series based on Black Beauty during the mid 70's. But I will always remember her as Andromeda. It would have been cool if they offered her a part in the recent remake. She could have played Andromeda's mother. Oh well at least I still have the original film to remember.

The lovely Judi today

My Childhood Crushes #7 - Lynda Carter

Lynda as Wonder Woman

OK you knew eventually I would be talking about Lynda Carter as one of my childhood crushes. I mean, who can forget Wonder Woman. And it's not because she looked unbelievably beautiful and sexy and great in that unforgettable costume. Or that she was portraying one of my favorite comic book heroines ever. I mean all that was great. But I enjoyed her take as The Amazon Princess because she had such a sly sense of humor. She wasn't cracking wise mind you, but you can see in her facial expressions and every now and then a sly one liner that made me crush on her even more. 

As WW's alter ego Diana Prince...damn Diana those are big glasses

Now I was quite young when the series originally aired from 1975-1979, but god bless reruns. I was able to watch them on repeat during the mid 80's. I would race home from school and park myself right in front of the TV to watch Lynda do her thing as WW. It was pure heaven. Now she also had another TV series around this same time called Partners in Crime, co-starring Loni Anderson. It only lasted one season but it was more Lynda to watch for me, so I loved it.

You for real? Dude I'm Wonder Woman, I can snap you like a twig

with my pinky..better recognize!

I would love to meet her in person. That would be an amazing experience but I haven't came across her yet at any of the conventions I have attended. But I hope one day to meet her so I can gush about her and tell her I how much I love her and that she is the one and only Wonder Woman. Much like Christopher Reeve is the one and only Superman.

Classic 70's poster

Lynda today at 61...wow!

My Childhood Crushes #6 - Catherine Mary Stewart

As Gwen in Weekend at Bernie's (1989)

I recently bought the 1984 film The Last Starfighter on blu-ray and it has brought back tons of memories. One of my favorite movies from my childhood and it's still an awesome movie. And it features my next childhood crush..Canadian born Catherine Mary Stewart. Now I can't remember exactly what I first saw her in. She appeared on the popular soap Days of Our Lives in 1982 playing the pivotal character of Kayla Brady. I think I kind of remember her from that, but not really because another actress took over that role the following year and became super popular. She had two movies in 1984 which I both saw and immediately fell in love. As Maggie in The Last Starfighter and Regina in Night of the Comet, both sci-fi films. She was around 24 at the time, a full ten years older than me, but I wasn't thinking about our age differences. Just wanted this lovely girl to be my girlfriend. No one rocked the big feathered look of the 80's better than Catherine!

As Maggie in The Last Starfighter (1984)

As Regina in Night of the Comet (1984)

As Bunny in Mischief (1985)

She would also appear in the 1985 teen comedy Mischief and 1989's Weekend at Bernies and then a host of TV movies and spots on regular TV series, but by then she was already one of my favorites. The beautiful and very talented Catherine Mary Stewart.




Pics of Catherine today...

My Childhood Crushes #5 - Jenny Agutter

Jenny as Jessica in LOGAN'S RUN (1976)

Ahhh..Jenny Agutter. One of my biggest childhood crushes ever! I remember first seeing the British born actress in the sci-fi film Logan's Run (1976) on cable. I was probably around 12 I think. As Jessica 6, she helped Logan on his mission. I remember her wearing these shiny see- through outfits and beaming that gorgeous smile. She was and is so beautiful. A few years later I saw her in An American Werewolf in London, and her role as Nurse Alex, just increased my love of her. In fact my friend Irene Palfy knows of my crush on Jenny beforehand and every time I'm sick, she tries to find and send Jenny Agutter my way. Since I regard her as my favorite movie nurse. And Jenny just had a cameo in my current fave movie, The Avengers as a councilwoman. And believe it or not Jenny turns 60 this December. Happy early birthday Jenny! I still love ya!
Oh and just love to say her name. It's not pronounced a-gutter...but ah-guh-tuh. Just rolls off the tongue. I could say it all day long..Jenny Agutter!

From her early days

as Nurse Alex in An American Werewolf in London (1981)

So sexy and beautiful

Jenny today....one word...WOW!

My Childhood Crushes #4 - Shelley Fabares

I was around 13 or so when Nick and Nite was re-airing the classic 50's sitcom, The Donna Reed Show. And while Donna Reed was the star and she was awesome, I was tuning in to watch the actress who played her daughter Mary. It was Shelley Fabares and she very cute. And funny. I remember her constant arguments with her brother Jeff (played by Carl Petersen) always had me laughing. Checking her age on IMDB it appears Shelley was the same age as me when she started on The Donna Reed Show. So we could have dated...well in my dreams anyway.

Around the same time, the sitcom One Day At A Time was airing and she had a role on it as Francine Webster. She was about 25 years older but I was still the same age. That's the screwy thing about syndication right. Anyway I still had a major crush on her. And flash forward to the 90's and we have her in another sitcom..this one called Coach. Still crushing on her big time.

It wasn't until years later that I caught some of her movies that she made, particularly movies of the 60's. Such as Ride The Wild Surf (1964) and couple of Elvis Presley movies, Spinout (1966) and Clambake (1967). Either in movies or TV, Shelley Fabares was a major crush of mine during my teen years.

My Childhood Crushes #3 - Yvonne Craig

Ok so I love comic books and growing up the 60's tv series Batman was then in repeats during the 80's. And being a teen I thought it was a good and fun show. Not really adhering to the comic book Batman but still plain good fun. As I would get older, I would resent the show a little and wait for a Batman done right. But in the meantime I had the lovely Yvonne Craig as Batgirl to look at. And she always made the impact on me, and I'm sure thousands of boys everywhere else. And probably to girls as well since now they had this girl to look up to, who was kicking butt alongside Batman and Robin. Yvonne is the definition of cute. Always had a crush on her.

A rare breed in a girl you reads comic books...they were few

and between when I was growing up!

My Hollywood Crushes #2 - Natalie Wood

I probably need to expound a little on my new series, Hollywood Crushes. Around 12 or 13 I began watching lots and lots of TV, maybe a little younger. And would watch any and everything. Movies, tv shows, etc. And I was at the age where it didn't take too much for me to become infatuated with someone. It's like having a crush on your teacher. Well during my teen years I had tons of crushes on actresses. The first post was on Cindy Williams. And you will note that a lot of my crushes will come from the period of late 60's thru early 80's. As lots of series from the 60's and 70's were being shown in reruns and movies were popping up on cable channels. And these crushes went on for awhile as being without a girlfriend, I could spend hours daydreaming about anyone of these particular actresses. Now with that being said, on to the next crush of mine.

Miss Natalie Wood. During this time period, the cable channel WTBS, which was started by Ted Turner, who would later give birth to TCM, would air tons of classic movies. Which made sense since Mr. Turner bought the entire MGM library of films as well as some other studios. Well I remember seeing Natalie in several 60's era movies like The Great Race, Sex and the Single Girl and This Property Is Condemned. It was pretty much love at first sight. Now Natalie was a solid actress in her own right but at the time I was just imaging her as the girl on my arm. I would dream going somewhere and introducing her like..yeah this is my date, Natalie. Of course as I got older, I realized how talented she was as an actress and began watching as many movies of hers as I could. Still she is one of my first Hollywood crushes.

My Hollywood Crushes - A new series

I'm sure everyone has their movie/tv star crushes. Those stars who you just fell in love while watching them on screen that captured your fancy. Usually started when you were a teen or even younger and just was infatuated with. Now everyone knows I love Carole Lombard. She is my favorite actress of all time and would be easy to start this new series with her. But I wanted to go with some other actresses of mine that I grew up watching who I had the biggest crushes on. And these won't be just classic movie actresses but modern ones as well. For a little insight, my wife has some crushes of her own. More of the modern variety though, including such actors like Johnny Depp, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Chris Evans. But for me, I will start with this particular actress. I just bought American Graffiti the other day and watched it and she came back into my life. And I'm not talking about Suzanne Somers as the mysterious blonde in the t-bird. No, I'm talking about Cindy Williams. I first fell in love with her as Shirley Feeney on the tv series Laverne & Shirley. I really can't put a finger on why except that she was funny, cute and seemed like a regular girl. And then later on I would see her as high school student Laurie in American Graffiti. And that was all she wrote. So one of my first Hollywood crushes was Cindy Williams.

I will try to do one post a week about a crush of mine time permitting. And from these I guess everyone will have a idea of the actresses that I was crazy in love about.