Pamela Tiffin, '60s Starlet, Dead at 78

Pamela Tiffin, whose discovery in the Paramount Studios commissary was the stuff of dreams, died Wednesday in NYC of natural causes, her daughter confirmed to THR.

Born October 13, 1942, in Oklahoma City, she was raised in Chicago, where she found success as a model during her teen years. She went to college in New York, but Hollywood beckoned when she took a vacation to the West Coast and was noticed by producer Hal B. Wallis. Her glamorous look earned her a screen test, which she aced.

Tiffin's career was considered to be off to a good start when she was Golden Globe-nominated twice — as a promising newcomer in "Summer and Smoke" (1961), the film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play with Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page and Rita Moreno, and as Best Supporting Actress in Billy Wilder's snappy political comedy "One, Two, Three" (1961), in which she was third-billed after the legendary James Cagney and German film star Horst Buchholz.

Wilder gushed that Tiffin was the "biggest find since Audrey Hepburn."

Next, Tiffin starred in the star-studded "State Fair" (1962), alongside teen idols Pat Boone, Bobby Darin, and Ann-Margret, and played one of three thrill-seeking flight attendants in the comedy "Come Fly with Me" (1963).

Capitalizing on her trend-setting bombshell looks, she was cast in the teen films "For Those Who Think Young" (1964) and "The Lively Set" (1964), ahead of a starring role in the big-budget "The Pleasure Seekers," again with Ann-Margret.

Along with various TV appearances and a stint on Broadway in "Dinner at Eight" (1966-1967), she continued to work with A-listers: Burt Lancaster in "The Hallelujah Trail" (1965), Marcello Mastroianni in "Kiss the Other Sheik" (1965), and Paul Newman in "Harper (1966).

By the late '60s, Tiffin had grown disenchanted with her career, and moved to Italy, where she made numerous films, chief among them the huge hit comedy "Torture Me But Kill Me with Kisses" (1968). Her most prominent U.S. production during this period was "Viva Max!" (1969), and her final American production was the TV movie "The Last of the Powerseekers" (1969).

Tiffin was married in the '60s to New York magazine co-founder Clay Felker, and gave up acting upon marrying Edmondo Danon in 1974, returning only for a small role in the Italian TV miniseries "Quattro storie di donne" in 1989.