Gail Gilmore

Gail Gilmore (October 4, 1937 – March 2, 2014) was a Canadian television and film actress and ballet dancer. She was from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Dancing career

In 1952, at the age of fifteen, Gail Gerber became a member of Les Grandes Ballets Canadiennes.

In November 1963, at the age of 26, she posed in a tight-fitting sweater for Playboy Magazine, as one of "The Girls from Canada". She taught ballet in the Berkshires from 1973-95. She later changed her surname to "Gilmore".

Acting career

While in the midst of her dancing career, Gilmore began an acting career in 1964 when she played in four television series, Mr. Novak, My Three Sons, Perry Mason and Wagon Train (all in 1964). Between 1964 and 1965, Gilmore appeared in six movies leaving an indelible impression on fans of teenage drive-in movies. Gilmore co-starred with Elvis Presley twice, playing a vacationing coed in Girl Happy (1965) and a dancing gypsy in Harum Scarum (1965). She then frolicked on the seashores of sunny Southern California in The Girls on the Beach (1965) and Beach Ball (1965) before growing to gigantic proportions along with five other delinquent teenagers who terrorize Hainesville, California, in Village of the Giants (1965).

After finishing on the set of The Loved One (1965), Gilmore met writer Terry Southern. Subsequently the couple left Hollywood in 1966 and lived together in New York City then Connecticut. She remained Southern's companion until his death in 1995.

Writing

In 2009, she published her autobiography, "Trippin' with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember" [1] with co-author Tom Lisanti. Although the book is focused on the thirty years she spent with Terry Southern, details of her childhood and acting career are given. During Southern's decline and after his death, she remained on the East Coast and supported herself by teaching ballet. In 2010, the book was awarded the Independent Publisher Book Award Silver Medal.

Death

On March 2, 2014, aged 76, Gilmore, a smoker, died in Sharon, Connecticut of complications arising from lung cancer.