Khrushchev gives Juliet Prowse a ‘leg-up’

September 25 1936 — Juliet Prowse, South African-American dancer, actress and singer famous for her beautiful long legs, is born in

Bombay, India, to South African parents. Her father dies when she is three and she moves to SA with her mother. She studies to be a dancer from the age of 4. Attending the Royal Academy of Dance by the time she is 14, she is deemed too tall (1.43m) for ballet. Pursuing a career as a dancer in European nightclubs, she is spotted by Hollywood choreographer Hermes Pan in Paris and signed for “Can-Can” (1960). While preparing for the movie in 1959, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is invited to watch a rehearsal. The next day, he denounces the dance as immoral. Despite a star-studded cast of Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jourdan, it is Prowse’s photo that accompanies the news worldwide. She shoots to stardom with her acting and dancing and the tabloids fill with her romance with Sinatra. In 1960 she also appears with Elvis Presley in “G.I. Blues”, during which they have a short fling. Sinatra and Prowse get engaged in 1962, but they soon break up. Her 40-year career is most successful on stage in Las Vegas and London, where she stars opposite Rock Hudson in “I Do! I Do!” in 1976, and on TV. She marries choreographer Eddie James on June 1 1969. The marriage is dissolved seven months later. In 1972 she marries John McCook (best known as Eric Forrester in “The Bold and the Beautiful”). They divorce in 1979 and have a son, Seth. Prowse dies of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles on September 14 1996.