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Sabrina (actress)

February 20, 2023

Norma Ann Sykes (19 May 1936 – 24 November 2016), better known as Sabrina or Sabby, was a 1950s English glamour model who progressed to a minor film career.[1]: 128 [2]

Sabrina
Sabrina in London, 1955
Born
Norma Ann Sykes

(1936-05-19)19 May 1936
Stockport, England
Died24 November 2016(2016-11-24) (aged 80)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other namesSabby
Occupations
  • Model
  • actress
  • singer
Spouse
Harold Melsheimer
​
​
(m. 1967; div. 1974)​
WebsiteEncyclopedia Sabrina - sabrina.nylon.net

Sabrina was one of "a host of exotic, glamorous (British) starlets ... modelled on the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Lana Turner"; others included Diana Dors, Belinda Lee, Shirley Eaton and Sandra Dorne.[3]

Early life and career

Sabrina was born on 19 May 1936 at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Cheshire,[4][unreliable source?] to Walter and Annie Sykes. She lived in Buckingham Street, Heaviley, for about 13 years and attended St George's School there,[5][unreliable source?] before moving with her mother to Blackpool.[6] She spent some time in hospital with rheumatic fever. At the age of 16, she moved to London,[7] where she worked as a waitress and did some nude modelling, posing for Russell Gay[8] in a photoshoot that led to her appearance on the five of spades in a deck of nude playing cards.[9]

In 1955, she was chosen to play a dumb blonde in Arthur Askey's new television series Before Your Very Eyes (BBC 1952–56, ITV 1956–58). The show ran from 18 February 1955 to 20 April 1956, and made Sabrina a household name.[1]: 128  She was promoted by the BBC as "the bosomy blonde who didn't talk", but surviving kinescope episodes show quite clearly that she did.[10][11][12]

James Beney, of Walton Films, released a 100-foot 9.5 mm short glamour film "At Home with Sabrina" around July 1955.[5][13][better source needed]

Goodnight with Sabrina (c.1958, 3:49 mins) is included with Beat Girl (1960), in 2016, newly remastered by BFI Flipside.[14][15][16][17]

She made her film debut as Trixie in Stock Car, a Wolf Rilla-directed drama, in 1955. She then appeared in a small role in the 1956 film Ramsbottom Rides Again.[18] In her third film, Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957), she had a non-speaking role in which, despite sharing equal billing with the star Alastair Sim on posters and appearing in many publicity stills in school uniform, she was required only to sit up in bed wearing a nightdress, reading a book, while the action took place around her.[1]: 129 

Sabrina's penultimate film role was in the western The Phantom Gunslinger (1970),[19][a] in which she starred alongside Troy Donahue. Her final film was the horror movie The Ice House (1969), in which she replaced Jayne Mansfield, who had died in a car crash two years earlier.

Personal life

In 1958, she was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Leeds.[20] On 27 November 1967 Sabrina married Dr. Harold Melsheimer (born 11 June 1927 in Germany), a Hollywood gynaecologist and obstetrician. They divorced ten years later.[21]

In 2007, there were newspaper reports that Sabrina had become a hermit, "living in squalor" in a Spanish-style house on a street known as 'Smog Central', under the flightpath of Burbank Airport.[21] Sabrina admitted that she was confined to the house due to back problems, but denied living in squalor.[22]

Having suffered from ill health for many years, partly owing to botched back surgery, she died of blood poisoning in 2016, at the age of 80.[23][24]

Cultural impact

  • The comedy series The Goon Show contains numerous references to Sabrina's bosom, such as "By the measurements of Sabrina!" and "By the sweaters of Sabrina!"[25]
  • In "The Scandal Magazine", an episode of the radio programme Hancock's Half Hour, Sid James plays the editor of a sleazy gossip magazine that has carried an embarrassing story about Tony Hancock. James tells Hancock that his readers "will believe anything. ... If I told them that Sabrina was Arthur Askey's mother, they'd believe me." Hancock replies, "Well, I don't", pauses and asks, "She's not, is she?" James says emphatically "No", but Hancock reflects, "Mind you, there is a resemblance ..."
  • Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable contains a definition for "Hunchfront of Lime Grove," "a somewhat unappealing nickname given to the generously endowed starlet known as Sabrina."[26][27]
  • In the 1950s members of the Royal Air Force dubbed parts of the Hawker Hunter jet fighter plane "Sabrinas" owing to two large cartridge collection pods on the underside of the aircraft.[28] Similarly, in the late 1950s, when ERF, a British firm that made lorries (trucks), produced a semi-forward control heavy goods vehicle (HGV) with a short protruding bonnet, these vehicles were nicknamed "Sabrinas" because they had "a little more in front".
  • The 1959 Triumph TR3S 1985 cc iron-block alloy-headed engine was called "Sabrina" because of its dome-shaped cam drivers.[29]
  • In 1974, the British motoring press gave the name "Sabrinas" to the oversized pairs of protruding rubber bumper blocks (see dagmar bumpers) added to the MG MGB, Midget and Triumph TR6 sports cars, when U.S. safety regulations mandated sturdier impact protection. The name stuck and is used around the world.[30]

Television appearances

Acting credits

Notes

  1. ^ Although it was not released until 1970, the film was produced in 1967.

References

  1. ^ a b c Davenport-Hines, Richard (2012). An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-743586-9.
  2. ^ "Norma Sykes Stock Photos and Pictures – Getty Images". Getty Images. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  3. ^ Cook, Pam (2001). "The Trouble with Sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde Bombshell Phenomenon". In Babington, Bruce (ed.). British Stars and Stardom. Manchester University Press. pp. 167–178.
  4. ^ "Dr Harold Melsheimer & Sabrina Divorced, Joint Family Tree & History". famechain.com. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  5. ^ a b Newnham, Grahame L. "WHO REMEMBERS SABRINA?". Grahame N's Web Pages. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  6. ^ Holmes, Su (1 November 2015). Entertaining Television: The BBC and Popular Television Culture in the 1950s. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781526101600. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  7. ^ Day, Jim. "Road less travelled". Grahame Rhodes Jazz. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  8. ^ "Photographer Russell Gay". Pamela Green. 19 February 2019.
  9. ^ "The Sabrina Naughty Nudie Cards". Encyclopedia Sabrina. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  10. ^ Holmes, Su (2011). "Whoever Heard of Anyone Being a Screaming Success for Doing Nothing?" (PDF). Media History. 17 (1): 33–48. doi:10.1080/13688804.2011.532376. S2CID 54762761.
  11. ^ Kynaston, David (2 November 2009). Family Britain, 1951–1957. A&C Black. ISBN 9781408803493. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  12. ^ . art.com. Archived from the original on 30 January 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2017.[better source needed]
  13. ^ "02 – May – 2009 – shadowplay". wordpress.com. Retrieved 30 January 2017.[dead link]
  14. ^ "Beat Girl" (PDF). British Film Institute. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  15. ^ "Beat Girl Blu-ray – Edmond T. Gréville". DVD Beaver. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  16. ^ "SHE NEARLY CAUSED RIOT". Perth, Western Australia: Mirror. 19 November 1955. p. 3.
  17. ^ "The day Sabrina arrived at the Savoy". Brighton Savoy. n.d. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  18. ^ Heilbron, Hilary (22 October 2012). Rose Heilbron: Legal Pioneer of the 20th Century: Inspiring Advocate who Became England's First Woman Judge. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781782250289. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  19. ^ . British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012.
  20. ^ "Sabrina, model and sex symbol – obituary". The Telegraph. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  21. ^ a b "Fifties Pin-Up Star Now Living in Squalor". Manchester Evening News. 4 September 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  22. ^ "Encyclopedia Sabrina". Encyclopedia Sabrina.[not specific enough to verify]
  23. ^ "Obituary Sabrina (Norma Ann Sykes)". The Sunday Times. 7 October 2017. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  24. ^ "Tributes to Sabrina". Encyclopedia Sabrina. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  25. ^ "Sabrina Sounds". The Encyclopaedia Sabrina. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  26. ^ Willey, Russ, ed. (2011). "Hunchfront of Lime Grove". Brewer's Dictionary of London Phrase & Fable. Oxford Reference. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199916214.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-991621-4.
  27. ^ Hensher, Philip (24 October 2009). "Voices of change". The Spectator. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  28. ^ Griffin, David. J. (2006). Hawker Hunter 1951 to 2007. Lulu Enterprises. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-4303-0593-4.
  29. ^ Heseltine, Richard (7 July 2014). "Triumph TR2/3". Motor Sport Magazine. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  30. ^ Clausager, Anders D. (1994). Original MGB. Bay View Books. p. 25.
  31. ^ . Cherished Television. Archived from the original on 19 May 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  32. ^ Mobberley, Martin (23 July 2013). It Came From Outer Space Wearing an RAF Blazer!: A Fan's Biography of Sir Patrick Moore. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9783319006093. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  33. ^ "Goodnight with Sabrina". Internet Movie Database. 1 January 2000. Retrieved 30 January 2017.

External links

February 20, 2023
sabrina, actress, norma, sykes, 1936, november, 2016, better, known, sabrina, sabby, 1950s, english, glamour, model, progressed, minor, film, career, sabrinasabrina, london, 1955bornnorma, sykes, 1936, 1936stockport, englanddied24, november, 2016, 2016, aged, . Norma Ann Sykes 19 May 1936 24 November 2016 better known as Sabrina or Sabby was a 1950s English glamour model who progressed to a minor film career 1 128 2 SabrinaSabrina in London 1955BornNorma Ann Sykes 1936 05 19 19 May 1936Stockport EnglandDied24 November 2016 2016 11 24 aged 80 Los Angeles California U S Other namesSabbyOccupationsModelactresssingerSpouseHarold Melsheimer m 1967 div 1974 wbr WebsiteEncyclopedia Sabrina sabrina wbr nylon wbr netSabrina was one of a host of exotic glamorous British starlets modelled on the likes of Marilyn Monroe Jayne Mansfield and Lana Turner others included Diana Dors Belinda Lee Shirley Eaton and Sandra Dorne 3 Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Personal life 3 Cultural impact 4 Television appearances 5 Acting credits 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksEarly life and career EditSabrina was born on 19 May 1936 at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport Cheshire 4 unreliable source to Walter and Annie Sykes She lived in Buckingham Street Heaviley for about 13 years and attended St George s School there 5 unreliable source before moving with her mother to Blackpool 6 She spent some time in hospital with rheumatic fever At the age of 16 she moved to London 7 where she worked as a waitress and did some nude modelling posing for Russell Gay 8 in a photoshoot that led to her appearance on the five of spades in a deck of nude playing cards 9 In 1955 she was chosen to play a dumb blonde in Arthur Askey s new television series Before Your Very Eyes BBC 1952 56 ITV 1956 58 The show ran from 18 February 1955 to 20 April 1956 and made Sabrina a household name 1 128 She was promoted by the BBC as the bosomy blonde who didn t talk but surviving kinescope episodes show quite clearly that she did 10 11 12 James Beney of Walton Films released a 100 foot 9 5 mm short glamour film At Home with Sabrina around July 1955 5 13 better source needed Goodnight with Sabrina c 1958 3 49 mins is included with Beat Girl 1960 in 2016 newly remastered by BFI Flipside 14 15 16 17 She made her film debut as Trixie in Stock Car a Wolf Rilla directed drama in 1955 She then appeared in a small role in the 1956 film Ramsbottom Rides Again 18 In her third film Blue Murder at St Trinian s 1957 she had a non speaking role in which despite sharing equal billing with the star Alastair Sim on posters and appearing in many publicity stills in school uniform she was required only to sit up in bed wearing a nightdress reading a book while the action took place around her 1 129 Sabrina s penultimate film role was in the western The Phantom Gunslinger 1970 19 a in which she starred alongside Troy Donahue Her final film was the horror movie The Ice House 1969 in which she replaced Jayne Mansfield who had died in a car crash two years earlier Personal life EditIn 1958 she was awarded an honorary D Litt by the University of Leeds 20 On 27 November 1967 Sabrina married Dr Harold Melsheimer born 11 June 1927 in Germany a Hollywood gynaecologist and obstetrician They divorced ten years later 21 In 2007 there were newspaper reports that Sabrina had become a hermit living in squalor in a Spanish style house on a street known as Smog Central under the flightpath of Burbank Airport 21 Sabrina admitted that she was confined to the house due to back problems but denied living in squalor 22 Having suffered from ill health for many years partly owing to botched back surgery she died of blood poisoning in 2016 at the age of 80 23 24 Cultural impact EditThe comedy series The Goon Show contains numerous references to Sabrina s bosom such as By the measurements of Sabrina and By the sweaters of Sabrina 25 In The Scandal Magazine an episode of the radio programme Hancock s Half Hour Sid James plays the editor of a sleazy gossip magazine that has carried an embarrassing story about Tony Hancock James tells Hancock that his readers will believe anything If I told them that Sabrina was Arthur Askey s mother they d believe me Hancock replies Well I don t pauses and asks She s not is she James says emphatically No but Hancock reflects Mind you there is a resemblance Brewer s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable contains a definition for Hunchfront of Lime Grove a somewhat unappealing nickname given to the generously endowed starlet known as Sabrina 26 27 In the 1950s members of the Royal Air Force dubbed parts of the Hawker Hunter jet fighter plane Sabrinas owing to two large cartridge collection pods on the underside of the aircraft 28 Similarly in the late 1950s when ERF a British firm that made lorries trucks produced a semi forward control heavy goods vehicle HGV with a short protruding bonnet these vehicles were nicknamed Sabrinas because they had a little more in front The 1959 Triumph TR3S 1985 cc iron block alloy headed engine was called Sabrina because of its dome shaped cam drivers 29 In 1974 the British motoring press gave the name Sabrinas to the oversized pairs of protruding rubber bumper blocks see dagmar bumpers added to the MG MGB Midget and Triumph TR6 sports cars when U S safety regulations mandated sturdier impact protection The name stuck and is used around the world 30 Television appearances EditBefore Your Very Eyes 1955 1956 ten episodes Double Your Money 1955 31 Tarzan one episode 1967 This Is Your Life Arthur Askey 1974 Acting credits EditStock Car 1955 Ramsbottom Rides Again 1956 Blue Murder at St Trinian s 1957 32 Goodnight with Sabrina 1958 33 Just My Luck 1957 Make Mine a Million 1959 Satan in High Heels 1962 House of the Black Death 1965 The Ice House 1969 The Phantom Gunslinger 1970 Notes Edit Although it was not released until 1970 the film was produced in 1967 References Edit a b c Davenport Hines Richard 2012 An English Affair Sex Class and Power in the Age of Profumo HarperCollins ISBN 978 0 00 743586 9 Norma Sykes Stock Photos and Pictures Getty Images Getty Images Retrieved 30 January 2017 Cook Pam 2001 The Trouble with Sex Diana Dors and the Blonde Bombshell Phenomenon In Babington Bruce ed British Stars and Stardom Manchester University Press pp 167 178 Dr Harold Melsheimer amp Sabrina Divorced Joint Family Tree amp History famechain com Retrieved 30 January 2017 a b Newnham Grahame L WHO REMEMBERS SABRINA Grahame N s Web Pages Retrieved 30 January 2017 Holmes Su 1 November 2015 Entertaining Television The BBC and Popular Television Culture in the 1950s Oxford University Press ISBN 9781526101600 Retrieved 30 January 2017 Day Jim Road less travelled Grahame Rhodes Jazz Retrieved 30 January 2017 Photographer Russell Gay Pamela Green 19 February 2019 The Sabrina Naughty Nudie Cards Encyclopedia Sabrina Retrieved 30 January 2017 Holmes Su 2011 Whoever Heard of Anyone Being a Screaming Success for Doing Nothing PDF Media History 17 1 33 48 doi 10 1080 13688804 2011 532376 S2CID 54762761 Kynaston David 2 November 2009 Family Britain 1951 1957 A amp C Black ISBN 9781408803493 Retrieved 30 January 2017 Sabrina the Blackpool Celebrity 1956 Premium Photographic Print by Ken Russell at Art com art com Archived from the original on 30 January 2017 Retrieved 30 January 2017 better source needed 02 May 2009 shadowplay wordpress com Retrieved 30 January 2017 dead link Beat Girl PDF British Film Institute Retrieved 20 August 2022 Beat Girl Blu ray Edmond T Greville DVD Beaver Retrieved 30 January 2017 SHE NEARLY CAUSED RIOT Perth Western Australia Mirror 19 November 1955 p 3 The day Sabrina arrived at the Savoy Brighton Savoy n d Retrieved 20 August 2022 Heilbron Hilary 22 October 2012 Rose Heilbron Legal Pioneer of the 20th Century Inspiring Advocate who Became England s First Woman Judge Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN 9781782250289 Retrieved 30 January 2017 The Phantom Gunslinger 1967 British Film Institute Archived from the original on 5 August 2012 Sabrina model and sex symbol obituary The Telegraph 9 October 2017 Retrieved 11 January 2020 a b Fifties Pin Up Star Now Living in Squalor Manchester Evening News 4 September 2007 Retrieved 30 January 2017 Encyclopedia Sabrina Encyclopedia Sabrina not specific enough to verify Obituary Sabrina Norma Ann Sykes The Sunday Times 7 October 2017 Retrieved 20 August 2022 Tributes to Sabrina Encyclopedia Sabrina Retrieved 20 August 2022 Sabrina Sounds The Encyclopaedia Sabrina Retrieved 18 October 2013 Willey Russ ed 2011 Hunchfront of Lime Grove Brewer s Dictionary of London Phrase amp Fable Oxford Reference doi 10 1093 acref 9780199916214 001 0001 ISBN 978 0 19 991621 4 Hensher Philip 24 October 2009 Voices of change The Spectator Retrieved 30 January 2017 Griffin David J 2006 Hawker Hunter 1951 to 2007 Lulu Enterprises p 19 ISBN 978 1 4303 0593 4 Heseltine Richard 7 July 2014 Triumph TR2 3 Motor Sport Magazine Retrieved 30 January 2017 Clausager Anders D 1994 Original MGB Bay View Books p 25 Double Your Money A Cherished Television Review Cherished Television Archived from the original on 19 May 2009 Retrieved 30 January 2017 Mobberley Martin 23 July 2013 It Came From Outer Space Wearing an RAF Blazer A Fan s Biography of Sir Patrick Moore Springer Science amp Business Media ISBN 9783319006093 Retrieved 30 January 2017 Goodnight with Sabrina Internet Movie Database 1 January 2000 Retrieved 30 January 2017 External links EditThe Complete Sabrina Norma Sykes Encyclopaedia At Home Sabrina Encyclopaedia http www npg org uk collections search person mp101768 norma ann sykes sabrina Sabrina at IMDb Sabrina at aenigma 1959 award of D Litt Hon Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sabrina actress amp oldid 1139286910, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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