She was born Mary Eileen
“Mimi” Chesterson in St. Paul,
Minnesota on December 20th,
1949 – though I have seen sources
name her birthplace as Milwaukee and as
Evanston. As I understand it, soon after
her birth her parents relocated to the
Chicago suburb of Evanston where her
father began work for Motorola. To the
chagrin of her parents, “A
student” Mimi opted to pass on
college and pursue her dreams of being an
actress/model. One of the first jobs she
took to support herself was as a
receptionist at the Chicago offices of
Playboy Magazine. It was there the
green-eyed redhead caught a
photographer’s eye, which resulted
in some test shots. Eventually she went
on to become the centerfold in the
November 1969 issue. Her name was changed
to “protect” her two younger
sisters, so Mimi became Claudia Jennings
– who eventually became Playboy
Playmate of the Year 1970.
Claudia used the celebrity
to launch her film career. She promptly
made her film debut in the Vietnam drama
‘Jud’. Next,
she moved to Los Angeles and quickly
began a relationship with
musician/songwriter Bobby Hart (he wrote
‘Hurt So Bad’, ‘Last Train
to Clarksville’, and ‘I’m
Not Your Steppin’ Stone’ among
others). Next she appeared in the film
adaptation of the Jacqueline Susann
trash-fest ‘The Love Machine’
(starring John Phillip Law and Dyan
Cannon) followed closely by ‘The
Stepmother’.
In 1972 Claudia had her
first breakout part – as a vicious
and bitchy roller derby queen in ‘Unholy
Rollers’. (This one came
out the same year as Raquel Welch’s
‘Kansas City Bomber’,
and it’s much better!) The film was
also the first to show Ms. Jennings’
athleticism. As an actress she exuded
physical energy. Her future as an action
star didn’t start just yet though
– some more minor parts followed
– ’40 Carats’, ‘Group
Marriage’, and ‘The Single
Girls’.
Then along came a luscious
little horror flick ‘Sisters
of Death’ (1972) about a
reunion of sorority sisters. Years
earlier a girl had been killed in a
hazing gone terribly wrong. Now “The
Sisters” are together again and
someone is killing the surviving gals one
by one. Hmmm…sounds like a precursor
to a lot of similarly plotted movies.
‘Sisters of Death ‘ costarred Cheri Howell, Sherry
Boucher, and Paul Carr. It wasn’t
actually released until 1978 when it
cashed in on both the horror craze and
Claudia’s name.
Next came the first of what
would be Claudia’s signature films
– ‘Truck Stop Women’
(1974). In this one Claudia plays Rose,
the rebellious daughter of truck
stop/whorehouse entrepreneur Anna (Lieux
Dessler). Feisty Rose sides with L.A.
mobsters to run her mother out of
business. What’s a mother to do? Her
next role was in ‘Gator Bait’
(1976). In this action flick she
headlines as a Cajun Bayou poacher out to
clear her name of murder. Before you can
say, “Hot damn!” she has a
bowie knife at some varmint’s throat
vowing revenge. Next came ‘Moonshine
County Express’ (1977)
which concerned three sisters out to
fight the crooked sheriff for their right
to run their daddy’s moonshine still
--- yeehaw! – With Susan “Dallas”
Howard, B-movie staple John Saxon,
William “Cannon”
Conrad, and Maureen “Marcia
Brady” McCormick. (Ironically,
Claudia had also appeared on ‘The
Brady Bunch’ as Tami Cutler, the
hippie chick who sees “talent”
in Greg and wants to transform him into
rock star Johnny Bravo.) That same summer
Claudia Jennings came blasting across
America’s drive-in screens as Candy
Morgan in ‘The Great Texas
Dynamite Chase’ (1977).
This violent feminist outlaw tale (way pre-Thelma and Louise) was about two
female thieves (Candy and Ellie-Jo) on a
wild ass bank-robbing spree…and they
LIVE at the end…and without even
being punished! This one costarred
Jocelyn Jones (as Ellie-Jo) and Johnny
Crawford. By the time she made ‘Deathsport’
in 1978 Claudia Jennings had a solid fan
base and following, solid enough to
costar opposite the then very popular
post Kung-fu David Carradine. ‘Deathsport’
was Roger Corman’s futuristic bikers
and barbarians follow up to ‘Death
Race 2000’ and costarred
B-movie favorite Jesse Vint and Richard
Lynch.
Whew. That is some serious
drive-in fare. Unforgettable in her denim
cutoffs and a halter-top, Claudia
Jennings was unrivalled Queen of the
Hicksploitation film craze of the 1970s.
She was the denim & cut-offs babe of
the bicentennial year – girl most
likely to be drink from a XXX whiskey
jug, strip down and swim in a muddy
creek, pack a rifle in her pick-up, and
use her fists if need be. She was a new
kind of woman, a deliciously violent
feminist icon.
For variety Claudia also
managed to make an appearance in the
David Bowie classic ‘The Man
Who Fell to Earth’ in 1976.
Claudia also came very close to nabbing
two roles, which would have changed her
career dramatically. She had the athletic
grace and fighting skills to hold her own
as an action heroine…and she was
second choice to being Wonder Woman on
the TV-series, but the part went to Lynda
Carter. The other role Claudia was tagged
for was to replace Kate Jackson on ‘Charlie’s
Angels’, but network execs
weren’t too keen on having this
former Playboy Playmate on a prominent
role in a weekly series. As a result they
wimped out, caving in to fears over
sponsor reaction. They passed on Claudia
and gave the role to Shelley Hack! Talk
about the swift hand of karma!
Earlier Claudia had injured
herself filming a stunt in ‘The
Great Texas Dynamite Chase’.
The injury required filming to be halted
for several days and eventually drugs
were used to alleviate the pain and get
her before the cameras again. Around this
time there were also some Claudia
Jennings’ rumors beginning to
surface regarding cocaine use and a wild
L.A. nightlife --- but hey, it was still
the 70s. Why the fuck not? There
were some bad signs – Claudia was
losing weight, going through a string of
unsavory lovers and rocky relationships,
and becoming difficult on the set. The
hellcat apparently even got into an
actual physical fight with the director
of ‘Deathsport’.
Her final film was David
Cronenberg’s drag racing movie
‘Fast Company’
in 1979 costarring William Smith and (him
again!) John Saxon. Now if only
Cronenberg would have put Claudia
Jennings in one of his regular movies.
The iconic director made the atypical
‘Fast Company’ between his
goreiffic classics ‘Rabid’ and
‘The Brood’.
On October 3rd 1979 Claudia was driving her Volkswagen
convertible down Topanga Canyon
Boulevard, en route to her move the rest
of her stuff out of her
ex-boyfriend’s apartment, when she
fell asleep behind the wheel and collided
with a van. She died as paramedics were
getting her out of the accident wreckage.
That wonderfully promising and
“alive” screen presence was
only 29, just 10 weeks shy of her 30th birthday. |
