Joan Staley
Encyclopedia
Joan Staley is an American actress and model. She is perhaps best known for being Playboy
magazine's Playmate of the Month for its November 1958 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Lawrence Schiller
and Ron Vogel. According to The Playmate Book, she was pregnant at the time of her Playmate shoot.
Staley grew up in Los Angeles
. Her parents encouraged her to learn to play the violin
at a very young age. At six, she joined Peter Meremblum's Junior Symphony. This led to her first film appearance, as a child violinist in The Emperor Waltz
, starring Bing Crosby
and Joan Fontaine
.
Her father's business took him all over Europe, and Staley went to high school in Paris. She attended Chapman College but left shortly thereafter to pursue a show business career. She worked as a back-up singer for Sam Phillips
and worked as a secretary to make ends meet while she went to casting calls.
Her breakthrough came in 1958, when a photographer sent her pictures to Playboy. She posed for the magazine, and ended up becoming Miss November 1958. The executives at MGM liked her look, and cast her in a series of "cheesecake" roles in films such as Ocean's Eleven
and Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Her first marriage to TV Director Chuck Staley was brief. They were married in the late 1950s and lived in Memphis, then moved to Los Angeles. They had a daughter, Sherrye, who was born in 1959. By the early 1960s, they were divorced.
Staley enjoyed a film and television career that lasted through the 1960s and into the early 1970s. In 1960, she appeared in NBC
's sitcom The Tab Hunter Show
In 1961, she guest starred in NBC's The Lawless Years
, a 1920s
crime drama starring James Gregory
. In the 1963-1964 season, she guest starred on Phil Silvers
's unsuccessful sitcom The New Phil Silvers Show
. Staley made guest appearances on multiple episodes of popular series such as Perry Mason
, McHale's Navy
, The Virginian
, Burke's Law
and Batman
. She was also a regular as Hannah, Stu Bailey's secretary, on the final season of 77 Sunset Strip
, although for the first few episodes only her voice (on the telephone) was used.
In 1964, she was signed to a Universal contract and cast as a regular on the short-lived McHale's Navy
spin-off
Broadside with Kathleen Nolan
. In 1966 she appeared opposite Don Knotts
in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
. In the same year Staley suffered a horseback riding accident; she stopped working in films after that, and concentrated on television.
She married again, in 1967, to Dale Sheets, an executive with Universal Pictures
; they had three children together. Between her and Dale, they had seven children altogether. As of 2003, they had ten grandchildren.
Today, Staley lives with Sheets in Southern California, where she is active in consumer affairs. Her granddaughter-in-law is Donna Perry, the Miss November 1994 Playmate.
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
magazine's Playmate of the Month for its November 1958 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Lawrence Schiller
Lawrence Schiller
Lawrence Julian Schiller is a noted American film producer, director and screenwriter.-Career:Schiller was born in 1936 in Brooklyn, and grew up outside of San Diego, California...
and Ron Vogel. According to The Playmate Book, she was pregnant at the time of her Playmate shoot.
Staley grew up in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Her parents encouraged her to learn to play the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
at a very young age. At six, she joined Peter Meremblum's Junior Symphony. This led to her first film appearance, as a child violinist in The Emperor Waltz
The Emperor Waltz
The Emperor Waltz is a 1948 American musical film directed by Billy Wilder. The screenplay by Wilder and Charles Brackett was inspired by a real-life incident involving Franz Joseph I of Austria.- Plot :...
, starring Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
and Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
.
Her father's business took him all over Europe, and Staley went to high school in Paris. She attended Chapman College but left shortly thereafter to pursue a show business career. She worked as a back-up singer for Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...
and worked as a secretary to make ends meet while she went to casting calls.
Her breakthrough came in 1958, when a photographer sent her pictures to Playboy. She posed for the magazine, and ended up becoming Miss November 1958. The executives at MGM liked her look, and cast her in a series of "cheesecake" roles in films such as Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Eleven (1960 film)
Ocean's 11 is a 1960 heist film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring five Rat Packers: Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joey Bishop....
and Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Her first marriage to TV Director Chuck Staley was brief. They were married in the late 1950s and lived in Memphis, then moved to Los Angeles. They had a daughter, Sherrye, who was born in 1959. By the early 1960s, they were divorced.
Staley enjoyed a film and television career that lasted through the 1960s and into the early 1970s. In 1960, she appeared in NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's sitcom The Tab Hunter Show
The Tab Hunter Show
The Tab Hunter Show is a 32-episode situation comedy starring former teen idol Tab Hunter. The series ran new episodes on NBC from September 18, 1960, to April 30, 1961; rebroadcasts then aired from May until September 18.-Synopsis:...
In 1961, she guest starred in NBC's The Lawless Years
The Lawless Years
The Lawless Years is the first television crime drama set during the Roaring 20s, having predated ABC's far more successful The Untouchables with Robert Stack by six months. The 47-episode half-hour series aired nonconsecutively on NBC from April 16 to August 27, 1959, from October 1, 1959, to...
, a 1920s
1920s
File:1920s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Sean Hogan during the Irish Civil War; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal throughout the entire decade; In...
crime drama starring James Gregory
James Gregory (actor)
James Gregory was an American character actor noted for his deep, gravelly voice and playing brash roles such as McCarthy-like Senator John Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate , the audacious General Ursus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and loudmouthed Inspector Luger in Barney Miller...
. In the 1963-1964 season, she guest starred on Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...
's unsuccessful sitcom The New Phil Silvers Show
The New Phil Silvers Show
The New Phil Silvers Show is an American situation comedy starring comedian Phil Silvers which aired thirty episodes on CBS from September 28, 1963, to April 25, 1964, under the sponsorship of General Foods.-Synopsis:...
. Staley made guest appearances on multiple episodes of popular series such as Perry Mason
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
, McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy is an American television sitcom series which ran for 138 half-hour episodes from October 11,1962, to August 31, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated in a one-hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962...
, The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
, Burke's Law
Burke's Law
Burke's Law is a detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud...
and Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
. She was also a regular as Hannah, Stu Bailey's secretary, on the final season of 77 Sunset Strip
77 Sunset Strip
77 Sunset Strip is an hour-length American television private detective series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roger Smith, and Edd Byrnes....
, although for the first few episodes only her voice (on the telephone) was used.
In 1964, she was signed to a Universal contract and cast as a regular on the short-lived McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy is an American television sitcom series which ran for 138 half-hour episodes from October 11,1962, to August 31, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated in a one-hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962...
spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
Broadside with Kathleen Nolan
Kathleen Nolan
Kathleen Nolan is an American actress. She is sometimes confused with actress Jeanette Nolan. From 1957 to 1962, she played the role of Kate McCoy, a housewife in her late twenties, in the Walter Brennan series The Real McCoys....
. In 1966 she appeared opposite Don Knotts
Don Knotts
Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...
in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is a 1966 American Universal Pictures feature film starring Don Knotts as Luther Heggs, a newspaper typesetter who spends a night in a haunted house, which is located in the fictitious community of Rachel, Kansas...
. In the same year Staley suffered a horseback riding accident; she stopped working in films after that, and concentrated on television.
She married again, in 1967, to Dale Sheets, an executive with Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
; they had three children together. Between her and Dale, they had seven children altogether. As of 2003, they had ten grandchildren.
Today, Staley lives with Sheets in Southern California, where she is active in consumer affairs. Her granddaughter-in-law is Donna Perry, the Miss November 1994 Playmate.