Marion Michael
Nude

Blonde and beautiful, Marion Michael was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia, in case you’re keeping track). She moved to Berlin as a youngster, acted in small stage productions, and studied ballet. When she was 15, she was selected out of a reported 12,000 entries to be Liane, the lead role in the film Liane, Jungle Goddess (1956), original German title Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald. She was 16 when the film was released, and she’s topless in several scenes; the censors let it through, since she was dressed in the native garb and there were no sexual connotations. Her dark hair was dyed blonde for the role, and the studio promoted her as the German Brigitte Bardot. The film was a huge success and she was offered a seven-year contract with the producer. She appeared as Liane again in the sequel, Nature Girl and the Slaver (1957), and in 1961, the studio combined both the films into one feature, Liane, the Daughter of the Jungle. Moving beyond the swinging vines, Marion also starred

as Paula Mühlberg in The Mad Bomberg (1957); played the character Annika Bergmann in Es war die erste Liebe (1958), or It was the First Love; was Princess Marina in Bombs on Monte Carlo (1960); starred in Jack and Jenny (1963) as Betsy; and took on the role of Marion in Davon träumen alle Mädchen (1961), or What All the Girls Dream of. Marion died in October 2007 of heart failure, four days shy of her 67th birthday.