n the long history
of Mexican cinema, the 1960s stand out as the only decade in which the
industry actively sought out foreign, non-Latin performers. Among those
actors and actresses "imported" during this decade were Boris Karloff,
John Carradine, Cameron Mitchell, June Wilkinson, Martha Hyer, Nick Adams,
Jeffery Hunter, Glenn Ford, Lana Turner, Troy Donahue, Slim Pickens, and
Robert Conrad, some appearing in co-productions, others in purely Mexican
films.
lso in this group
were three young women: Amedee Chabot, Elizabeth Campbell, and Christa
Linder. Their careers are similar in some ways, different in others.
Elizabeth Campbell was the first
to arrive, but made the fewest movies (16) in an 8-year span; Chabot
appeared in 23 Mexican features in three years; Linder's film career was
the longest, spanning 16 years and more than 30 pictures made in various
countries, but she only concentrated her efforts in Mexico between
1968-72. All three were generally cast as gringas, stereotyped as
sexy outsiders.
ow did they wind up
in Mexico? Where are they now? Hopefully, as time goes by some of these
questions will be answered (perhaps by you). This page is an
introduction to the careers of these three sex symbols, whose presence
graced so many Mexican movies of that wild decade, the Sixties.
medee Chabot (she
was frequently billed as "Amadee Chabot" or "Amedée Chabot" in
Mexico) was born in Chicago in 1945. Sometime later, she moved to
Northridge, California, and in 1962 was chosen "Miss California." She
participated in the "Miss U.S.A." contest and on 22 September 1962, in
Huntington, West Virginia, won the crown. Amedee went on to represent the
United States in the "Miss World" contest that year in London, and
made it to the finals of that competition, held in November. Later in
1962, Chabot was part of Bob
Hope's annual Christmas tour of military
bases, visiting Japan, Korea, Okinawa, Taiwan, the Philippines, and
Guam. Others on the tour were Lana Turner, Janis Paige, Anita Bryant,
and Hope stalwarts Jerry Colonna and the Les Brown Band of Renown.
n 1963, the blonde,
blue-eyed Chabot made
her debut in Hollywood, appearing in two episodes of "The Beverly
Hillbillies." She followed this (well, we don't really know the exact
order of production) with small parts in three pictures, two of them
youth-oriented movies (For Those Who Think Young and Muscle
Beach Party), plus a biography of bordello owner Polly Adler (A
House is Not a Home), in which Amedee was one of Adler's prostitutes
(her co-workers included newcomers Raquel Welch and Edy Williams). In
1965 and 1966 she had minor roles in at least two additional pictures, one
starring Jerry Lewis (Three on a Couch) and a "Matt Helm" adventure
spoof with Dean Martin (Murderers' Row). Her final Hollywood
effort came in 1967 when she played a lovely gnome in the Disney fantasy
The Gnome-Mobile.
medee Chabot's first
Mexican film was shot in May 1966, the
Santo-Jorge Rivero spy adventure El tesoro de Moctezuma, in which
she had the female lead as Rivero's love interest, an Interpol agent.
Ironically, Elizabeth Campbell had been featured in Operación
67, which Tesoro was a sequel to. Bañame mi
amor, shot in the later summer of 1966, teamed Chabot with the
Texas-born Emily Cranz, an actress and dancer who had been working in
Mexico for a number of years. Amedee's final film of 1966 was Autopsia
de un fantasma, which starred three former Hollywood "names": Basil
Rathbone (his last film), John Carradine, and Cameron Mitchell.
hat brought Amedee
Chabot to Mexico? At this point, we don't know.
However, it was undoubtedly a good career move for her. After playing bit
roles in routine Hollywood pictures, she was given substantial parts in
Mexico, and work was plentiful: Chabot acted in 10 features in 1967 and 10
more in 1968, even though her dialogue was virtually always dubbed. [In
Operación Carambola Chabot's real voice can be heard in one
scene; otherwise, although in many of her pictures she seems to have been
speaking her lines in Spanish during filming--based on the
movements of her lips--her voice was over-dubbed by others]
habot's
Mexican movies were mostly comedies, with a number of action films and
Westerns in the mix. Her most "serious" picture was Narda o el
verano, basically a three-person drama with Chabot as the romantic
interest for Enrique Alvarez Félix and Héctor Bonilla.
owever, in 1969
Amedee Chabot dropped out of films. On 10 January
1971, the "Corte!" column by Ricardo Ferete in Excelsior indicated:
"Amadee Chabot writes from Hawaii and says she will return to Mexico to
resume her film career. The statuesque American [estadounidense]
blonde was converted into a star here, but inexplicably vanished from the
scene..." A followup piece on 5 March 1971 read: "Amadee Chabot prepares
her return to show business after a brief absence. She is an actress but
it isn't unusual that she has decided to give us a surprise as a singer."
However, this comeback apparently never occurred.
here is she now? NEW
INFO 9 AUGUST 2000: Amedee Chabot is now living in California, where
she is a successful real estate agent. If you'd like to see a photo of
Amedee as she looks today (pretty darn good) and read about her business
activities, go to Amedee Chabot's
own page.
Amedee Chabot Filmography and Photos
hile
Amedee Chabot and Christa Linder epitomize the blonde sex symbol,
Elizabeth Campbell (although certainly beautiful and sexy in her own
right) was a different type, a tall, assertive red-head whose screen roles
often emphasized her physical and personal dominance (to
reemphasize the fact that Campbell was "buenota y grandota,"
as Emilio García Riera describes her, Calderón teamed her
with short comedians like Joaquín García "Borolas" and
Chucho Salinas).
ess is known about
Elizabeth Campbell than either of
the other two actresses discussed here. Her background and life prior to
her Mexican film debut are a mystery, as are her whereabouts since her
departure from movie-making at the end of the 1960s. 
ampbell
made her first movie appearance in 1961's Los pistoleros (an
"Elizabeth Campbell" had appeared in a late 1950s' British film, but this
is probably not the same person). This Western was shot at the end of
December 1961. After a role in A ritmo de twist in 1962, Campbell
was hired to play "Golden Rubí," one of the "Luchadoras" (Wrestling
Women) in Las luchadoras vs. el Médico Asesino; she would
repeat this role in three sequels, concluding with Las mujeres
panteras in 1966. These films were all made by Cinematográfica
Calderón.
lizabeth Campbell
also appeared in Guadalajara en
verano, which featured American singer Dean Reed (who would soon
become famous when he "defected" to the Soviet Union), and Cuernavaca
en primavera, co-starring Martha Hyer. She played beautiful female
super-villains in two James Bond-inspired spy films, Operación
67 and Peligro...mujeres en acción.
roducer Alberto
Zugsmith briefly set up shop in Mexico in this era, and Campbell worked
for him twice, in The Chinese Room and The Phantom
Gunslinger. Both of these pictures were shot in English, using some
Hollywood performers (especially the latter movie, which starred Troy
Donahue) and Mexican actors and actresses who spoke English. The
Chinese Room is largely Elizabeth Campbell's film: she is given the
full star treatment in makeup, costumes, and photography in this
adaptation of the "sensational" novel by Vivian O'Connell.
fter
shooting Las sicodélicas in 1968, Elizabeth
Campbell--according to an item in the 11 December 1968 issue of
Excelsior--left for New York to work in television. She was not
seen again on the screen, and her life and career since that time are as
much a mystery as her pre-1961 history.
Elizabeth
Campbell Filmography and Photos
hrista Linder was
born on 3 December 1943 (not 1946 as some sources cite) in Berchtesgaden,
Germany. Despite this, Christa
was Austria's
representative in
the 1962 "Miss Universe" pageant, finishing in the semi-finalist ranks.
Linder went on to have an international film career, participating in West German, Austrian, Italian, French, Spanish, Hungarian, Lebanese, Mexican, and Hollywood productions and co-productions between 1964 and 1980. Her sister Hansi Linder also acted in some movies in this period.
inder had
already made nearly a dozen movies before she began her Mexican career,
which occupied most of her time between 1968 and 1972. It's not known what
brought her to Mexico: her first non "Euro" appearance was in a 1966
episode of "The Rat Patrol," but this U.S. TV series was shot in Spain,
where Linder had worked in several co-productions. She can be seen very
briefly in footage shot at the 1967 Reseña de Cine in Acapulco
(used for the credits sequence of El matrimonio es como el
demonio, a film in which she otherwise does not appear), sitting
next to playboy Teddy Stauffer. Was this her introduction to the Mexican
film industry? (Ironically, later in the movie a minor character is
referred to as a "Romanian actress who came here for the Reseña and
decided to stay") In 1968 Linder made her
first Mexican film, although her scenes were actually shot in Hollywood
with Boris Karloff (Invasión siniestra). Later that year,
she was (back) in Mexico itself, where she quickly established herself as
a
blonde sex symbol.
n 1972 Linder
returned to Europe, but made a
few additional Mexican
features--plus one Hollywood movie and a TV appearance--in the next 8
years. And then, like Elizabeth Campbell and Amedee Chabot, she vanished
from the public view.
Christa Linder Filmography and
Photos
Photo Gallery updated 22 March 2004.
If anyone has any additional information on any of these three actresses, please feel free to contact me! To date I have received valuable information about Amedee Chabot and Christa Linder...anybody know where Elizabeth Campbell is today? Mail me with comments, additions, corrections!
Created 31 May 1999 by David
Wilt. Last update 22 March 2004
