Victoria Vetri
Vetri in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
Born (1944-09-26) September 26, 1944
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesAngela Dorian
Occupation(s)Actress, model
Years active1962–1975
Spouse(s)Hugh Whettam (1963–1966; divorced); 1 child
John Lee Hage (1966–1967; divorced)
Heinz Gottfried Schwetz (1978–1983; divorced)
Bruce Rathgeb (1986–2016; divorced)
Children1[1]

Victoria Vetri (born September 26, 1944; also known as Angela Dorian and Victoria Rathgeb) is an American model and actress.[2]

Early life and education

Vetri was born in the Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, California, to Italian immigrant parents.[3] She attended Hollywood High School between 1959-63 and later studied art at Los Angeles City College. She began acting and modeling in her teens.[2]

Career

Television and films

While Vetri was in high school director Robert Wise considered casting her as Maria in the 1961 film West Side Story, but the studio selected Natalie Wood.[2]

In her early career Vetri often was cast in ethnic roles on television "due to her Italian heritage",[4] such as a Native American in Cheyenne and a Mexican in Wagon Train. She also landed ethnic roles in film, including a member of an ancient Maya civilization in the 1963 film Kings of the Sun and a Mexican in the 1967 film Chuka.[4]

Vetri appeared briefly in the 1968 film Rosemary's Baby, where she was credited as Angela Dorian. In one scene, Rosemary (Mia Farrow) remarks to Vetri's character, Teresa, that she resembles the actress Victoria Vetri.[5]

In January 1969, Vetri signed a multi-picture contract with Warner Bros.-Seven Arts and was given a starring role in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. She refused to have her hair turned blonde from its natural auburn for the film. The story required a blonde, so Vetri demanded a wig instead. Columnist Hy Gardner nominated Vetri as "a new sex symbol on the Hollywood horizon" in 1971.[6] In 2018, Vetri reportedly claimed she plans to return to acting.[7]

Star Trek

Vetri has been incorrectly identified in numerous sources as playing the role of the "human form of a shape-shifting cat" in the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth" (a role actually played by April Tatro[8]). Vetri emphatically states she never appeared on Star Trek, saying, "I was never in an episode of STAR TREK. I know that people think I was [...] I am not sure who she was. Look close enough and you can see that she has blue eyes and I, of course, have brown."[9]

Playboy

Using the name Angela Dorian, Vetri was Playboy's Playmate of the Month for the September 1967 issue and subsequently was the 1968 Playmate of the Year. Vetri won $20,000 and a new car (an all pink 1968 AMC AMX) when she was selected Playmate of the Year.[10] A nude photo of her (along with fellow playmates Leslie Bianchini, Reagan Wilson, and Cynthia Myers) was inserted into Apollo 12 Extra-vehicular activity astronaut cuff checklists by pranksters at NASA.[11][12]

Thinking it would give her the pick of acting roles, Vetri took on modelling for Playboy.[4] However, she said that posing actually hindered her career by limiting the roles she was offered. She felt she was typecast because of her beauty.[13]

Vetri posed topless for the April 1984 Playboy pictorial Playmates Forever! Part Two.[14] In Tom Clancy's 2004 biography of Gen. Tony Zinni, USMC (Ret.), Zinni remarks on receiving a copy of the September 1967 Playboy centerfold from his advisers for his birthday, which he kept as a memento of his time in Vietnam.[15]

Personal life

Vetri, aged 18, married Hugh Terry Whettam on April 7, 1963. Their son was born on September 8, 1963. They were divorced in 1966. She then married John Lee Hage on December 29, 1966, and they were divorced in 1967. Vetri married Heinz Gottfried Schwetz on November 13, 1978 and they were divorced on February 25, 1983. In 1986, she and Bruce Rathgeb were married.[2]

Vetri was charged with attempted murder after shooting husband Bruce Rathgeb from close range inside the Hollywood apartment they were sharing after an argument on Saturday, October 16, 2010.[16][17]

The Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Division arrested Vetri. She was jailed on US$1.53 million bail. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael D. Abzug refused to reduce it, pending trial. In January 2011, the judge also denied her attorney's request for a reduction of the charge of attempted murder. She was ordered to stand trial on that charge.[18]

Between January and September 2011, the charge against Vetri was reduced to attempted voluntary manslaughter. She entered a plea of no contest. The judge sentenced her to nine years in state prison.[19] She and Rathgeb divorced in 2016. She was released on parole in April 2018, aged 73.[20]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1962 The Pigeon That Took Rome
1963 Kings of the Sun Ixzubin
1967 Chuka Helena Chavez
1968 Rosemary's Baby Terry Gionoffrio
1970 When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth Sanna
1973 Group Marriage Jan
1973 Invasion of the Bee Girls Julie Zorn

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1962 The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Member of wedding party "The Maid Of Honor"
1962 Going My Way Carmel "The Father"
1962 Cheyenne White Bird "Johnny Brassbuttons" S7:E11
1962 Hawaiian Eye Kini "To See, Perchance to Dream"
1962–63 The Gallant Men Sister Catherine / Teresa Borrelli "A Place to Die", "Next of Kin"
1964 Destry Maiya "Ride to Rio Verde"
1964 The Tenderfoot: Part 2 Margarita Disney TV film
1964 The Bill Dana Show Maria "Jose on the Ledge or the Crystal Room"
1964–65 Wagon Train Maria / Marie "The Zebedee Titus Story", "The Jarbo Pierce Story"
1965 McHale's Navy Gina "Marriage, McHale Style"
1965 Bonanza Essie "Devil on Her Shoulder"
1965 Perry Mason Debbie Conrad "The Case of the Golden Girls"
1966 Run for Your Life Carmen "Carnival Ends at Midnight"
1966 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Charisma Highcloud "The Indian Affairs Affair"
1966 The Big Valley Teresa "Legend of a General: Parts 1 & 2"
1967 Hogan's Heroes Carla "The Crittendon Plan"
1967 Death Valley Days Sacagawea "The Girl Who Walked the West"
1968 Batman Florence of Arabia "I'll Be a Mummy's Uncle"
1969 The Courtship of Eddie's Father Dolly Daly "Mrs. Livingston, I Presume"
1969 The Pigeon Barbara Hagen TV film
1970 Land of the Giants Lisa "The Marionettes"
1970 Daniel Boone Susan "Noblesse Oblige"
1970 Night Chase Beverly Dorn TV film
1970 Mission: Impossible Eve Zembra "Squeeze Play"
1970 To Rome with Love Christina "Doctor Andy"
1971 Incident In San Francisco TV film
1975 Lucas Tanner Connie "Bonus Baby"

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Victoria Vetri - the Private Life and Times of Victoria Vetri". Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Victoria Vetri". Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  3. ↑ Lisanti, Tom (2007). Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood: Seventy-Five Profiles. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0786431724.
  4. 1 2 3 Lisanti, Tom (2015). Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood. McFarland. ISBN 9781476612416.
  5. ↑ Rosemary's Baby (DVD). Paramount Home Video. Event occurs at 00:12:50.
  6. ↑ Hy Gardner (25 April 1971). "Ex-'Playmate' is new Cave Girl Sex Symbol". The Tampa Tribune. Tampa, Florida. p. 148.
  7. ↑ "TAC 119 - Victoria Vetri (Playboy PMOY '68) - Josef Newgarden (IndyCar)" – via knx1070.radio.com.
  8. ↑ Pascale, Anthony. "'Star Trek' Mystery Solved – Isis Actress From "Assignment: Earth" Identified". TrekMovie.com. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  9. ↑ Reed, Michael Augustine. "Interview with Victoria Vetri — "Sanna"". LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS Magazine #41: 71.
  10. ↑ "1968 AMC Playmate of the Year AMX - Jay Leno's Garage". YouTube. 19 April 2015. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  11. ↑ "Playboy Playmates pranked into Apollo 12 mission checklists - Boing Boing". boingboing.net. 13 January 2007. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  12. ↑ "Image: a12.cdrcuf08.jpg, (630 × 432 px)". hq.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  13. ↑ Svehla, Gary J. (1996). Guilty Pleasures of the Horror Film. Midnight Marquee & BearManor Media.
  14. ↑ "Angela Dorian". Playboy Plus.
  15. ↑ Clancy, Tom; Zinni, Tony; Koltz, Tony (3 May 2005). "2". Battle Ready. Berkley. ISBN 978-0425198926.
  16. ↑ "1968 Playmate Angela Dorian Shot Her Boyfriend? | TMZ.com". tmz.com. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  17. ↑ Martinez, Edecio (20 October 2010). "1968 Playboy Playmate Charged with Attempted Murder, Says Report". CBS NEWS.
  18. ↑ "Trial Ordered For Ex-Playmate In Husband's Shooting". losangeles.cbslocal.com. 21 January 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  19. ↑ "Ex-Playmate gets 9 years for wounding husband  | accessAtlanta". Archived from the original on 23 March 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  20. ↑ Reid, John. "Victoria Vetri - Star of When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth - An Interesting Life". News. Moviemem. (registration required)

Bibliography

  • "Hollywood Picks Playmate Angela". The Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette. 26 January 1969. p. 69.
  • "Miss Mooney Movie Stars Repeats Vows Following New Pattern". Lima, Ohio News. 10 August 1969. p. 12E.
  • "Miss Dorian Makes Debut as Playmate". Long Beach, California Independent. 11 April 1968. p. 18.
  • "AMX To Playmate". Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram. 28 April 1968. p. 81.
  • "Southland Sunday". Long Beach Press-Telegram. 7 March 1971. p. 106.
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