Born in Galveston, Texas in 1943, Perrine lived a colorful life. After briefly studying psychology at the University of Arizona, Perrine dropped out to become a headlining dancer at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas. The accidental 1968 death of her fiancé Bill Haarman—who was killed when he dropped a gun and a bullet fired, ricocheted, and hit him in the heart—led her to leave Las Vegas and travel through Europe for a time. She later dated hairdresser Jay Sebring, who was killed with Sharon Tate by the Manson family in 1969. Perrine had been invited to the house that night and planned to attend, but couldn’t find coverage for her shift at the last minute.
In the 1970s, Perrine began acting, making her film debut in 1972’s Slaughterhouse-Five, based on Kurt Vonnegut’s novel of the same name. She portrayed Montana Wildhack, a Hollywood actress abducted and placed in an intergalactic zoo with Billy Pilgrim on the planet Tralfamador. In 1973, Perrine appeared in Steambath on PBS, becoming, per THR, the first woman whose “breasts were intentionally exposed on television” in the United States. That same year, she starred opposite Jeff Bridges in The Last American Hero. The following year, she portrayed Honey Bruce in Lenny, a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
“I swear to God, it’s shocking to me. I see other actresses, and they’re brilliant, but I don’t know what it is about me. Jane Fonda has done some incredible things, and so did the one who played Jane Pittman [Cicely Tyson], and Marsha Mason, and I don’t think I’m as good as any of them. I really do not understand all the fuss. The biggest word I hear is vulnerability. Maybe I’m vulnerable as a person. But really, I do not know what is happening,” Perrine told The New York Times in 1974 as she earned serious critical attention for her performance in Lenny. “I’ve never had [a]ny acting lessons. I don’t know anything about Chavanasky, or whatever you call him. I really don’t know what I do. I don’t think about anything until I get on the set. I just learn my lines, period.”
Perrine followed these roles with performances in W. C. Fields and Me and Mr. Billion, and originated the role of Eve Teschmacher, a character that was created for the 1978 Superman movie. In 1980, she appeared in the film Can’t Stop The Music, a pseudo-biopic about The Village People that is mostly known today for helping to kickstart the Razzie Awards. “It ruined my career — I moved to Europe after, I was so embarrassed,” she said later, per THR.
Even if her career did not reach those 1970s heights again, Perrine continued to get work for decades, appearing in films like The Cannonball Run and What Women Want and TV shows like Homicide: Life On The Street, ER, Walker, Texas Ranger, and Just Shoot Me! With the news of her death, Souther shared a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for Perrine’s burial, writing, “after more than 15 years of fighting Parkinson’s, her finances are exhausted.” The listing says that the fundraiser was launched with the support of her brother Ken Perrine, who is also living with Parkinson’s.
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