Meg Myles (November 14, 1934 – November 12, 2019) was an American pin-up model, singer, and actress on stage and screen, active mostly in the 1950s and 1960s.
She was born Billie Jean Jones in Seattle, WA, between 1932 and 1934 (as some sources disagree) and took dance lessons as a girl. She was determined to have a career in show business, majoring in dance and health education at the College of the Pacific, and was discovered and signed by an agent before she graduated. Her extraordinary physique -- a reputed 42-24-36 -- led to walk-on parts on television shows with Bob Hope, among other stars. Although Myles' early appearances were limited to being a living set decoration, she was determined to develop her acting skills as well as her singing, which led to engagements at various West Coast nightclubs.
Her physique made her a favorite of men's magazines of the era, but in 1954 she landed a small comic relief role -- involving singing and her physique -- in the feature film Dragnet, portraying a Cuban singer. The following year, she played a singer in Phil Karlson's feature The Phenix City Story (1955), in which she sang the title song. Myles was also selected to perform on the national tour promoting the movie, and got a major label recording contract out of it.
Her singing career included the Mercury LP "At the Living Room" (1963), one on the Liberty label with jazzman Jimmie Rowles, "Just Meg and Me" (1957) an obscure album “Spotlight On Meg Myles” on the Tiara label from the mid 50’s also a few singles including a post-apocalyptic 45 on Liberty, "Thirteen Men".
The late '50s saw her largely absent from the big screen, however, despite the fact that she was one of the top pin-up models in the world at the time. According to some accounts, she was blackballed from the industry because of her insistence on restricting the types of costumes and still photographs in which she would allow herself to appear, and also due to reports of an alleged romance between her and Sammy Davis Jr. (the United States was just entering the era of raised consciousness about its racial problems at the time, and even rumors of such a relationship would have made her too controversial for many producers).
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In the 1980s she was regular on the daytime television mystery serial The Edge of Night as restaurant owner Sid Brennan, and had a year-long role on All My Children as Joanna Yeager, Stuart Chandler's secret wife. After a year on Search For Tomorrow as the kindly Maevis Stone (mother of heroine Evie Stone), she returned to All My Children for a stint as Joanna, in the spring of 1987. Her last film role was in Delinquent (1995). By the turn of the millennium she was working in several off-Broadway plays and with small theater groups.
During her later years she looked after injured birds in her New York City home and was known as the Upper West Side’s bird healer, tending to pigeons, kestrels, jays, finches, robins, ducks, song birds, cardinals and a goose. Animal Care & Control estimated that Ms. Myles has rescued about 200 since 2006.
According to IMDb, Myles died at the age of 84 in a Southern California rest home on November 12, 2019, and was featured on the Tony Awards'"In Memoriam 2020" list.
(Edited from AllMusic, Wikipedia, IMDb, Stella Star, Tracy Press & Wall Street Journal)