With her eye-catching 35½-21-35 physique and dark eyes and hair right out of a desert oasis, smoldering Israel-born beauty Ziva Rodann was a natural to portray the nefarious Nefertiti opposite Victor Buono’s King Tut on the campy Batman TV series of the late ’60s. But the sultry stunner had a long career beside that and figured prominently in B-movie classics throughout the late ‘50s and ‘60s—or had B parts in big movie classics. Included in her resume are Forty Guns (1957) as Rio with Barbara Stanwyck; The Story of Mankind(1957) as an Egyptian concubine with Hedy Lamar and Groucho Marx; as a Gypsy Singer in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) with Yul Brynner; as an entertainer in King Creole (1958) with Elvis Presley; in the bigger role of Catherine Morgan in Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) with Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn; as Alice McAfee in The Big Operator (1959) with Mickey Rooney and Mamie Van Doren, with whom she teamed up again as Passiona in The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960); The Story of Ruth (1960) in a bigger role as Orpah; the very fun-filled name of Gogo Lazio in College Confidential (1960) with Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows; and as Dr. Myra Von in a lead role in 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964). Co-starring again with Mamie (sans Mickey), Ziva’s character in Nuts appeared in a quick fantasy daydream, the scene changing from black and white to color, with the star posing enticingly while lounging on a bed covered only by a bright-red feather boa, with feathers conveniently positioned to hide slips and flashes of any kind. How the movies do like to screw with us! (Get it? Nuts, Bolt, Screw? Mr. Skin has all the fun!)
