Jeanne Roland

[Henry]

My wife gave me the complete set of DANGERMAN/SECRET AGENT for Christmas. I have not

seen any episodes since 1965 when I was a kid! There was one episode which was burned into my memory and especially the guest star, JEANNE ROLAND. The segment was called A STING IN THE TAIL. Roland played the girlfriend of an assassin and John Drake was trying to get to the killer through this gal.

Roland played a singer and she sang this one seductive French song in the club lounge. Great! I've been humming it for almost 40 years!!! My question is: Does she really sing in French? And if anyone remembers, what is the name of the song she sang???

I never realized that she was James Bond's masseuse in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE! Talk about a minor role! She was on for several seconds and she had no speaking part. She has beautiful Asiatic features and looks gorgeous! But her film bibliography is very sparse. Does anyone know if she is still acting or whether she is still alive at all?

Thank you for any information you can provide!

[Rowdon]

Basically this is a repeat of one-timer Henry's question from 7 years ago ... I just saw the Saint episode Sibao in which Jeanne Roland had the title role. I looked her up on imdb, and she must have the coolest CV ever, with roles in The Baron, Secret Agent, The Champìons, the Avengers and Man in a Suitcase, and films like You Only Live Twice, Sebastian and Casino Royale ... yet nothing after 1969, when she was 27 years old. Does anyone know if she just decided enough hipness was enough?

[Euryale]

I think I've found out some stuff about Jeanne.

The first clue came from film book A History of Horrors: The Rise and Fall of the House of Hammer. It says in there that Jeanne was born in Burma and that her real name was Jean Rollins.

Ancestry.com has incoming passenger lists - people who've just entered the U.K. from abroad. In August 1949, we find Myrna Jean Rollins arriving in London from Rangoon with her parents, brother, and sister. She is stated to be 12 years old, making her born in 1937.

In 1967 Myrna Jean Rollins married Jay Barry Kulick in Westminster, London. Who is Jay? Well, he was born in America in 1942 and arrived in England in 1956. He got into the film industry (where he was also known as Barry J. Kulick) and became a producer:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0474523/

That Jeanne Roland came from Burma, had the real name of Rollins and a Myrna Jean Rollins arrived fron Rangoon and later married someone from the world of cinema seems beyond coincidence and I'm sure they are all the same person.

Myrna/Jeanne and Jay had two children - son Andrew, born London, 1970 and daughter Bethea, born London, 1972. Current records from the USA confirm that Myrna Jean Kulick now lives in Miami Beach, Florida and is aged 75 - which confirms a birthdate of 1937. Bethea also resides in Florida but Andrew went into the film industry like his parents and works for Goldcrest. In this interview he mentions his mother and sister living in Florida:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/feat...-New-York.html

Jeanne got her striking Eurasian looks from her varied ancestry. Both her grandmothers were Burmese, while her grandfathers came from Scotland and Nottinghamshire.


E.

[Rowdon]

Thanks, Euryale - excellent post. So assuming you're right (safe assumption) she worked until she was around 30, and stopped soon after she was married - as did many actresses, I suppose.
It's a neatly themed body of work she left behind, and I hope she's happy with her decision.
Case closed.
Unless, as Esther Rantzen used to say, you know different.

[DocRobertPepper]

Just watched it Henry and it's a French version of The Zombies hit She's Not There

[Euryale]

I can offer a little more confirmation that Myrna Jean and Jeanne are the same person. Myrna has an old sister Lysbeth Celia Rollins, born in Rangoon, 1934. Lysbeth became a model and actress as Myrna did - under the name Jean Rollins before she changed it to Jeanne Roland.

There is a picture of Lysbeth here from The Straits Times newspaper, 13/12/1955 - you'll have to click the consent button to see it for copyright reasons:

http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Ar...13-1.2.85.aspx

Lysbeth pursued her screen career under the name of Lizabeth Rollins:

http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0738444/

Jean Rollins was also in The Beachcomber although not listed at IMDB. This article from the Daily Express, 30/1/1954, tells how she got the part plus a picture of her in a sarong:




Lysbeth married one David Porter in Surrey in 1954. Their son Matthew was born in 1957. Lysbeth and David went to live and work in South America for many years until they finally settled in Florida where they reside to this day. They had another son Simon and I got this information from a blog he contributed to.

This is Lysbeth taken in Florida - I think in 2002:




E.

[Euryale]

I was surprized to find that Jeanne had been married before her marriage to Jay Kulick. In Italy she married one Albert Louis Baden, who was apparently a Swiss actor. This article from the Daily Express, 10/12/1966, tells about their divorce:





E.