- Born
- Died
- Birth nameYvette Carmen Mimieux
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- An intelligent, slender leading lady of the 1960s and 70s, Yvette Carmen Mimieux was born in Hollywood, California, to Maria (Montemayor) and René Mimieux, an occasional movie extra. Her father was born in England, of French and German descent, and her mother was Mexican. While she was first persuaded to go into acting by a Hollywood publicist, her discovery for the screen can be attributed to the director Vincente Minnelli who saw her perform in a play and decided to cast her in his melodrama Home from the Hill (1960). Though Yvette's small role ended up on the cutting room floor, MGM producers were sufficiently impressed with her looks to sign her under a long term contract. Her first role of note, Platinum High School (1960), won her a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. She was then properly 'launched' with the part of Weena, the naive Eloi cave girl, in George Pal's version of The Time Machine (1960). This turned out to be one of the studio's biggest box office winners of 1960. That same year, Mimieux also played a carefree collegian in Where the Boys Are (1960), a teen comedy (with serious undertones) dealing with adolescent sexuality. Both of her performances were well received by critics, but also set the trend for the actress to become typed either as fragile or insecure characters, or as sex kittens.
After a two year hiatus, Mimieux gave a genuinely compelling performance as Clara Johnson, a retarded girl who captures the affections of a young Italian in Light in the Piazza (1962). Though disliking the film, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther described Clara as "played with sunshine radiance and rapturous grace." Having essayed more conventional heroines in Diamond Head (1962) (sister of blustering land baron), The Reward (1965) (a fugitive's girlfriend) and Dark of the Sun (1968) (girl caught up with mercenaries in the Congo), Mimieux began to concentrate on TV movies which gave her the opportunity to further expand her dramatic range. Her contract killer in Hit Lady (1974) and the unhinged stalker in Obsessive Love (1984) were based, respectively, on her own screenplay and story. Probably her last role of note was as the victim of a harrowing chain of events in Jackson County Jail (1976), a downbeat exploitation drama produced by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. In 1985, Mimieux had a recurring role in Berrenger's (1985), a glossy soap opera set in a luxurious department store. The series lasted just one season before being canceled. Though ultimately nominated for three Golden Globes, Mimieux came to bemoan the fact that scriptwriters of the period tended to depict women as 'one-dimensional'.
In 1992, Mimieux left the acting profession to form a partnership with Sara Shane (another ex-MGM contract player) in a Los Angeles-based enterprise called "Partners in Paradise", selling embroidered tapestries, bedspreads and pillows based on Haitian designs. She subsequently went on to find even more lucrative opportunities in real estate. In her spare time, Mimieux traveled extensively, painted and studied archaeology. At the time of her death at the age of 80, she was married to Howard F. Ruby, founder and chairman of Oakwood Worldwide, a large global corporation providing furnished apartments.- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
- SpousesHoward Ruby(December 20, 1986 - January 17, 2022) (her death)Stanley Donen(November 4, 1972 - January 13, 1985) (divorced)Evan Harland Engber(December 19, 1959 - ?) (divorced)
- ChildrenNo Children
- ParentsRene Albert MimieuxMaria Del Carmen Montemayor
- RelativesEdouard Mimieux(Sibling)Gloria Montemayor(Sibling)
- She was also a degreed anthropologist, and a very successful businessperson, particularly in Real Estate.
- Yvette and her husband owned a resort in Mexico. Many celebrities vacationed there. Mr. Ruby is world famous for his National Geographic photographs, especially of polar bears.
- Yvette was born in Los Angeles, California, USA, the daughter of María del Carmen (Montemayor González) and Rene Albert Mimieux.
- On the March 10, 2022 (A Suitcase Full of Cash and a Yellow Clown Car (2022)) broadcast of Young Sheldon (2017), executive producer Chuck Lorre's trademark end of show "vanity cards," paid tribute:
"Yvette Mimieux In Memoriam The Year was 1960. I was eight years old. I went to see a movie called The Time Machine (1960) and fell hopelessly in love. From the minute Yvette appeared on screen, I was smitten. She played an Eloi, a member of a beautiful, frustratingly passive race of people in the far, far future. The Eloi were the sole food source for the horrible, troll-like Morlocks. Needless to say, this was a very stressful matinee for me. I didn't want the woman of my dreams to be eaten. Thankfully, she was rescued and I didn't have to cope with cinematic tragedy until I saw Steve McQueen die in The Sand Pebbles (1966) (I'm still upset over that). So I would like to pay tribute to my first crush. Yvette Mimieux. My second crush came a few years later. Raquel Welch, trying not to be eaten while running around in a fur bikini". - Her father was born in London, England, to a French father, from Nievre, Bourgogne, and an ethnic German mother, from Saint Paness Padding. Yvette's mother was born in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
- It's not the love affair I have with film, but television can be a playground for interesting ideas.
- There are tribes in Africa who believe that a camera steals a little part of your soul, and in a way, I think that's true about living your private life in public. It takes something away from your relationships; it cheapens them.
- There's no reason women in their late 30s and 40s shouldn't be thought of sexually.
- There's a whole beautiful world out there, and it was like riding a magic carpet, getting to know exotic, faraway places.
- I'd been acting since I was a teenager. I'd come to the point where I was writing my own movies of the week for TV. That was fun.
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