Austrian actress Sybil Danning went straight from the girlie magazines to the exploitation-flick field. She first grabbed audience attention in the 1970 melodrama Albino. By the end of the '70s, she had chalked up a number of credits in such mainstream films as Bluebeard (1972), The Three Musketeers (1974) Crossed Swords (1978) and Concorde: Airport 79 (1979). But while she was mere decoration in mainstream movies, she was a star in the soft-core field, displaying her talents in such esoterica as Swedish Love Games and Love of a French Pussycat. No helpless victim or mere boy-toy, Danning gained her widest audience with a series of sweat-drenched action pictures in the 1980s. Danning seemed born to appear in "babes behind bars" epics like Chained Heat (1983) and Reform School Girls (1986), and was equally well-suited to portray femme fatales (They're Playing with Fire [1985]), vengeful cops (L.A. Bounty [1989]) and queens of outer space (Phantom Empire [1989]). She could always be counted upon to possess the widest bustline in any picture she appeared in, though Lou Ferrigno gave her tough competition in The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (1984). Danning was wise enough to package that image in an amusing fashion as hostess of a series of R-rated sex 'n' violence videocassettes of the mid '80s.
by Hal Erickson
biography
