Once one of Hollywood’s most dazzling stars in the 1970s, Valerie Perrine mesmerized audiences with her beauty and undeniable talent.
But before the cameras found her, she was a topless dancer in Las Vegas — and narrowly escaped a shocking murder attempt in a high-profile case that shook the nation.
Now, at 82, Perrine still turns heads… And you might want to sit down when you see how stunning she looks today.
Charmed the Emperor of Japan
Valerie Perrine was born in Galveston, Texas, in 1943, into a family already steeped in performance. Her mother was a showgirl, and her father served as a U.S. Army officer. At just four years old, Valerie performed for the Emperor of Japan while her family was stationed there after World War II, taking part in a ceremonial dance for the finale — without a black wig — hinting at the star she would one day become.
After returning to the U.S., Valerie followed in her mother’s footsteps, turning to dancing as a teenager. By 17, she ran away from home to perform in Las Vegas. She went door to door along the Strip until she landed her first big break—as a chorus girl in the Hello America show at the Desert Inn Hotel and Casino.
After that, she started earning up to $800 a week, about $8,000 today.
Why she moved to Hollywood
In the 1960s, Perrine performed up to 12 shows a week in Las Vegas. She danced on floors and up and down stairs, in heavy costumes and topless get-ups, all while perfecting her craft. But after eight years in the desert, she knew it was time for a change.
“I decided I needed a change. I moved to Hollywood,” she later said.
A small break came in 1972, when she was cast as Montana Wildhack, a soft-core pornography actress, in George Roy Hill’s adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.
“Acting wasn’t something I pursued. I was at a small dinner party where an agent was looking for someone to play the role… The agent saw something in me and thought I would be perfect for the part. That’s how I became an actress,” Perrine explained in 2025.
It was perhaps inevitable that Valerie would be discovered sooner or later, because the well-figured woman certainly didn’t go unnoticed in Hollywood.
According to friends, she was impossible to miss, cruising around Beverly Hills in a bright orange 1973 Chevrolet Suburban with the license plate “RATS 1.” With a wide floppy hat and oversized sunglasses, she made a bold statement wherever she went.
Had to protect herself
After Slaughterhouse-Five, Valerie appeared in a Playboy pictorial in May 1972 and made history as the first actress to appear nude on American network television in a PBS broadcast of Bruce Jay Friedman’s Steambath on Hollywood Television Theater.
Only a few stations aired it, but the moment cemented her daring reputation.
Overall, Valerie had no problem being labeled a sex goddess or sex bomb—titles that might have bothered others didn’t seem to faze her. She explained her perspective in a 1975 interview with The Houston Post.
“I don’t mind doing nude parts. I won’t be a Marilyn Monroe because I don’t see myself as a piece of meat to begin with. I have a sound personal philosophy,” she said, before expanding on her thoughts.
“Of course the sex goddess thing has disadvantages. People get a certain image of you. I already have to protect myself at parties where so many people just assume they can go to bed with me. Sometimes I get embarrassed. Sometimes I get mad.”
