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June Wilkinson, the English model once called the most photographed nude in America, died July 21, Sussex World reports.
She was 85.
Born in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England, on March 27, 1940, she took to the stage at 12. By age 15, unimaginable today, she was a topless dancer in London.
Touring the U.S. at 18, she caught the eye of Hugh Hefner, who featured her in the September 1958 issue of his five-year-old magazine Playboy, nicknaming the alluring brunette bombshell “the Bosom.”
She was soon photographed by future exploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer, known for his obsession with busty women, and featured in Playboy a second time — this time, and forever after, as a blonde.
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She made an uncredited appearance of sorts in Meyer’s film “The Immoral Mr. Teas” (1959), but only her breasts are seen.
Between 1958 and 1970, Wilkinson posed nude or semi-nude in at least 50 men’s magazines.
She made stage appearances with Spike Jones and Billy Barty, with Louis Jourdan in “The Marriage-Go-Round,” and with Milton Berle in “Norman, Is That You?” in the ’60s.
Usually cast for her voluptuous figure, she appeared in such films as “Career Girl” (1960), “Macumba Love” (1960), “Lover Come Back” (1961), “The Bellboy and the Playgirls” (1962), “The Rage” (1962), “Too Late Blues” (1962), “Frankenstein’s Great Aunt Tillie” (1984), “Texas Godfather” (1985), “Keaton’s Cop” (1990), and “Three Bad Men” (2005).
On TV, she played Evelina on two episodes of “Batman” (1968) and also guested on “The Doris Day Show” (1971).
Wilkinson last posed nude in her late 50s for “The Best of Glamour Girls: Then and Now v. 2” in 1997, and spent the latter part of her career greeting fans at autograph shows.
Wilkinson was wed to NFL star Dan Pastorini from 1973-1982, acting with him in the 1974 film “Weed,” and never remarried.
She is survived by her daughter Brahna.
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