Tall, blonde, blue-eyed, and buxom, Valerie Perrine never intended to be an actor, but she did have her eye on show business. Perrine began her performing career in 1968 on stage as a Las Vegas showgirl at the Stardust Resort and Casino. After a few years in Vegas, Perrine moved to Los Angeles, where she was spotted by an agent who compelled her to try out for the part of Montana Wildhack, a softcore pornstar, in George Roy Hill’s adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. While the film received solid reviews, it barely registered at the box office in 1972, but Perrine’s first foray into film did establish her as an actress.
Throughout Perrine’s career, her physical attributes would draw attention but often leave her underestimated. The same year that Slaughterhouse-Five was released, Perrine posed for Playboy magazine. She also holds the distinction of being the first woman to bare her breasts on network television in a show called Steambath that aired on PBS in 1973.
That same year, Perrine would be seen opposite Jeff Bridges in The Last American Hero, Tom Wolfe’s take on the real-life stock car driver, Junior Johnson. The Last American Hero was well-reviewed (the legendary Pauline Kael was among the movie’s champions), but just like Slaughterhouse-Five, it didn’t find an audience.
Perrine’s luck would soon change with her performance as Honey Bruce, the wife of the embattled comedian, Lenny Bruce (played by Dustin Hoffman) in Lenny (1974). Directed by Bob Fosse, Hoffman delivers a tour de force as the groundbreaking standup whose work was deemed “obscene” in the ‘50s and ‘60s, resulting in relentless legal battles that led Bruce to depression and substance abuse.
Hoffman was already an established star when Perrine stepped onto set, and she went blow-for-blow with one of the great actors of his era. Lenny and Honey’s relationship was fraught, and at times, harrowing. Lenny’s ongoing drug abuse and his fight against the government led him to very dark places. Places Honey was often dragged into with him. Like Perrine, Honey Bruce was also a former showgirl who appeared in films. Perrine seemed to inherently understand Honey Bruce, holding nothing back in one of the great films of the ‘70s. As glamorous as Perrine could be, she let all Hollywood trappings fall away in Lenny. Perrine gave a fearless, heart-wrenching performance in the film. For her efforts, Perrine received an Oscar nomination, won a BAFTA, and was named best actress at the Cannes Film Festival.
Despite her triumphant work in Lenny, Perrine never scored another role on the level of Honey Bruce, but she did gain a huge measure of fame for playing Lex Luthor’s personal assistant (with benefits) in Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980). As Eve Teschmacher, Perrine showcased a light comic touch as the somewhat ditzy (although ultimately heroic) character. More than that, Perrine’s vulnerability hinted at something darker between Teschmacher and Luthor (played by the great Gene Hackman). In both movies, Luthor shouting “Miss Teschmacher!” would result in flinching abidance on Teschmacher’s part. The line was played for laughs, and it got them, thanks to Perrine’s comically frantic (or comically bothered) response. But if one were to look just one layer deeper, they would see a put-upon woman at the beck and call of a powerful man. Luthor and Teschmacher were in an abusive relationship, and the abuse went one way. The uneven power dynamic in their relationship made Teschmacher’s betrayal of Luthor all the more courageous and believable.
Between the two Superman movies, Perrine would appear in another hit film, The Electric Horseman (1979), starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. With three hit films in three years, Perrine was at her peak. And then came Can’t Stop the Music (1980).
Landing near the end of the disco craze, Perrine starred alongside the novelty dance group The Village People, and the timing could not have been worse. Not only was that form of music falling out of fashion, but the musical itself was quickly falling by the commercial wayside. Grease may have been massive in 1978, but not even its star, Olivia Newton-John, could make a hit out of Xanadu in 1980. Can’t Stop the Music fared even worse. The film received eight Razzie nominations, including one for Perrine as Worst Actress.
Perrine was next seen in the hillbilly hit Cannonball Run (1981), a film that helped no one’s career regardless of its box office results. In 1982, Perrine appeared opposite Jack Nicholson in the still-timely film The Border. Nicholson stars as a corrupt border control agent who becomes involved in human smuggling. Perrine plays his financially overextended wife, who pushes her husband into illegality. The Border is a largely forgotten film, despite its top-tier cast (including Harvey Keitel and Warren Oates) and its award-winning director (Tony Richardson). There would be no time like the present to revisit The Border. The film is just as relevant now as it was then.
After The Border went bust at the box office, Perrine seldom found roles or projects worthy of her talents. She would appear as a guest actor on the occasional television series, including Homicide, ER, The Practice, and Just Shoot Me. She even did an eight-episode stint on the daytime soap, As The World Turns.
Perrine’s last significant role was in Lights Out (2011), a superior FX series starring Holt McCallany as an aging former boxer looking to make a comeback. Perrine played the duplicitous mother of McCallany’s character. Perrine’s Mae Leary led with a big personality. She is the kind of woman you want to love, but you cannot trust. Even when Mae’s scheme is uncovered, you can’t hate her. You can only feel deeply sorry for her. That was Perrine’s greatest strength as an actor: she made you feel the unspoken hurt of her character. Whether she was playing Honey Bruce, Eve Teschmacher, or Mae Leary, that vulnerability was always palpable. All you had to do was look into those pale blue eyes.
Valerie Perrine died on March 23, 2026.
She was 82 years old.
