Alexandra Hay was a character actress of the 1960s and 1970s, best known for her roles in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Skidoo, and Model Shop. She was a native of Los Angeles, California, and graduated from Arroyo High School in El Monte. She died on October 11, 1993, at the age of 46, of arteriosclerotic heart disease. This article will explore her life, career, and the circumstances of her death.
Early Life and Modeling
Alexandra Lynn Hay was born on July 24, 1947, in Los Angeles, California. She attended Arroyo High School in El Monte, California. In the early 1960s, she booked modeling jobs through her agent William Adrian. At 15, she was featured as the “American Beauty” for the May–June 1963 issue of DIG magazine. Her mother died on August 25, 1963, when Hay had recently turned 16. In 1964, she moved to Europe, where she modeled in London and experienced the cultural explosion of the Beatles and the Beat. She described her time in Europe as “a ball” and said she “nearly blew [her] mind”.
Mainstream Career
On October 29, 1966, the Los Angeles Times reported that Hay had been signed to a long-term exclusive contract by Columbia Pictures as part of their New Talent Program. Her first credited role was in an episode of The Monkees, “Monkee Mother”, which aired on March 20, 1967. Her career continued with small roles in the 1967 movies Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and The Ambushers. In the former, she portrayed a carhop who takes an ice cream order from Spencer Tracy’s character.
Hay was chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to be Miss Golden Globe for the 1968 Golden Globe Awards ceremony, which was held at the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove on February 12, 1968. She also appeared in several feature films in the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as How Sweet It Is!, Skidoo, Model Shop, The Love Machine, and How to Seduce a Woman. She played the role of Jean Harlow in Michael McClure’s controversial play The Beard, for which she was arrested on 14 nights for lewd conduct and later acquitted by the California Supreme Court on the basis of the First Amendment.
Later Career and Death
Hay’s career declined in the mid-1970s, as she appeared in mostly low-budget and obscure films, such as How Come Nobody’s on Our Side?, That Girl from Boston, and The One Man Jury. She also had television roles in episodes of Mission: Impossible, Love, American Style, Dan August, Kojak, The Streets of San Francisco, Thriller, and Police Story. She appeared in the television movies, The F.B.I. Story: The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One and The Screaming Woman. She was also featured in a February 1974 pictorial in Playboy magazine titled “Alexandra the Great”.
Hay died on October 11, 1993, at the age of 46, of arteriosclerotic heart disease, a condition that causes the hardening and narrowing of the arteries, which can lead to heart attack or stroke. She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered off the coast of Marina del Rey, California.
Legacy and Influence
Alexandra Hay was a talented and beautiful actress who had a promising start in Hollywood, but faced challenges and controversies in her career and personal life. She was part of the counterculture and experimental movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and worked with some of the most influential directors and actors of her time. She left behind a legacy of films and performances that reflect her charisma, humor, and versatility. She is remembered by her fans and admirers as a unique and captivating star of the silver screen.
According to Wikipedia, Hay’s films have been screened at various film festivals and retrospectives, such as the American Cinematheque’s “Mod With a Twist: 60’s Cinema” in 2004, the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s “Out of the Past: Film Noir in the 70’s” in 2009, and the Museum of Modern Art’s “An Auteurist History of Film” in 2010. She has also been referenced and parodied in popular culture, such as in the 2006 comedy film Date Movie, which featured a spoof of the Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner scene with Hay and Tracy.
