Maggie Blye obit

Maggie Blye, actress – obituary

She was not on the list.

Maggie Blye, who has died aged 73, was a blonde, saucer-eyed 1960s starlet best known for playing Michael Caine’s girlfriend in The Italian Job (1969).

As Lorna, the girlfriend of bullion thief Charlie Croker (Caine), Maggie Blye personified the sexy swinging spirit of the 1960s – early in the film she jumps out of an Aston Martin in a leather miniskirt, chases several girls out of Croker’s flat and beats him up with a stuffed toy goose. But a subsequent dazzling career never quite materialized.

Margaret Jane Blye was born in Houston, Texas, on October 24 1942. She studied Business at the University of Texas, before transferring to UCLA, where she joined the university drama group. While performing in West Side Story she was noticed by a talent scout for 20th Century Fox.

Maggie Blye with Michael Caine in The Italian Job Credit: Film Stills

In 1961 the producer Hal Wallis cast her as Dusty in Tennessee Williams’s Summer and Smoke, after which she returned to the stage to play Jo in Blues for Mister Charlie (1964). Television appearances on shows such as Perry Mason and Gunsmoke drew the attention of the American director Martin Ritt, who cast her in 1967 as Paul Newman’s love interest, Doris, in the revisionist western Hombre. The result was a contract with 20th Century Fox.

In 1968, having moved to a film deal with Paramount Pictures, she left for England to star opposite Marcello Mastroianni in Diamonds for Breakfast. Mastrioanni charmed as an aristocratic playboy who arranges to steal the Russian crown jewels with the help of some beautiful young girls (Maggie Blye, Rita Tushingham, Elaine Taylor and Francesca Tu). Then came The Italian Job with Caine, Noël Coward and Benny Hill.

In 1973 the director Larry Peerce signed her to play Elizabeth Taylor’s daughter in Ash Wednesday, although there was only 10 years’ difference between the actresses.

The filming was fraught from the start. “It’s a wonder we ever completed production,” Maggie Blye recalled. “Elizabeth was at the height of her domestic crisis at the time. She was sick. Taylor had recently split from Richard Burton and was hell bent on self punishment. She would comfort eat so she couldn’t fit into her costumes, then explode in anger – mostly at herself.”

In 1975 she appeared in Walter Hill’s street-fighting drama Hard Times. By the end of the decade, however, Maggie Blye was no longer being considered for romantic roles. “In the space of two years,” she noted, “I went from playing daughters to mothers.”

She played mothers in the coming-of-age drama Little Darlings (1980) and in Liar’s Moon (1982). Her other films included The Entity (1982) and the teenage romance Mischief (1985), and there was a recurring role in the NBC television crime series In the Heat of the Night (1988). She continued to work throughout the 1990s and 2000s, mostly on television. Her last film credits of note were the thriller The Prophet’s Game (2000) and the cult comedy horror The Gingerdead Man (2005).

She is survived by her brother, Richard, and sister, Judy Blye Wilson, a casting director.

Selected filmography

    Summer and Smoke (1961) as Dusty (uncredited)

    Hombre (1967) as Doris

    Waterhole No. 3 (1967) as Billee Copperud

    Diamonds for Breakfast (1968) as Honey

    The Italian Job (1969) as Lorna

    The Sporting Club (1971) as Janey

    Every Little Crook and Nanny (1972) as Stella Ganucci

    Ash Wednesday (1973) as Kate Sawyer

    Hard Times (1975) as Gayleen Schoonover

    Mayday at 40,000 Feet! (1976) as Susan Mackenzie

    Walking Tall: Final Chapter (1977) as Luan Paxton

    Little Darlings (1980) as Ms. Bright

    Liar's Moon (1982) as Ellen 'Babs' Duncan

    The Entity (1982) as Cindy Nash

    Kidco (1984) as Joan Cessna

    Mischief (1985) as Claire Miller

    Soft Toilet Seats (1999) as Margaret Lennox

    The Gingerdead Man (2005) as Betty Leigh