CISSY COLPITTSThe rather pulchritudinous young woman to the left here went by the unlikely name of Cissy Colpitts. Her star shown briefly in the 1970's. Her best known appearance would have to be as the young potential rape victim in BILLY JACK, saved by Tom Laughlin's half-breed avenger who forces her attacker to drive his car into a lake. Other early film appearances included PORKY'S II.
I first discovered her, however, on THE TED KNIGHT SHOW, the short-lived sitcom that preceded Ted's more successful TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT. She was hilarious! She affected a very Marilyn Monoroesque (Hey, I coined a word!) delivery and it was a scream, easily stealing the show for me. Ratings were initially high and my 18 year old self decided to write her a fan letter. Then the series was cancelled. Imagine my surprise to recieve a letter from Ms. Colpitts some months later. Not JUST a letter, mind you! I wouldn't be surprised if mine had been the first fan letter she had ever received as she hand wrote a three page missive talking about life, work and the episode of THE LOVE BOAT she had just finished. Along with that was this postcard (I was 18, remember!) and two gorgeous signed publicity photos. Not long after that, she changed her name, undoubtedly at someone's intelligent suggestion, to Cisse Camero
n. I heard somewhere that the new name came from her father, noted hack actor (in the sense that he would take any job that came along) Cameron Mitchell. While she did appear with Mitchell in a later film, I've never been able to confirm their father-daughter relationship. Cisse was given bigger roles in better films, appearing opposite James Coburn in THE BALTIMORE BULLET and the Tim Conway/Don Knotts team in PRIVATE EYES. Ultimately, though, she ended up in low budget thrillers like the dreadful SPACE MUTINY(1988) with her husband Reb Brown (TV's cheesy Captain America in two terrible seventies films).Now here's the really interesting part: Welsh film director Peter Greenaway has done four movies in which four different characters are named...you guessed it...Cissy Colpitts! I hope Cisse got a smile out of that. IMDB lists her last picture as 1997. Wherever you are now, Cisse, thanks from the 18 year old boy who stayed one of your biggest fans for thirty years!
Oh dear...your lady love is the hot grandma from Space Mutiny. Did you ever see the MST3K version? You might cry.
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I had a similar experience with her in 1969 when I saw a shot of her in an army newspaper. I wrote her a fan letter and she sent me back a photo and a long letter. I can still remember her cousin's name - Rusty Pearce - she mentioned that he was in the military, too. My then-girlfriend saw her photo in my wallet and so I tossed it out! She is obviously a nice person who personally answers what fan mail she gets. Nice to find your site here; I'll have to watch Porkys II!
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have you seen the photo of Cissy when she was a candidate in her college "Miss Watermellon Bust" contest? I've saved that newspaper photo all these years.
ReplyDeleteI took a modern dance class with Cissy at Texas Christian University in Ft Worth, TX in 1971. I remember her as being very shy and quiet. I knew she had been in the movie Billy Jack but have always wondered where life took her from there.
ReplyDeleteOh man, do I remember that "Miss Watermelon Bust" contest photo. The contest was at Butler University in Indianapolis and I was a teenager. I'm 54 now and remember how incredibly hot Cissy looked in that photo. Wow! Marked me for life!
ReplyDeleteplease post the Butler University Miss Watermelon Bust of 1967
ReplyDeleteCissy Colpitts, aka Cisse Cameron, is still a fox! She continues to dance, do yoga and pilates. Cissy has been married to Reb Brown for years (Uncommon Valor, Death of a Soldier, Distant Thunder, Big Wednesday and Miami Vice.) Cissy has done a lot of theater, including Broadway, commercials (Kellogg's, Reynold's Oven Bags, Carls, Jr.). After taking some years off in 1997 to travel and write, she is now in pre-production for a movie for Sunn Classic Pictures, Inc. It is called "Pinnocchio In The Hood."
ReplyDeleteJust to correct a misconception, Cissy Colpitts is her REAL name. I knew her as a gorgeous teenager from the St. Louis area. She dated a friend of mine and I dated her sister a couple of times. Her dad was a dentist.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing that picture of Cissy in the paper when I was 10 years old. I didn't know anything about sex at the time, but somehow I knew instinctively why she had won. There were about 5 or 6 other girls, including one particularly pretty blonde with a very large rack. She and the others were all smiling gamely, because Cissy had them totally overmatched. She had a sweet innocent smile and an absoultely enormous rack that was sticking so far out in front of the line that she made even the blonde's D cups look tiny by comparison. It was stunning.
ReplyDeleteCissy Colpitts is the daughter of a dentist from St. Louis, MO. She studied dance and voice in St. Louis until college age. She has a brother Ralph and a sister Suzanne. Although she went by Cissy, her real name is Matilda.
ReplyDeleteCisse Cameron, aka Cissy Colpitts, is alive and well and living in he Montecito.California area. She is still, the genuine, lovely and beautiful person she was in her teens. Cisse responds to all letters personally as if it were the first letter she ever received --with gratitude and interest in the person writing.
ReplyDeleteI have a Racing Pictorial Magazine 1968 Summer Edition.
ReplyDeleteTwo pictures of her one next too Bobby Unser seated in his car, the second picture she's sat at the wheel of the car.
I just wondered who she was.
thank.
Cissy Colpitts was the Lambda Chi Alpha "Miss Watermelon Bust" winner, September 1967. My sister won the watermelon eating contest and was featured on the front page of the Butler Collegian the following Monday.
ReplyDeleteEighteen inch waist, the effect was dramatic.