Mimsy Farmer, an actress who's probably best remembered claim to fame was playing a bunch of party-chicks in '60s biker flicks, got her start, acting in television sitcoms [My Three Sons (1962) and The Donna Reed Show (1962 & 1963) and family-fare (Spencer's Mountain (1963)]. Born in Chicago in 1945, Farmer has had quite a career; she stepped in front of the camera in the early 1960s and stayed there until the end of the 1980s. Though she's mostly retired from acting, Mimsy Farmer is still quite active in this business we call show.
Farmer's most well known well role was playing Andy in 1967's Riot on the Sunset Strip. Released by American International Pictures [the very same AIP that gave us The Wild Angels (1966) starring Peter Fonda, as well as the string of "Beach Party" movies that stared Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello] as an exploitation film that captured "the scene", "the moment", and "the happenings" of the day (see also: Mondo Mod/1966, and The Hippie Revolt/1967). Farmer's Andy is one of those proto-typical-timid-teens-turned-wrong, with her part of the story involving an alcoholic mother, an estranged cop father, a drugged soft-drink followed by a bizarre acid-trip dance. While the story never really ventures out of your typical teens-running-amok exploitation tropes, there's some great appearances by the Chocolate Watchband, and Miss Farmer works some fierce hair and hot threads during her little dance-freak-out scene.
That same year, Farmer starred as another troubled teen, Gloria, in Hot Rods to Hell. This time Farmer's blond-bombshell party girl already knows she's gone with the wrong crowd and finds herself yearning for more than just the "kicks" she gets when cruising around the desert with her boyfriend Duke. Her third role in 1967 was starring yet again in a youth-culture oriented exploitation feature Devil's Angels, produced at AIP by two of the biggest names in exploitation: Roger Corman and Samuel Z. Arkoff. In 1968, Mimsy Farmer starred in what would be her last role for AIP, as Katherine Pearson in The Wild Racers.
In addition to being remembered for playing a string of blond-bombshell party-girls in the last few years of the '60s, Farmer is also known for taking acid, moving to Italy and appearing in a bunch of arty-European films. While some of these were pretty obscure, vaguely artistic exploitation efforts like Road to Salina (1970) (for which she won a David di Donatello Award), and Body of Love (1972), her resume includes a starring role in More (1969), an Italian art film scored entirely by Pink Floyd. In 1971 Farmer's background in Exploitation and European Art-house met in the middle, when she stared in Dario Argento's Four Flies on Gray Velvet. She also starred in The Black Cat (Gatto Nero) (1981), directed by Fulci, Il Profumo Della Signora in Nero (1974) directed by Francesco Barilli, as well as Autopsy (1975) directed by Armando Crispino. Later roles were regulated to mostly appearances and include: Il quartetto Basileus (1983), the tv mini-series Arabesque (1983), action-flick Code Name: Wild Geese (1984) and the ten minute short Her Fragrant Emulsion (1987).
While Farmer is mostly retired from acting and no longer making movies, she now makes things for the movies. Several years ago Mimsy Farmer started working as a set sculptor and now her art department credits include: Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Marie Antoinette (2006), and The Golden Compass (2007).
Farmer is still keeping busy, working on set sculptures for the fourth film in the POTC franchise, Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides (coming 2011). She also paints and according to IMDB.com, is the mother of Italian actress Aisha Cerami.
For more on Mimsy Farmer check out:
-The trailers for Hot Rods to Hell, Devil's Angels, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (lo-fi).
-A rather nicely written article at Coffee coffee and More Coffee that further details her work after moving to Europe.
- Moon In The Gutter's detailed tribute to Mimsy Farmer in Four Flies on Grey Velvet, featuring some quotes from Farmer herself, in addition to a link to an earlier tribute to her entire career.
