Tracy Reed

Part of a long lineage of prominent British actors and directors, Tracy Reed enjoyed brief celebrity in her native England as a film star and pin-up model. Born Clare Tracy Compton Pelissier, the daughter of film director Anthony Pelissier and actress Penelope Dudley-Ward, Reed took the surname of her stepfather, filmmaker Sir Carol Reed, shortly before embarking on a movie career of her own. Often cast as a lascivious temptress in TV spy shows, she earned her first starring role as the female lead in the short-lived 1960s espionage series "Man of the World." She went on to appear in her best-remembered role, as General Turgidson's (George C. Scott) mistress, in the Stanley Kubrick-directed black comedy "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) -- her brief, bikini-clad appearance in just one scene, notably, was the sole female part in the entire film. Reed closed out the decade with minor roles in the 1966 spy spoof "Casino Royale" and the TV medical drama "Dr. Finlay's Casebook." Despite being considered as a possible replacement for Diana Rigg on the popular series "The Avengers," Reed seldom worked in the 1970s, and finally faded from the limelight by late decade.