- Born
- Died
- Birth nameNatalie Trundy Campagna
- Height1.71 m
- Fair, freckled and quite lovely, actress Natalie Trundy, of Italian and Irish heritage, had quite a promising career approaching adulthood in the late 1950s until a serious car accident put a serious halt to things. As Natalie Campagna, she was born in Boston on August 5, 1940, the elder of two daughters. A child model, she took dance classes and started flirting with an acting career even before she graduated from elementary school.
The little strawberry blonde made her TV debut as a singing and dancing "Little Red Riding Hood" in a Fred Waring live broadcast. The talented youngster quickly moved into radio and commercial work and made her Broadway debut at age 13 playing Janet Blair's daughter in "A Girl Can Tell". By this time, she was attending New York's Professional Children's School. She subsequently appeared alongside multiple Tony winner Shirley Booth in the turn-of-the-century Broadway musical, "By the Beautiful Sea" (1953), after replacing the originally cast ingénue. She followed this with the short-lived play, "Girls of Summer" (1956), which starred Shelley Winters.
At age 15, Natalie made her debut in the Italian film Une histoire de Monte Carlo (1956), featuring such foreign luminaries as Marlene Dietrich and Vittorio De Sica in the cast. Agent-turned-producer Arthur P. Jacobs, who represented Ms. Dietrich at the time and was nearly 18 years older, met young Natalie during this filming. Producer Kirk Douglas cast her in what would be her second film The Careless Years (1957), a typical troubled teen love story co-starring Dean Stockwell.
Natalie put her career on hold in order to attend New York's Briarcliff College and was planning to return full-time to acting following her education. In 1963, however, she was struck by a car and suffered a serious back injury that ended all hopes for a comeback. By chance, she was reintroduced to producer Jacobs a few years later and they married in London in 1968. Jacobs was producing the "Planet of the Apes" film series at the time and had just finished the original movie starring Charlton Heston. Natalie finally made her return in film, appearing in all of the sequels beginning with her role as "Albina", the mutant in Le Secret de la planète des singes (1970). For Jacobs, she also played the role of "Mrs. Loftus" in the musical adaptation of Huckleberry Finn (1974).
Natalie's husband's sudden death of a heart attack at age 51 in 1973 while she was on a Mississippi location signaled the end of her comeback. Natalie went on to assume production duties of his film company, APJAC productions.
Her last visible appearance on TV was in a 1978 episode of "Quincy." She was married five times in all. One of her later brief marriages was to Gucci executive Carmine Roberto Foggia - she had her daughter and son with him. She later volunteered for years at Mother Theresa's hospice in Kolkata, India.. For the most part, however, very little was heard from her until her death of natural causes at age 79, on December 5, 2019.- IMDb mini biography by: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpousesAndres Meza Lopez(February 20, 1985 - December 5, 2019) (her death)Scott Cristle(September 22, 1982 - December 6, 1984) (divorced)Carmine Roberto Foggia(May 4, 1974 - April 17, 1980) (divorced, 2 children)Arthur P. Jacobs(June 8, 1968 - June 27, 1973) (his death)Charles Heimata Hirshon(September 24, 1959 - July 1, 1960) (annulled)
- ParentsFrank CampanaNatalie (Trundy) Campana
- RelativesSibling(Sibling)
- Devoted many of her later years volunteering at Mother Teresa's hospice in Calcutta, India, traveling as often as twice a year and bringing medicine and supplies with her in order to care for the ill and needy.
- Is the widow of Marilyn Monroe's press agent, Arthur P. Jacobs.
- In the early 1960s, Natalie was named "Debutante of the Year", and the New York Post sent noted society reporter Doris Lilly to accompany her for five consecutive days to describe Natalie's life and activities.
- The only actor other than Roddy McDowall to appear in four of the five films in the original "Planet of the Apes" saga. In fact it is in the four sequels of that series of films in which she appears, as the human mutant Albina in Le Secret de la planète des singes (1970), as human Doctor Stephanie "Stevie" Branton in Les Évadés de la planète des singes (1971), and as Lisa, Caesar's chimpanzee wife, in both La Conquête de la planète des singes (1972) and La Bataille de la planète des singes (1973), distinguishing her from McDowall as having performed in the movies as both human and simian characters (another such actor with that claim to fame being Norman Burton who was the ape leader of the hunt in the first film and a human army officer in "Escape").
- Last name pronounced "Troon-dee".
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