In Memoriam: Superchick Joyce Jillson (1947-2004)

"She's all woman and all every woman wants to be: forceful, feminine, free. Super brain, super body, super charged, Superchick, a swinging motion picture experience about a super kind of woman. In public she's a mild mannered stewardess. In private she's a mistress of the martial arts. Superchick, she's more than just one woman and too much for just one man! ... Superchick, the super kind of woman. Always in the middle of where the action is, always ready for a new adventure. You can't afford to miss Superchick. She's much more than you ever had before." -- promotional trailer for Superchick

99 Cent Video Reviews mourns the passing of Joyce "Superchick" Jillson, who died earlier this month after battling kidney disease. She was 58.

While media reports highlighted Ms. Jillson's successful career as the self-proclaimed "Astrologer to the Stars" (her most notable clients were former President and First Lady Ronald and Nancy Reagan), cult movie fans most fondly remember her as the sexy stewardess Tara B. True in Ed Forsyth's classic 1973 film Superchick.

Cashing in on the blossoming 1970s' sexual liberation movement, Forsyth chose Jillson to epitomize the ideal post-feminist woman: self-reliant, successful, self-assured, and seductive enough to possess a suitor in every port. "Life's made up of people, not just one person," Superchick (who's devoid of any "superpowers" other than her own intellect and sexual frankness) tells her multiple love interests in the film's surprisingly philosophical conclusion. "I take life the way it is -- people the way they are. I don't want to change it or them. I will live the lives I choose, with or without you."

Arguably campy and noticeably tame by today's cinematic standards, Superchick's humor, attitude, and "what-were-they-smoking?" inherent quirkiness has proudly earned the film prominent billing in the 99 Cent Video Review movie library.

Jillson went on to star in the 1976 B-movie film Slumber Party '57 before launching a full-time career as an astrologer and syndicated columnist. Her most well known role as an actress was on the television soap opera series "Peyton Place."

Her obituary appears below.

________________________________________________________________________

LOS ANGELES -- Joyce Jillson, author of a nationally syndicated astrology column who divined the stars on behalf of a Hollywood movie studio, died of kidney failure Oct. 1 in Los Angeles. She was 58.

Her daily astrology column appeared in nearly 200 newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the New York Daily News.

As the official astrologer for 20th Century Fox Studios, Ms. Jillson was consulted on the best opening days for Fox movies. She picked the opening date for 1977's "Star Wars," which is the second-highest grossing movie ever.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Ms. Jillson made numerous appearances on television and radio shows. Besides Hollywood clients, Ms. Jillson made astrological forecasts for Ford Motor Co. and the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of her duties at KABC Radio.

In 1988, Ms. Jillson was linked to the Reagan White House after former chief of staff Donald T. Regan wrote in a book that first lady Nancy Reagan consulted astrologers.

Ms. Jillson contended that she advised Reagan campaign aides to select George H.W. Bush as Ronald Reagan's running mate in 1980. Ms. Jillson said she "spent a lot of time" at the White House after the March 1981 assassination attempt on the president. (White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said at the time that the Reagans did not know her.)

Ms. Jillson, who was born and raised in Cranston, R.I., attended Boston University on an opera scholarship and later moved to New York to begin a stage career.

She won an award as outstanding Broadway newcomer and then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a TV career.

She married Joseph Gallagher in 1969; they divorced in 1981.

Ms. Jillson was a Capricorn, but she regarded herself as a Libra because most of her astrological planets were aligned with that sign, her former husband said.

"She had a complex and very intellectual approach to astrology," he said.

Holiday Mathis, who had been Ms. Jillson's apprentice and editor since 1991, had been co-writing the astrology column for the past few months, Creators Syndicate said in a statement.

Ms. Jillson and Mathis wrote in advance, and the columns they prepared will run through Nov. 6. Starting Nov. 7, the horoscopes will be renamed "Horoscopes by Holiday," but their format will remain the same.

"She took something that was somewhat stodgy and made it full of life -- just as she was," said Richard S. Newcombe, president of Creators Syndicate.

Survivors include her mother.

-- Associated Press