Heather Deeley

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Heather Deeley
Image:Replace this image female.svg
Birthdate: 1956
Birth location: Suffolk, England
Natural breasts: yes
Orientation: bisexual
Heather Deeley at IMDb

Heather Deeley was an actress in 1970s English sex comedies best known for playing the lead role in Derek Ford’s 1975 film Sex Express a.k.a. Diversions[1].

Born 1956 in Suffolk, Heather was educated at Bury St Edmunds Grammar School for Girls and West Suffolk College of Further Education in the early 1970s. In between her studies Heather regularly attended gigs by the band Status Quo at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge, spending time with the band backstage on several occasions.

'Discovered' and put into films by agent and sometimes casting director Alan Selwyn, 1975 was her big year as an actress during which time she appeared in five films (aside from Sex Express the others were Erotic Inferno, Girls Come First[2], I’m Not Feeling Myself Tonight and Secrets of a Superstud). Erotic Inferno in which she co-starred with the similarly ill-fated Mary Millington, was also notable for being one of the few British sex films to have been viewed by moral reformer Lord Longford, who saw the film and two others to gain first hand experience of sex films in order to then morally condemn them. Cinema X magazine praised Deeley’s performance as an "AC/DC minx" in the film, Lord Longford’s opinion of her acting is not recorded. Secrets of a Superstud was shot at Twickenham Film Studios as “Custer’s 13”, the asexual shooting title acting as a cover to hide the fact that a pornographic version of the film was also being produced.

By the year’s end Heather was being dubbed Britain’s next big sex symbol, on account of her more than competent acting and lack of inhibitions (she was openly bisexual and performed in hardcore scenes in most of her films). Heather was also pictured in Page 3 of The Sun, diving topless into a swimming pool during the 1976 summer heat wave in England (inspiring a caption along the lines of “Gorgeous Heather Deeley knows how to cool off"). However her boyfriend of the time was a known drug dealer with connections to London's gangland scene, and through him she developed an addiction to cocaine and began to gain a reputation for being unreliable. In her final film 1977’s Hardcore she is relegated to a bit part, soon after she was cast opposite Suzy Mandel, in the US hardcore film Blonde Ambition (filmed 1977, released 1980) but failed to show up on set. Heather’s role ‘Candy Kane’ was eventually played by an american actress billed under the name 'Dory Devon'. According to David McGillivray’s book Doing Rude Things, after her 1977 “disappearance” Heather was briefly sighted working in a Soho peep show, apart from that no-one has heard from her in over thirty years and the question, “Whatever happened to Heather Deeley?” remains unanswered to this day. In the book McGillivray dubs her one of the casualties of British sex films: “Heather Deeley had a meteoric career lasting two years, was washed up at the age of 21, and is now completely forgotten.”

[edit] Unreleased/ Uncompleted Films

Apart from the films of hers that were released, Heather also appeared in a film called Pink Orgasm, which was filmed during Heather’s big year 1975, but was never completed. In it Heather was cast to play several roles including the wife of a character played by Victor Spinetti and Eve (as in Adam and Eve). The film also starred Julia Bond, Steve Amber and US porn actor Harry Reems. With the exception of Spinetti most of the cast were seasoned hardcore performers, indicating that the film would have been also filmed in a harder version for export. The animator Bob Godfrey was to have provided X-rated cartoon inserts for the film and the film would have also used music by the band Aphrodite’s Child. Director David Grant lost interest in completing the film, although several minutes of material was shown to the press in 1975 and the film was written up in Cinema X magazine (vol8, no5), which also published several stills from the film. Recently it has been discovered that two sequences shot for Pink Orgasm were included in a compilation video called 'Who Bears Sins' in 1987[3]. Synopsis from the 'British Girls Adult Film Database'

“Heather Deeley plays two roles -

  • Eve, who tries to persuade Adam to take a bite of an apple. He steadfastly resists until she finally says 'Well, how about a fuck then?' to which he replies 'Now you're talking'.
  • The wife of Victor Spinetti, who gets off by him going out to a phone box to make heavy breathing phone calls to her, but on this particular evening they've forgotten they've made an appointment with a life insurance salesman who arrives just after Spinetti has left, but before he has managed to ring up. She invites him in and he sits next to her on the couch. The phone rings and the dirty phone call (actually just a jumble of indistinguishable words in a rough accent) begins. She undoes her top and begins to get turned on. The salesman notices, asks if he can help, she lets him and they end up having sex (simulated here, but they could easily have shot another scene with another bloke without Spinetti knowing). She dresses hurriedly when she hears the sound of hubby returning."

The name of the life insurance salesman character (played by Steve Amber) was 'Alan Selwyn' named in honour of the real Selwyn who was a friend of Grant's, and as noted, Heather's manager/agent.


In addition the British Film Institute credits Deeley with appearing in a film called The Session (1974)[4].“The adventures of a harassed photographer, his girlfriend and his two models on a boat trip” the film which also stars Ava Cadell and Andee Cromarty, was previewed in Cinema X magazine (vol 7, no 6) and a photo of Deeley from the film used on the magazine's cover. The Session was the brainchild of two photographers Mike Bergman and Tony King, who also played the male lead. According to Cinema X “both guys are looking to films as an added outlet for their creativity….their futures hang on their movie”. Unfortunately the film was never submitted to the British censor indicating that it was never completed/released.

[edit] References

  • Sheridan, Simon 2007. Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema (third edition) Reynolds & Hearn Books ISBN 1-903111-92-7
  • McGillivray, David 1992. Doing Rude Things: The History of the British Sex Film 1957-1981 Sun Tavern Fields Books
  • Continental Film Review July. 1975 Vol 22. No 9. "Girls Come First"
  • Continental Film Review August 1975 Vol 22. No 10. "Sex Express"
  • Cinema X Magazine 1975 Vol 7. No 6. "The Session"
  • Cinema X Magazine Sept 1975 Vol 7. No 7. “Lord Longford’s Selection: Erotic Inferno”
  • Cinema X Magazine 1975 Vol 7. No 9. "Sex Express"
  • Continental Film Review 1976 Vol 23. No 10. "Intimate Games"
  • Cinema X Magazine Dec. 1976 Vol 8. No 4. "Deeley: Britain's top X-girl's Intimate Games"
  • The Sun 1976? "“Gorgeous Heather Deeley knows how to cool off"
  • Cinema X Magazine Jan 1977 Vol.8 No.5 “Pink Orgasm”
  • Mayfair Magazine 1977? Vol.? No.? "Heather Deeley" (photos taken from Hardcore (1977))

[edit] External links