Friday, Jun. 03, 2011

Carol Cleveland

Aspiring British actress Carol Cleveland was one of the first bunnies to work at Playboy's original London club, which opened in 1966. She worked there for six months to boost her acting career. (It worked — she got a role in the Sammy Davis Jr. movie Salt and Pepper, playing a scantily clad waitress).

But Cleveland's real talent was comedy. She was never a full Python member, but she appeared in nearly 30 episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus, playing everything from a woman who cheats on her husband with the marriage counselor to a sexy housewife who kidnaps milkmen. She also acted in several Python movies; her most recognizable roles are those of Zoot and Dingo, two maidens in the Castle Anthrax in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Cleveland recently reminisced about her Playboy days, calling her former bunny life "a means to an end."