Born 80 years ago (27 August 1943) today: Hollywood’s transgressive pouty, perverse and malevolent sex kitten / nymphette / wild child Tuesday Weld. I love the adorable Weld’s performances in Rock, Rock, Rock (1956), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Lord Love a Duck (1966), Pretty Poison (1968) and Looking for Mr Goodbar (1977). Hell, she’s even beguiling in the otherwise execrable The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960). One film of hers I yearn to see but never have: Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) co-starring b-movie vixen Mamie Van Doren. Come to think of it, I’ve also never seen Go Wild in the Country (1962), in which Weld is Elvis Presley’s leading lady. But Weld is almost more famous for the parts she rejected: she was first choice for Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita (1962) ("I didn't have to play it. I was Lolita” she explained) as well as Bonnie in Bonnie & Clyde (1967) – which went to Faye Dunaway – and Pherber in Performance (1970) – which went to Anita Pallenberg. Weld’s bad girl persona wasn’t restricted to the screen: as Slant website put it, “Weld dated men three times her age, drank heavily, smoked pot, and was surly and difficult with reporters, once appearing on a daytime talk show in a bathrobe and bare feet. Sam Shepard later wrote of the incident, “I fell in love with Tuesday Weld on that show. I thought she was the Marlon Brando of women.”” In the tradition of late-period Garbo or Dietrich present-day Weld lives in deep seclusion and hasn’t been seen in public in years. Let’s hope she’s found some serenity.