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Betty Anne Rees, Actress in ‘The Unholy Rollers’ and ‘Sugar Hill,’ Dies at 81

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She also appeared on ‘The F.B.I.,’ ‘My Three Sons,’ ‘Mannix,’ ‘Lou Grant’ and many other shows.

She also appeared on ‘The F.B.I.,’ ‘My Three Sons,’ ‘Mannix,’ ‘Lou Grant’ and many other shows.

Betty Anne Rees, who portrayed tough women who weren’t very nice in The Unholy Rollers and Sugar Hill, two 1970s offerings from the B-movie factory American International Pictures, has died. She was 81.

Rees died Monday at her home in Hemet, California, after a series of falls and a possible stroke, her niece, Kathleen Loucks, told The Hollywood Reporter. She also was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1990s.

The Ohio native played Janet Ingram, the secretary for Fred MacMurray’s Steve Douglas, on the last of My Three Sons’ 12 seasons in 1971-72. (Abby Dalton was Janet on an episode three years earlier.)

In The Unholy Rollers (1972), directed by Vernon Zimmerman, Rees portrayed Mickey Martinez, a star of the Los Angeles Avengers roller derby team who does not get along with popular new player Karen Walker (1970 Playboy Playmate of the Year Claudia Jennings).

The film, executive produced by Roger Corman and edited by Martin Scorsese, was rushed into production to take advantage of the publicity generated by MGM’s big-budget roller derby movie, Kansas City Bomber, starring Raquel Welch.

Betty Anne Rees (left) and Claudia Jennings in 1972’s The Unholy Rollers.

Courtesy Everett Collection

Paul Maslansky’s cult blaxploitation film Sugar Hill (1974) starred Marki Bey as Diana “Sugar” Hill, a woman who enlists a voodoo priestess (Zara Cully of The Jeffersons) to bring back long-dead African slaves to take revenge on the Southern mob boss (Robert Quarry) responsible for her fiancé’s death.

As Celeste, the mobster’s racist girlfriend, Rees gets into a fight in a bar with Sugar and (spoiler alert) gets carried off by the zombies at the end.

Elizabeth Anne Rees was born on April 14, 1943, in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Her father, James, was an attorney who owned racehorses, and her mother, Margaret, was a homemaker.

She graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1961 and attended the University of Miami before studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse and appearing on the daytime soap operas General Hospital and The Doctors. In New York, she roomed with future Benson star Caroline McWilliams, later the wife of Michael Keaton.

Rees showed up on a 1966 episode of the ABC series Shane, starring David Carradine, then made her way onto two films released the following year, The Cool Ones and Banning.

Rees went on to appear on such other shows as Adam-12, Medical Center, Mannix, Mod Squad, The F.B.I., Police Woman, S.W.A.T., The Streets of San Francisco, Lou Grant, Barnaby Jones and, in 1978 for her last credit, The Incredible Hulk.

Later, she ran Gloria Marshall Figure Salons, designed kitchens and was said to have invented a goofy ’80s gift for bosses called the “Executive Teething Ring.”

In addition to her niece, survivors include her sister, Barbara; her nephew, Brian; and her cats, Honey Bear and Lovey, who need a home. (Please email Loucks at [email protected] if you can help.) 

Rees never married, but her niece said she had a romance in the 1960s with Art Modell, who had recently acquired the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.



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Meet Katie Grimes, the Olympic Swimmer Dubbed the Future of Her Sport

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Katie Grimes, 2024 Olympic Swimming Trials
Katie Grimes wasn't going to let one disappointing swim sink her chances of going to her first Olympics.
Or her second.
"I'm just a stubborn person by nature," the 18-year-old athlete, who will be…



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Lewis Hamilton Inspired by Friend to Make Olympic Attempt, Just Not For Motorsport

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Over the years, Lewis Hamilton has made several friends belonging to different sporting backgrounds. Among them is Miles Chamley-Watson, a fencer who is currently gearing up for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Hamilton follows Watson’s career, and in an interview spoke about the possibility of following in his footsteps someday.

Hamilton was talking to CNN when he revealed his Olympic ambition. However, he isn’t looking at representing his country in the sport he excels the most – motorsports. Maybe because it isn’t a part of the Games, or maybe because the seven-time World Champion has other dreams.

Known to be an avid surfer, the interviewer asked Hamilton if surfing would be his choice to which the 39-year-old replied, “No, I’m not good enough to be surfing. But maybe I don’t know, maybe I’ll do an Olympic sport someday.”  

The F1 summer break will coincide with the Olympics in Paris, and Hamilton has an itch to support his friend Watson in the Games. They speak to and support each other almost every day, which is why Hamilton also knows how hard Watson has worked.

Still, he likely won’t pay a visit to watch the 34-year-old compete. “I am aware of me being at certain events…I know how much extra pressure sometimes it brings. So I haven’t yet committed to it.”

Talking about Olympic participation, however, it is difficult to imagine Hamilton competing in any sport other than racing or perhaps surfing.

The story of how Lewis Hamilton got into surfing

A lover of the ocean and water, Hamilton learned the art of surfing from two legends of the sport- Kelly Slater and Kai Lenny. However, they didn’t pique the Briton’s interest. The credit for that goes to his ex-girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, who introduced him to the sport in 2010.

Hamilton’s first few lessons came at the Wadi Adventure wave pool in Abu Dhabi. By the time 2015 arrived, the Surfing bug had bitten the Brit and he would pair up with the likes of Slater and Lenny to go Surfing.

He has since been an avid surfer, picking up his board every chance he gets. Having narrowly escaped death during one of his outings, the future Ferrari driver shows no signs of stopping. As he puts it, Hamilton is always most comfortable when pushing himself to the limit.





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MLB Player Freddie Freeman’s Son, 3, Can’t Stand, Walk Amid Infection

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MLB’s Freddie Freeman and his family are in the midst of a difficult time.

The Dodgers first baseman and his wife Chelsea Freeman shared that their 3-year-old son Maximus was rushed to the emergency room as he was experiencing severe pain that made it difficult for him to sit or stand.

“Please say a prayer for Maximus,” Chelsea wrote on her Instagram Story July 24, per Us Weekly. “Dr says he developed transient synovitis from the viral infection he had at All-Star Week. Day 3 of not being able to sit, stand or walk.”

Transient synovitis is a “temporary inflammation of the hip can cause limping and pain in the hip and leg,” according to Kids Health.

The 33-year-old also put out a plea out to her fans, asking if they had “any tips to help toddlers take/keep down medicine?”

“He is usually good at taking medicine,” she explained about Maximus, “but he keeps spitting it out.”





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