Sigrid Valdis

A native Californian of Swedish descent, Sigrid Valdis (the professional stage name of Patricia Annette Olson) was raised in the Westwood and Brentwood neighborhoods of Los Angeles, and attended exclusive private schools, including Marymount High School. Upon graduation she moved to Europe, then to New York City to continue the modeling career she had begun as a teenager. While working as a designer's, showroom and runway model, she met and married a businessman in the fashion industry. After the birth of her first child, Melissa, she began studying at Stella Adler's Theatre School while at the same time working on her first feature film. Her natural talent and on-screen demeanor was impressive, and she found herself back in California in 1964 in pursuit of a promising acting career. Over the next 18 months she would accumulate an impressive list of credits and on-camera time: Her first film, Two Tickets to Paris (1962) starring Joey Dee of "Peppermint Twist" fame, was followed by big