She holds the title, if you credit it, of The Sexiest Living Woman of the 20th century. Most days she could credibly knock 20+ years off the 60 she possesses at the time of writing. A mother early, 4 times married, born into the highest point of a ruthless beautocracy, she spent her charms with thrift and maintained her mystery. More than this, her distance; ached for by the world from her mid-twenties, she never seemed to relax with the public so enthralled by her, and so demanding of her. In her chat show appearances she could respond to the warmth of the interviewer, but the ice could re-form at a moments notice, and she was never notably the first to break it. Under Michael Parkinson's patent attraction to and empathy towards her, we briefly saw hints of an 'ordinary' self in the mid-1970s; a period in which, not coincidentally perhaps, she is acknowledged to have come close to a breakthrough as an actor, in The Wild Party. There was, in every sense, no sequel. Aerobics followed, and mutterings of some elixir of youth as her forties seemed to leave her untouched, and her proscriptive air enhanced; perhaps the sense of distance has been a prime contribution to her status as sex-symbol extraordinaire.

SEX APPEAL...?

Sorceress, Muse or Damsel in Distress? Jung might well have invented a new category just for her.