Fran Jeffries was an American singer, dancer, actress, and model.
Early life
Jeffries was born Frances Ann Makris on May 18, 1937, in Mayfield, California, the daughter of Esther A. and Steven G. Makris, a Greek-immigrant barbershop owner.
Career
Jeffries's film debut came in the 1958 filmThe Buccaneer. She appeared in the 1963 filmThe Pink Panther, in which she sang "Meglio Stasera " while glamorously leading a line-dance around a fireplace, including Peter Sellers and David Niven among other movie celebrities of that period. Her supporting role as a professional entertainer in Sex and the Single Girl served to feature her as a singer-dancer. She sang on The Tom Jones Show in 1969 with the host, doing a duet of "You've Got What it Takes," as well as The Smokey Robinson Show the following year, in which she did solo numbers as well as a duet with Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder and the rest of the cast. For a year, Jeffries sang with Bob Scobey's orchestra, and while she was married to Dick Haymes, they had a nightclub act together. She was featured in Playboy in the February 1971 issue at the age of 33 in a pictorial titled "Fran-tastic!" In September 1982 she posed a second time for Playboy, this time at the age of 45. This second pictorial was titled "Still Fran-tastic!"
Personal life
Jeffries was in four marriages. In the 1950s, Jeffries married pianist Ed Belasco. They were divorced in that same decade. She and singer Dick Haymes married in 1958 and divorced in 1965. The couple had a daughter, Stephanie. She was also married to director Richard Quine and Steven Schaeffer.
"Sex and the Single Girl" was released on MGM in 1964 as a single and an LP. She also sang the songs "Meglio Stasera" and "The Anniversary Song" in films. In 1966, Jeffries recorded an album for Monument Records entitled This Is Fran Jeffries, which was a collection of standards and popular songs, produced by Fred Foster with arrangements by Dick Grove and Bill Justis, including a rendition of Lennon–McCartney's "Yesterday". In 2000, she released a recording All the Love, again a collection of standards.
