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Actress Moore 'Has Fascinating Life, Career'

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By WALT BELCHER

wbelcher@tampatrib.com

Published: February 21, 2009

Terry Moore

TAMPA - Actress Terry Moore's memories of Tarpon Springs in 1953 include the smell of seaweed and fish, and getting "terribly seasick" while filming "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef."

"We all kept getting seasick but it was a wonderful time because the people were so nice and I was working with Robert Wagner," Moore says. "We became good friends and we're still friends today."

Moore is coming to Tampa next week to receive the Gasparilla International Film Festival's first lifetime achievement award.

The award will be presented at the festival's opening night Thursday at Tampa Theatre when the kickoff film, "Nothing But the Truth," screens. The political thriller stars Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Angela Bassett and Alan Alda.

Moore's longtime friend and fellow actress Ann Jeffreys is to present the award.

None of Moore's films are being screened, although the romance action flick "12-Mile Reef" would be fitting. It's about Greek sponge divers.

Moore, 80, is being honored for more than just the volume of films she's made since the 1940s, says festival board member Eric Polins.

"We had several actors with long careers under consideration," he says. "And Moore was selected because she has been in more than 70 films, was nominated for an Oscar and she has had a fascinating life and career."

Romantically linked to billionaire aviator and studio owner Howard Hughes during the late 1940s and early '50s, she also became one of the first female jet pilots.

"He was the love of my life," says Moore, who claims she and Hughes were secretly married in 1949 and never divorced. Although that has been disputed at times, the Hughes estate paid her a settlement in 1984.

She has written two books about the relationship.

A Lifetime Of Work

Moore worked on live TV drama series such as "Playhouse 90" in the medium's early days, and continued to make guest appearances on TV dramas in the 1960s and '70s. At age 55, she posed nude for Playboy to "prove that a woman can look good at that age without ever having had cosmetic surgery."

Last year, Moore and 72-year-old former model Gita Hall co-starred in the VH1 reality series "Old Skool," in which the two explored what it takes to be hip in the 21st century.

Moore says she's not ready for retirement and the Gasparilla festival will be a treat.

"This is exciting for me because I've never received a lifetime achievement award."

A child film and radio performer in the 1940s, Moore may be best remembered as the attractive teen who befriends a giant ape in "Mighty Joe Young," a 1949 thriller from the creators of "King Kong."

"That movie had a lot of heart and it continues to have a following," she says. "I had a cameo in the remake but I don't think it was as good."

That 1998 Disney production cast Charlize Theron in the role Moore originated.

Touted as a sexy rival to Marilyn Monroe, Moore appeared in a string of movies in the 1950s, including the dark drama "Come Back, Little Sheba" with Burt Lancaster and Shirley Booth, for which she received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

She was 23 when she worked on "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef," which was filmed in Tarpon Springs. A reworking of "Romeo and Juliet," the film stars Wagner and Gilbert Roland as a father-and-son Greek sponge-diving family.

Wagner's character falls in love with the daughter (Moore) of a rival family. Richard Boone and Peter Graves were also in the cast.

2 Films Are Favorites

Moore says she has two favorites among her films.

One is "The Return of October," a 1948 romantic comedy in which she plays an heiress who discovers her racehorse is the reincarnation of a rich uncle, back to win the Kentucky Derby.

"It was my first grown-up picture and Glenn Ford gave me my first screen kiss," she says. "I also got my screen name."

Born Helen Koford, she worked as Judy Ford, Jan Ford and January Ford, but Columbia Studio head Harry Cohn ruled there couldn't be two "Fords" in the same picture so she had to change her name.

Her other favorite is "Man on a Tightrope," a 1953 thriller about a Czechoslovakian circus trying to escape an oppressive government.

"I love this story about people seeking freedom and also I loved working for director Elia Kazan, who was the best director I ever had."

The Gasparilla festival also will honor Emmy Award winner and four-time Golden Globe nominee Armand Assante with the Gasparilla Career Achievement Award for Excellence in Film on March 1.

The festival runs Thursday through March 7. For information, including schedule and tickets, go to www.gasparilla filmfestival.com.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654.

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