"Ape" Girl

Victoria Principal. It's likely to become a name to be reckoned with. "She'll be a major star, of the kind we have had to import from Europe," says Zev Bufman, producer of her latest film, The Naked Ape.

"If she had come along during Hollywood's golden era, a dozen studio writers would be busy in their cubicles tailoring screenplays for her—and she'd be making eight motion pictures annually," says a Universal Pictures publicist.

"Delightful" was the critical consensus on Victoria's performance in her first film, The Life and Times of Judge Roy (text continued on page 197)"Ape" Girl(continued from page 162) Bean—in which she played Paul Newman's mistress and mother of his child.

"I've been about two feet off the ground ever since the reviews came out," says Victoria herself.

Victoria Principal is her real name. "It's so stagy I saw no reason to change it," she says. "Actually, my full name is Victoria Ree Principal. The Ree is for my mother, whose maiden name—honestly—was Ree Veal. Grandmother and Grandfather Veal had a sense of humor. They had to."

She's only in her 20s, but Victoria has absorbed more of life than many women twice her age. That, she feels, has helped her in developing her acting technique. "You've got to have felt love and hate and pain in order to really portray them," she says.

Life for Victoria began in Fukuoka, Japan, where she was born to Sergeant Major Victor Principal, U. S. A. F., and his wife, Ree. "As an Air Force brat, I lived all over, wherever there were bases," she recalls. "We were stationed in Georgia, Puerto Rico, Massachusetts, Florida, England—you name it."

It was while the Principals were living in Georgia—at Warner Robbins Air Force Base—that Victoria began her career. She was taking dancing lessons and a director of TV commercials visited her class, looking for a 13-year-old dancer. Victoria saw her chance, tugged at his sleeve and begged for an opportunity to audition. Result: The director rewrote his commercial around Victoria. She was five years old.

Later, in Florida, she began dramatic studies. Then, in a temporary lapse from her lifelong goal of becoming an actress, she enrolled in premed courses at Miami-Dade Junior College. "I thought I wanted to be a chiropractor," she explains. "But then I was in a bad auto accident—I'd been stock-car racing since I was 15—and had to drop out of school. While I was convalescing, I decided that acting really was what I still wanted to do." So it was off to New York, where she earned her living as a model while unsuccessfully beating the pavements in search of a Broadway part. She heard of a talent hunt in London and flew to England; then came Switzerland, France, and a spate of private lessons with drama mentor Jean Scott, who had been affiliated for 18 years with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.

It was during this period that Victoria's name began to surface in the press—always linked with that of controversial international financier Bernie Cornfeld. It's a relationship she prefers not to discuss now. "Knowing Bernie was a very complex thing," she explains. "The Bernie Cornfeld everyone knows today isn't the Bernie Cornfeld I knew. It was something rather special, a very good friendship." And it unquestionably furthered her career. "What I got from Bernie," she says, "was that I grew up. It wasn't the easiest way to grow up, but I got a knowledge of the world and of people that has stood me in good stead. But Bernie and I had had a parting of the ways before I left Europe. I felt it was best to leave all that behind."

The other reason Victoria left Europe was that she discovered, after finally winning a role in an English film, that as an American citizen she couldn't get British work credentials. "I was disappointed and depressed," she recalls. "That was New Year's Eve, 1970, and I decided to fly to Hollywood, where some friends had invited me to a party. I had planned to return to London afterward, but what happened was that I never left the party." She phoned a friend to ship her things to California and buckled down to making a life for herself in the film capital.

There followed a dreary six months of interviews, drama coaching, readings. But she was used to that. "Over the years, I've done the oddest jobs imaginable to pay for my acting lessons," she says. "I remember one time I got work in a jewelry store cleaning diamonds. They had a machine that was supposed to do it, through a combination of acids and various chemicals. I was afraid I would get the formula wrong, so I would spit on the diamonds and polish them with a cloth while nobody was looking."

At last she won the lead in a Roger Corman film to be shot in the Philippines; but a couple of days before she was to leave for Manila, director John Huston asked her to read for the part of Paul Newman's Mexican mistress in Roy Bean. Huston's decision was instantaneous and agent Michael Greenfield advised Victoria to forget Manila.

A few days after she finished shooting Roy Bean, Victoria read Donald Driver's screenplay of The Naked Ape. On her way to the studio for a screen test, she was sideswiped on the freeway by a bus. She made the test, anyway—with 40 stitches in her head.

"I've had to give up stock and drag racing, but something happens when I get on the street. It's instant disaster. I've had two major accidents—neither one my fault—during the past year. One was with the bus and the other time I was hit by a gasoline truck. I wasn't allowed to drive a car during the entire shooting of The Naked Ape—and what I pay for insurance is what most people pay for a car," Victoria shrugs. "My agent wants me to take up some safer sport, like tennis. But I want to get involved in something I can be passionate about. Nothing like cards or ping—pong. Recently I've discovered gliding. My friends and I go out to the Mojave Desert."

Victoria, who once admitted to a penchant for getting engaged every two years, has had a couple of much-publicized romances recently. First, there was pro-foot-baller Lance Rentzel, then Desi Arnaz, Jr.

But for the present, at least, Victoria is talking only about her career as an actress. And, perhaps, as a writer. "I write poetry, from a very personal, female standpoint. And I've done pen-and-ink sketches for friends. I've been approached to do a book. I guess it just depends on how things work out."

However they work out, we're sure of one thing: Moviegoers will be glad Victoria changed her mind about becoming a chiropractor.

"Even when I was a little girl, I knew what I wanted to do in life," says Victoria. "People would ask me what I was going to be when I grew up and I would say, in a very matter-of-fact voice, 'An actress.' I got my first professional job—a TV commercial—when I was only five."

"Both Roy Bean and Naked Ape are films I can be proud of. Now I feel I can afford to wait, to be careful choosing the next one. If necessary, I can always take a part that just requires an ability to look halfway attractive." In that case, Victoria, you couldn't avoid overacting.