Claudia Jennings


Mary Eileen Chesterton, known professionally as Claudia Jennings, was an American actress and model. Jennings was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for November 1969 and also Playmate of the Year for 1970. During the 1970s, she was called the "Queen of B movies".

Career

Mary Eileen Chesterton was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1949, later moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and then to Evanston, Illinois, where she graduated high school. She worked as a receptionist at Playboy and then posed for the magazine in 1969, for which she adopted the name Claudia Jennings. Her original pictorial was photographed by Pompeo Posar.
After her appearances in Playboy, Jennings became an actress in exploitation movies and in television. In 1973, she had a guest appearance on The Brady Bunch episode titled "Adios, Johnny Bravo". Jennings auditioned for the role as Kate Jackson's replacement on the hit television show Charlie's Angels, but the role was awarded to Shelley Hack.

Death

On October 3, 1979, Jennings died in an automobile collision on the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, California. She was 29.
Jennings was featured in a 2000 episode of E! True Hollywood Story in which several of her friends and acquaintances were interviewed. The episode was made without the cooperation of her family, who considered the show too "tabloid" in style.

Filmography

Film

Television