While Vetri was in high school director Robert Wise considered casting her as Maria in the 1961 film West Side Story, but the studio selected Natalie Wood. In her early career Vetri often was cast in ethnic roles on television due to her Italian heritage, such as a Native American in Cheyenne and a Mexican in Wagon Train. She also landed ethnic roles in film, including a member of an ancient Maya civilization in the 1963 film Kings of the Sun and a Mexican in the 1967 filmChuka. Vetri appeared briefly in the 1968 filmRosemary's Baby, where she was credited as Angela Dorian. In one scene, Rosemary remarks to Vetri's character, Teresa, that she resembles the actress Victoria Vetri. In January 1969, Vetri signed a multi-picture contract with Warner Bros.-Seven Arts and was given a starring role in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. She refused to have her hair turned blonde from its natural auburn for the film. The story required a blonde, so Vetri demanded a wig instead. Columnist Hy Gardner nominated Vetri as "a new sex symbol on the Hollywood horizon" in 1971. In 2018 Vetri said she plans to return to acting.
''Star Trek''
Vetri has been incorrectly identified in numerous sources as playing the role of the "human form of a shape-shifting cat" in the episode "". Vetri emphatically states she never appeared on Star Trek, saying, "I was never in an episode of STAR TREK. I know that people think I was I am not sure who she was. Look close enough and you can see that she has blue eyes and I, of course, have brown."
''Playboy''
Using the name Angela Dorian, Vetri was Playboys Playmate of the Month for the September 1967 issue and subsequently was the 1968 Playmate of the Year. Her centerfold was photographed by Curt Gunther. Vetri won $20,000 and a new car when she was selected Playmate of the Year. A nude photo of her was inserted into Apollo 12Extra-vehicular activity astronaut cuff checklists by pranksters at NASA. Thinking it would give her the pick of acting roles, Vetri took on modelling for Playboy. However, she said that posing actually hindered her career by limiting the roles she was offered. She felt she was typecast because of her beauty. Vetri posed topless for the April 1984 Playboy pictorial Playmates Forever! Part Two. In Tom Clancy's 2004 biography of Gen. Tony Zinni, USMC, Zinni remarks on receiving a copy of the September 1967 Playboy centerfold from his advisers for his birthday, which he kept as a memento of his time in Vietnam.
Personal life
She married Hugh Terry Whettam on April 7, 1963; her son, Bret, was born on September 8, 1963. They were divorced in 1966. She then married John Lee Hage on December 29, 1966, and were divorced in 1967. She married Heinz Gottfried Schwetz on November 13, 1978 and were divorced on February 25, 1983. She married Bruce Rathgeb in 1986. Vetri was charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting Rathgeb from close range inside the Hollywood apartment they were sharing after an argument on Saturday, October 16, 2010. The Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Division arrested Vetri. She was jailed on US$1.53 million bail. The judge refused to reduce it, pending the trial. In January 2011, the judge also denied her attorney's request for a reduction of the charge of attempted murder. She was ordered to stand trial on that charge. Between January and September 2011, the charge against Vetri was reduced to attempted voluntary manslaughter. She entered a plea of no contest. The judge sentenced her to nine years in state prison. She was released on parole in April 2018.
