by Wenzel Jones
There is a creature that some feel existed only long ago in a Hollywood now vanished, an intoxicating but rare species that, with the deaths of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, passed from the face of the earth forever. Sexual without being slatternly, reserved without being remote will we ever see their like again?
Well, yes. Though in limited circulation for the past couple of years (she was doing that, you know, having a real life thing, the rare occurrence when an actor's world expands beyond the headshot and into actual participation in the human race), Christine Kellogg recently returned to the local stage in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Blame It On the Movies and, to crib from Louella Parsons, "never looked lovelier." Languidly erotic while dancing to the theme from Laura, mischievously titillating in her humorous pas de deux to the theme of A Man and a Woman, she as every bit the girl next door but from a much, much better neighborhood.
Though she has been labeled soignƒe by other, equally enamored critics (that was a show called Tequila at the Skylight Theatre), she is eminently capable of playing against it. Fans of The Gary Shandling Show will no doubt remember her turn as the out-of-town visitor Morgan, an exceedingly limber girl whose appetite for Gary was voracious. Yet that was the same period during which she was appearing in an exceedingly winsome role in Scenes From a Tango, a three-person piece that played around Los Angeles in various theatres before moving on to New York.
Christine has been a presence on both coasts, having spent the earlier part of her career in New York. While there she did American Dance Machine on Broadway and then toured internationally with it. After moving to Los Angeles she was a series regular on the soap opera Capitol as well as a guest star on shows ranging from Dynasty to The Tracey Ullman Show. She never strayed from the stage, however, and could be found performing in smaller houses such as the Whitefire Theatre (Scorchers), the Pilot Theatre (Scenes From a Tango), and the Hollywood YMCA (Dance Diner, a part of the Olympic Arts Festival). She and her husband are currently producing a thriller which he's written: "A very nice man," she says, "who has written a script filled with not very nice people."
Training and background certainly enter into her allure, and they read like something in a poolside novel. She has studied at the Royal Ballet in London and danced with the Ballet d'Espa„a de Jerez. Yet it seems somehow wrong to try to quantify what makes her such an appealing presence. Technique can be taught but her bred-in-the-bone quality transcends mere schooling. Through the years I've watched her sing, dance, and act but I don't believe I've ever seen her break a sweat. And that's what I love about Christine Kellogg. She's just so cool. I have rather a high threshold for performers who are merely cute or charming, but when it comes to Christine I can't help it. I'm smitten. BS