Overview
Jill St. John (born Jill Arlyn Oppenheim; August 19, 1940) is an American retired actress. She may be best known for playing Tiffany Case, the first American Bond girl of the James Bond film franchise, in Diamonds Are Forever. Additional performances in film include Holiday for Lovers, The Lost World, Tender Is the Night, Come Blow Your Horn, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, Who's Minding the Store?, Honeymoon Hotel, The Liquidator, The Oscar, Tony Rome, Sitting Target and The Concrete Jungle.
On television, St. John has appeared in such top rated shows as Batman, The Big Valley, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Hart to Hart, Vega$, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Magnum, P.I. and Seinfeld. During her Hollywood heyday she was almost equally famous for her high-profile social life and frequent romantic associations with prominent stars. St. John is married to actor Robert Wagner and has known him since she was 18 years old. They share credits on nearly a dozen screen and stage productions, notably the miniseries remake of Around the World in 80 Days.
Early life
St. John was born Jill Arlyn Oppenheim in Los Angeles on August 19, 1940, to Edward Oppenheim, a restaurateur from New York, and his philanthropist wife Betty (née Goldberg), from Philadelphia. She has no siblings, but grew up with many cousins, her mother being one of eight surviving children and her father one of three. St. John's parents married in 1934. Her maternal grandparents were Russian, of partial Jewish descent, while her paternal great-great-grandparents emigrated from Hessen, Germany.
Raised in Encino, St. John was a member of the Children's Ballet Company with Natalie Wood and Stefanie Powers. All three would later marry or co-star with actor Robert Wagner. When she was 13, her stage mother Betty changed Jill's last name to the more marketable St. John.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).