Barbara Bain

Barbara Bain is an American film and television actress, appearing in Space 1999 as Doctor Helena Russell.

History
Born Mildred ("Millie") Fogel, in a car en route to the maternity hospital in Chicago. She is 1.7 m (5'7") tall, blonde, with green eyes.

Bain gained a B.S. at the University Of Illinois in 1950, majoring in Sociology and minoring in Philosophy. She moved from Chicago to New York to study dance under Martha Graham, but found the art insular and ill paid. She took a part time job modelling with the Frances Gill Agency. She found considerable success, though she disliked it. A friend suggested she go to Curt Conway's drama classes, meeting Martin Landau in one class after a modelling assignment in 1955. After their marriage in 1957 her first acting role was a small part in the play Middle Of The Night when it went on tour, after which they settled in Beverly Hills.

Accompanying her husband to film locations and raising their two daughters, Susan Meredith (born 1960) and Juliet Rose (born 1965), left her little time to pursue her own acting career, but she has done some stage and television work, some to critical acclaim. Her television debut was as a guest in Richard Diamond Private Detective (1959), and she also appeared in episodes of Perry Mason (1960 and 1964), Wagon Train (1963), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1963), Ben Casey (1964) and Get Smart (1965).

From 1965 to 1968 Bain played Cinnamon Carter in Mission: Impossible alongside Landau, winning the Emmy best actress award three years in succession. She also appeared with Landau in the Steven Spielberg directed pilot Savage (1973). She appeared in the 1973 TV movie A Summer Without Boys, before moving to London for Space 1999.

Landau, Bain rented a five storey Georgian house in Chester Square, Belgravia, with a housekeeper-cook. Their two children, Susie (aged 14 in 1974) and Julie (9) attended the American school in London (ASL). For Christmas 1973 Landau and Bain bought their daughters a lhasa apso dog from Harrods that they named Pippin. They were chauffered to Pinewood Studios by a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III, driven by their personal driver, Ray Atkins.

Subsequently Bain has guested in The Harlem Globetrotters On Gilligan's Island (1981), and Moonlighting (1985). She has earned critical acclaim and awards for her theatre work, notably Long Day's Journey Into Night (1984) and Wings (1985). Bain appeared in the films Trust Me (1989), Skinheads (1989) and Spirit Of 76 (1990, produced by her daughter, Susan Landau). Other work includes a recurring role in My So Called Life tv series (1994), and guest roles in The Visitor (1997), Diagnosis Murder (1997), Walker Texas Ranger (1997), Millenium (1999), CSI (2006). Films include: Gideon (1999), Panic (2000) and an important supporting role in American Gun (2002) with James Coburn. She appeared as the villain in the lesbian TV movie Trapped! (2006) and an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2006).

In 2002 and 2003 she directed plays for the Actors Studio in Los Angeles.

Perception
Fred Freiberger on Bain: "When I had spoken on the phone to Barbara, whom I had never met, she was charming and delightful. I said, "Barbara, why don't you do that in the series?" Her training at the Actor's Studio in New York told her: Be economical, which was all wrong for this type of show. I tried to give her more to do. I tried to give her some sense of humor because she's a natural in social situations. She's sharp. She knows story and character very well."

Some directors of Space: 1999 have indicated that Bain was a difficult actress with very fixed views. Val Guest described her as "a real pain. She was always late, and took everything much too seriously." Ray Austin stated she was "very Hollywood" and said "Barbara did a journeyman's job all the time. A lot of the other artists never liked playing scenes with Barbara at all; they'd rather play with anyone else than Barbara. They always said to me, 'I'm not getting anything back from her at all.' "

However, many of the cast and crew have commented that she was very friendly and supportive. According to Bob Kellett, Bain suggested the story for the episode The Last Enemy. She was a guest at the 1986, 1992, 1999 and 2012 conventions in the U.S.A. She appeared in The Space: 1999 Documentary (1996).