Barbara Trentham (born Barbara Lynn Schilling; August 27, 1944August 2, 2013) was an American model and actress. In the early 1970s, her photo appeared on many prominent magazine covers, including the British edition of ''Vogue''. As an actress, she starred in the 1975 film '' Rollerball'', and had supporting roles in numerous other 1970s films. Trentham was married to actor-comedian

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...

Early life

Trentham was born Barbara Lynn Schilling in 1944 in the

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

borough of New York City, moved with her parents as a child to Connecticut.. She attended

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

South Hadley, Massachusetts South Hadley (, ) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,150 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. South Hadley is home to Mount Holyoke Colleg ...

, from which she graduated in 1966 and then moved to England to study at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. At Oxford she met fellow student Giles Trentham; they married in 1967 and she retained his name after their divorce in 1970.

Career

In the early 1970s, Trentham worked as a model in London. Her photo appeared several times on the cover pages of British magazines including ''

Seventeen Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...

'' and ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

''. In 1972 she landed a supporting role in the horror thriller '' The Possession of Joel Delaney''. She then moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career. She starred in the science fiction film '' Rollerball'' in 1975. In 1976 she performed in the action drama ''

Sky Riders ''Sky Riders'' (also known as ''Assault on the Forbidden Fortress'') is a 1976 American action film directed by Douglas Hickox and starring James Coburn, Susannah York and Robert Culp. The rescue sequences were filmed in Meteora in Greece wher ...

'' and had a cameo in the British-German television series ''The Girl from Outer Space''. In 1978, she appeared in the produced-for-television horror film ''Death Moon'' and 1979 in an episode of the adventure series ''

A Man Called Sloane ''A Man Called Sloane'' is an American secret agent adventure television series that aired on NBC during the 1979–1980 television season. It was a Woodruff Production in association with QM Productions and became the final series produced by ...

''.

Personal life

In 1980, while working in Los Angeles as a reporter and producer of ''

Those Amazing Animals ''That's Incredible!'' is an American reality television show that aired on the ABC television network from 1980 to 1984. In the tradition of ''You Asked for It'', '' Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' and ''Real People'', the show featured people ...

'', she met English actor and comedian

at a

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

performance. They married in 1981; their daughter Camilla was born in 1984. In 1987, the couple separated and three years later they divorced. During her marriage to Cleese her love for art was reawakened and she began a third career as a painter, her preferred medium being

oil paint Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varn ...

. In 1993 she moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where she met the lawyer George Covington. The two married in 1998 and lived in

Lake Bluff, Illinois Lake Bluff is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 5,616. History The first settler family to claim land within the area now part of Lake Bluff arrived in 1836. They claimed 100 acres of ...

. She built up an art studio which became the meeting place and source of inspiration for local artists. She was also co-founder of Artists on the Bluff, a non-profit organization for artists. She was a member of the Art Association of

Jackson Hole Jackson Hole (originally called Jackson's Hole by mountain men) is a valley between the Gros Ventre and Teton mountain ranges in the U.S. state of Wyoming, near the border with Idaho, in Teton County, one of the richest counties in the Unite ...

, and organized events and art fairs there. From watercolor and acrylic to oil painting, Trentham produced pieces featuring both figures and landscapes.

Death

Barbara Trentham died on August 2, 2013, at

Northwestern Memorial Hospital Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is a nationally ranked academic medical center located on Northwestern University’s Chicago campus in Streeterville, Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship campus for Northwestern Medicine and the primary ...

in Chicago, aged 68, from complications from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

Selected filmography

* 1972: '' The Possession of Joel Delaney'' – Sherry * 1975: '' Rollerball'' – Daphne * 1976: ''

'' – Della * 1976: ''The Girl from Outer Space'' (Star Maidens) (TV series, one episode) – Theda * 1978: ''Wolf Moon'' (Death Moon) (TV Movie) – Diane May * 1979: ''

'' (TV series, one episode) – Reporter (final television appearance)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trentham, Barbara 1944 births 2013 deaths Actresses from New York City Alumni of the Ruskin School of Art American film actresses 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters Deaths from cancer in Illinois Deaths from leukemia Mount Holyoke College alumni People from Brooklyn 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Connecticut Painters from New York (state) People from Weston, Connecticut American women painters 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists People from Lake Bluff, Illinois Staples High School alumni