Joyce Nizzari (born May 20, 1940) is an American model, dancer, and actress. She was ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' magazine's Playmate of the Month for its December 1958 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Bunny Yeager. She was born in

The Bronx, New York The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York ...

and is of Italian descent.

Model career

Yeager discovered Nizzari in Miami when she was 15, but only had her do bikini shots until after Joyce turned 18. In August 1957, Nizzari won a cup awarded by the Florida Photographers Association. She was chosen queen of its annual convention. She dated

Hugh Hefner Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of ''Playboy'' magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles which provoked charges of obsc ...

for a few years following her Playmate appearance, and she worked as a

Bunny Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit spec ...

at the first

Playboy Club The Playboy Club was initially a chain of nightclubs and resorts owned and operated by Playboy Enterprises. The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago in 1960. Each club generally featured a Living Room, a Playmate Bar, a Dining Room, and a Club R ...

in Chicago. In the late 1990s, Joyce returned to the ''Playboy'' fold full-time as one of Hefner's assistants in the

Playboy Mansion The Playboy Mansion, also known as the Playboy Mansion West, is the former home of ''Playboy'' magazine founder Hugh Hefner who lived there from 1974 until his death in 2017. Barbi Benton convinced Hefner to buy the home located in Holmby Hills ...

Film actress

Nizzari appears in two films starring

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

: ''A Hole In The Head'' (1959) and ''Come Blow Your Horn'' (1963). In the latter, a

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

release, she played a zany interpretive dancer named Snow. When she signed to play in ''Come Blow Your Horn'', Nizzari had completed ''Chips Off the Old Block'', a Barry Ashton dance revue, at the Statler Hilton in Los Angeles. She also played a bit part in the slapstick comedy ''

The Great Race ''The Great Race'' is a 1965 American Technicolor slapstick comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood, directed by Blake Edwards, written by Arthur A. Ross (from a story by Edwards and Ross), and with music by Henry Mancin ...

'' with

Jack Lemmon John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leadin ...

and

Tony Curtis Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925September 29, 2010) was an American actor whose career spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s (Kansas Raiders, 1950) and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 f ...

Marriage

Nizzari was married to character actor

Jack Hogan Jack Hogan (born Richard Roland Benson Jr.; November 24, 1929) is an American retired actor. He is most notable for the role of PFC William G. Kirby on the 1960s television show ''Combat!'' Biography Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Hogan ...

Filmography

* ''

Green Acres ''Green Acres'' is an American television sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to ''Petticoat Junction'', the series was first broadcast on ...

'' - "Eb Discovers the Birds and the Bees" (1966) as Cigarette Girl * ''

Petticoat Junction ''Petticoat Junction'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 1963 to April 1970. The series takes place at the Shady Rest Hotel, which is run by Kate Bradley; her three daughters Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and B ...

'' - The Windfall (1966) as Hat Check Girl * ''

The Beverly Hillbillies ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family from ...

'' ** "Brewster's Baby" (1966) as Kitty Kat Showgirl ** "Clampett's Millions" (1965) as Mabel Slocum ** "Double Naught Jethro" (1965) as Mabel Slocum * ''

'' (1965) (uncredited) as Woman in West * '' Burke's Law'' ** "Who Killed the Grand Piano?" (1965) as Bunny #2, 'Tammy' ** "Who Killed Hamlet?" (1965) as 1st Girl at Bar ** "Who Killed Molly?" (1964) as Molly Baker * '' Pajama Party'' (1964) as Pajama Girl * ''

Seven Days in May ''Seven Days in May'' is a 1964 American political thriller film about a military-political cabal's planned takeover of the United States government in reaction to the president's negotiation of a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union. The ...

'' (1964) (uncredited) * '' The Candidate'' (1964) as Party Girl * ''

Come Blow Your Horn ''Come Blow Your Horn'' is Neil Simon's first play, which premiered on Broadway in 1961 and had a London production in 1962 at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Simon rewrote the script more than two dozen times over several years, resulting in a hit ...

'' (1963) as Snow Eskanazi * ''Playboy's Penthouse'' - Episode dated October 24, 1959 (1959) * ''

A Hole in the Head ''A Hole in the Head'' (1959) is a DeLuxe Color comedy film, shown in CinemaScope, directed by Frank Capra, featuring Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Eleanor Parker, Keenan Wynn, Carolyn Jones, Thelma Ritter, Dub Taylor, Ruby Dandridge, ...

'' (1959) as Alice (Jerry's secretary) * ''

The Wild Women of Wongo ''The Wild Women of Wongo'' is a 1958 American adventure film directed by James L. Wolcott and starring Jean Hawkshaw, Mary Ann Webb, Cande Gerrard, and Adrienne Bourbeau. It features low budget, stereotypical portrayals of fictional tropical i ...

'' (1958) as Woman of Wongo

References

Hayward, California Hayward () is a city located in Alameda County, California in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as of 2020, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda Coun ...

Daily Review, ''Joyce Nizzari Gets Sinatra Film Role'', January 6, 1963, Page 46. *

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

Press-Telegram, ''Queen of Florida Photogs'', August 21, 1957, Page 11.

External links