Vivien Elizabeth Neves (20 November 1947 – 29 December 2002) was a British

glamour model A model is a person with a role either to promote, display or advertise commercial products (notably fashion clothing in fashion shows) or to serve as a visual aid for people who are creating works of art or to pose for photography. Though ...

, best known for appearing naked in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' broadsheet newspaper in 1971, and for her regular appearances on

Page 3 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishi ...

of the tabloid newspaper ''The Sun''.

Early life

Neves was born in Brighton, England, on 20 November 1947, and grew up in a

council flat A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 a ...

. Her father worked for the gas board. She followed her parents to

Walton-on-Thames Walton-on-Thames, locally known as Walton, is a market town on the south bank of the Thames in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Walton forms part of the Greater London built-up area, within the KT postcode and is served by a wide ran ...

in Surrey and had several short-lived jobs, leaving school at age sixteen.

Career

Neves moved to London in the mid-1960s and began working as a "bunny" at the

Raymond Revuebar The Raymond Revuebar (1958–2004) was a theatre and strip club at 11 Walker's Court (now the location of The Box Soho nightclub), in the centre of London's Soho district. For many years, it was the only venue in London that offered full-fronta ...

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

. She posed as Pet of the Month in Penthouse magazine and became known as "The Body" twenty-five years before the same nickname was applied to supermodel

Elle Macpherson Eleanor Nancy Macpherson (; née Gow; born ) is an Australian model, businesswoman, television host, and actress. She is known for her record five cover appearances for the ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'' beginning in the 1980s, leading ...

. A poster campaign by clothing company Nelbarden featured Neves in a swimsuit and appeared comprehensively on the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

. In 1969 Neves was cast as the model 'Tulia' in the film ''Whirlpool'', which ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' described as a "sex-and-violence movie"; its review noted that Tulia "is very pretty, and her clothes come off frequently" but that the film suffered from "certain basic flaws" and was "most impressively undistinguished in its dialogue". In May 1970 Neves made her first of many appearances as a topless Page 3 girl in ''The Sun''. On 17 March 1971 she appeared in ''

'' in a full-page advert for

Fisons Fisons plc was a British multinational pharmaceutical, scientific instruments and horticultural chemicals company headquartered in Ipswich, United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Ind ...

Pharmaceuticals. The advert—which featured the strapline "What's a nice girl like you doing in a firm like this?"—caused a sensation; it was the first time a woman had appeared naked in a broadsheet newspaper, and it brought Neves international attention. In the same year she appeared alongside

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 ...

and Roger Moore in an episode of ''

The Persuaders! ''The Persuaders!'' is an action-comedy series starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, produced by ITC Entertainment, and initially broadcast on ITV and ABC in 1971. The show has been called 'the last major entry in the cycle of adventure ser ...

'' Neves retired in early 1973, stating that she was "embarrassed and tired of being in front of the camera". In the mid-1980s Neves set up the Vivien Neves Modelling Agency, specialising in Page 3 work.

Personal life

Neves moved to Guildford and married John Kelly, a photographer. They had one daughter, Kelly, who became a Page 3 girl in the 1990s. Neves was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1979, and her marriage to Kelly was dissolved in 1985. Neves died on 29 December 2002, after contracting

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neves, Vivien 1947 births 2002 deaths British female models People from Brighton Deaths from pneumonia in England