Azizi Johari

Last updated
Azizi Johari
Playboy centerfold appearance
June 1975
Preceded by Bridgett Rollins
Succeeded by Lynn Schiller
Personal details
Born (1948-08-24) August 24, 1948 (age 76)
New York City, United States
Height5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)

Azizi Johari is the pseudonym of an African American model and actress who featured as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month in June 1975.

Contents

Career

Azizi Johari was born in New York on 24 August, 1948. After some years of wandering, due to her military father's career, the family settled in Seattle, where she attended high school and college. [1] While still in school, she and two friends formed a singing group called The Marvelles and put out a single, "Call Me Back". Later she moved to San Francisco and became a stewardess with United Airlines. She also joined the Black Arts West theatre group and had parts in A Raisin in the Sun , Black Girl and Ladies in Waiting, before gaining an unlisted part in the 1974 film McQ .

Around this time she began using the pseudonym Azizi Johari, using the Kiswahili for "precious jewel", and asserted her African good looks on the 1973 poster Supernatural Dream. Here she is featured as sitting on the ground with her head haloed in an enormous Afro wig. [2] Among other admirers of the poster was Sammy Davis Jr, who eventually featured Azizi in his touring show. [3] She then made her breakthrough when she was photographed in the nude as Playmate of the Month for June 1975 [4] and in the following year was featured kneeling naked on the sleeve of Leon Ware's LP, Musical Massage . [5]

Her name and pictures now began to appear in gossip magazines aimed at African-American representation such as Jet and Players . In the latter she featured several times on the cover between 1978-80. [6] Her 5 foot 6 inches in height and vital statistics of 36-24-37 also gained her TV appearances and small parts in a number of films between 1976-81. One of these, however, the science fiction suspense film "Assassins in Time", to which she was reported as "enlisted" in 1979, never appeared. [7]

Filmography

TV

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Playboy</i> Playmate Female model featured in a centerfold of Playboy magazine

A Playmate is a female model featured in the centerfold/gatefold of Playboy magazine as Playmate of the Month (PMOTM). The PMOTM's pictorial includes nude photographs and a centerfold poster, along with a pictorial biography and the "Playmate Data Sheet", which lists her birthdate, measurements, turn-ons, and turn-offs. At the end of the year, one of the 12 Playmates of the Month is named Playmate of the Year (PMOTY). Every Playmate of the Month is awarded a prize of US$25,000 and each Playmate of the Year receives an additional prize of US$100,000 plus a car and other discretionary gifts. In addition, Anniversary Playmates are usually chosen to celebrate a milestone year of the magazine. The use of the word "Playmate" in a sexual sense did not originate with Playboy, and was seen at least as early as 1950 in Vue magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbi Benton</span> American retired model, actress and singer

Barbi Benton is an American former model, actress, television personality, and singer. She appeared in Playboy magazine, as a regular on the comedy series Hee Haw, and recorded several moderately successful albums in the 1970s. After the birth of her first child in 1986, Benton retired from show business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eve Meyer</span> American actress (1928–1977)

Eve Meyer was an American pin-up model, motion picture actress, and film producer. Much of her work was in conjunction with sexploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer, to whom she was married from 1952 to 1969. She was killed in the Tenerife airport disaster in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mara Corday</span> American actress

Mara Corday is an American retired showgirl, model, actress, Playboy Playmate and 1950s cult figure.

Jean Bell is a former Playboy Playmate of the Month, and one of the first African American women to feature in this role. She later had a career as an actress in movies, most prominently in TNT Jackson, in which she played the title character, and supporting roles in Mean Streets and The Klansman, as well as occasional TV appearances.

Anne Randall is an American model and actress. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its May 1967 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Mario Casilli.

Connie Mason is an American model and actress who was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its June 1963 issue. Mason then acted in the gore movies pioneered by Herschell Gordon Lewis, Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs! Her centerfold was photographed by Pompeo Posar. She was also a Playboy Bunny at the Chicago club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Jean Underwood</span> American model (born 1984)

Sara Jean Underwood is an American model, television host and actress who was chosen as the Playmate of the Month for the July 2006 issue of Playboy magazine and later became Playmate of the Year in 2007. She is a former host of Attack of the Show! on G4.

Joan Pringle is an American actress known for her role as vice principal Sybil Buchanan in the CBS drama series, The White Shadow (1978–1981), for which she received NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. She later starred in the soap opera, Generations from 1989 to 1991 and had the recurring roles in One on One and Girlfriends.

References

  1. ↑ "Azizi Johari", Encyclopedia of African American Actresses, McFarland and Co., 2010
  2. ↑ "OMCA Collection". portal.museumca.org.
  3. ↑ "The Playmate - Playboy Magazine June 1975 vol.22, no.6". www.vintageplayboymags.co.uk.
  4. ↑ Brothers, Himeros. "Azizi Johari - Playboy Playmate, Miss June 1975". Himeros Brothers.
  5. ↑ Hanie, Hara (February 14, 2022). "Azizi Johari Is An American Model And Actress- 10 Unknown Facts".
  6. ↑ 1978; Players 7.3: Players 9.1; Players 9.6
  7. ↑ Starlog 26 (Sept 1979), p.14
  8. ↑ Jet, 15 April 1976, p.56
  9. ↑ "Azizi Johari Playboy". www.playboyplus.com.
  10. ↑ Phillip Lopate, "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie: The Raw and the Cooked", The Criterion Collection, 24 October 2013
  11. ↑ J. R. Schmidt, The Bowling Chronicles, McFarland & Co. 2017, p.111
  12. ↑ BFI filmography
  13. ↑ BFI filmography
  14. ↑ Frederick V. Romano, The Boxing Filmography, McFarland & Co. 2004, p.15
  15. ↑ Encyclopedia of African American Actresses, p.177
  16. ↑ Jet 28 July 1977, p.21
  17. ↑ Jet 10, November 1977, p.24
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.