60s icons revisited
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Then: This Native Canadian singer-songwriter was famous for her love and protest songs. Her song "Universal Soldier" became the anthem of the peace movement, even as American president Lyndon Johnson blacklisted her music, saying it “deserved to be suppressed.”
Now: While she dropped out of the public eye in the late 70s to raise her son, Buffy Sainte-Marie hasn’t stopped creating art. Over the course of her career, Sainte-Marie has recorded 17 albums of music, made three television specials, appeared on Sesame Street for five years with her son, helped found the Music of Aboriginal Canada JUNO, completed her Ph.D., taught music at the college level, and won an Academy Award for the song “Up Where We Belong.” She is also a respected advocate for Aboriginal rights and visual artist.
Joni Mitchell
Then: The 1960s saw the rise of singer-songwriter Mitchell, who got her start playing in small clubs around Alberta before moving to Toronto. While her singing garnered attention, Mitchell was best known for writing songs for artists such as Buffy Sainte-Marie and Judy Collins until the late 60s. Mitchell released her second album Clouds in 1969, which won a Grammy for Best Folk Performance.
Now: Having recorded over 20 solo albums during her career, Mitchell’s most recent effort was Shine, released in 2007. The years have also seen a dramatic change in Mitchell’s vocal abilities, with many attributing her loss of range to a lifetime of smoking. She was also reunited with the daughter she gave up for adoption shortly after her birth, won nine Grammy awards, and served as an advisor for the premier of the ballet “The Fiddle and the Drum,” which was choreographed by the Alberta Ballet Company to Mitchell’s songs. Photo by Capannelle.
Yvonne De Carlo
Then: After making a splash in the 1950s as a film actress (most notably as Moses’ wife in The Ten Commandments, at left), De Carlo joined the cast of the television show The Munsters. Playing Lily Munster, the matriarch of a family of monsters, De Carlo starred in 70 episodes of the cult sitcom and several movies based on the characters.
Now: While De Carlo sadly died in 2007, her career enjoyed a change in direction during the 1970s. After the debut of Batman ate away at The Munsters’ ratings, De Carlo revisited her early years as a song-and-dance girl. De Carlo made her mark on musicals, starring in many off-Broadway productions. She is also well-known for her work in spoofs, horrors and thrillers, and received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for her contribution to film, one for her contribution to television.
Is your favourite 60s icon missing? Catch up with other 60s celebrities!
Photo at top: Petula Clark at the Ed Sullivan show. Courtesy of Literary Maven
