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(Mildred Fogel 1931– ). American actress.
Then,
offered the opportunity to portray a serious professional in the field, Bain was instantly a dominating
presence in the high-tech spy series Mission: Impossible (1966-1969) as
agent Cinnamon Carter, the epitome of cool sophistication and understated
competence, leading her awestruck colleagues to award her three consecutive
Emmy Awards for her performances; and, whatever one might think about the
geopolitical implications of celebrating a top-secret team dedicated to
imposing America's will throughout the globe, anyone would admit that the
beautiful Cinnamon Carter was surely the secret agent that America's enemies
would most like to be bamboozled by. In one first-season episode, during one of
original star Steven Hill's many absences due to his orthodox Jewish beliefs
(which would soon lead to his removal from the series), Carter even took
control of the IM force and effortlessly orchestrated another impossibly
convoluted and smoothly executed scheme; indeed, one regrets that the sexism of
the era did not allow producers to solve the problem of Hill's departure by
making Bain the new permanent leader of the team. Still, Peter
GRAVES proved a palatable replacement for
Hill, and with Bain also now regularly accompanied by husband Landau, the
series had two outstanding seasons and became a big hit.
At
this point, unfortunately, the accountants at Desilu decided that they could
save a lot of money by not paying Landau as much as they had promised, a move
that predictably prompted his departure and, more grievously, forced Bain to
quit the series as a matter of wifely loyalty. As it happens, Landau did turn
out to be eminently replaceable—with Leonard NIMOY, suddenly available after the
cancellation of Star Trek—but all of the women subsequently brought in
to take Bain's place proved that she was irreplaceable, since none of them ever
came close to matching her appeal and quiet aura of authority.
The
next misfortune that afflicted Bain's life was a phone call from Gerry
ANDERSON and Sylvia
ANDERSON, who had decided that she and
Landau would be the perfect American stars for their new series Space: 1999
(1975-1977). As was so often the case, they were wrong; for while Landau at
least tried to convey some energy and conviction in response to some of the
most ridiculous stories ever presented in a science fiction series, Bain, who
had seemed so commanding in boardrooms and cocktail parties, looked uncertain
and confused in outer space, as she listlessly went through the motions of
portraying Dr. Helena Russell. Trapped in an unflattering silver jumpsuit, she
didn't even look very attractive (which should serve, by the way, to refute the
absurd theory that the Andersons' series should be considered watchable because
of Sylvia's excellent sense of fashion). The second-season introduction of
Catherine Schell as a beautiful alien was manifestly an effort to compensate
for Bain's inadequacies by bringing in another strong female presence, but
Schell turned out to be another one of the Andersons' poor choices, and the
series was soon put out of its misery.
The
Landaus then returned to America, confident that no experience could ever be as
humiliating as being in Space: 1999—a confidence shattered when they
found themselves in something called The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's
Island (1981), the sort of movie identified by its title as irredeemably awful.
In the 1980s, like many actresses in their fifties, Bain began finding
worthwhile parts hard to come by even as husband Landau made a remarkable
comeback—unhappily disparate career paths that undoubtedly led to the couple's
divorce in 1993. Still, she has soldiered on with old-lady parts in
under-the-radar films and television episodes, though perhaps spooked by her
experience with Space: 1999, she has scrupulously avoided appearing in
science fiction films. She has also had the satisfaction of outliving her better-known
husband and engaging in her widely appreciated charitable work.
Although
she did reprise the role of Cinnamon Carter in a nostalgic episode of Diagnosis
Murder, "Discards" (1997), what little attention she now receives
is usually linked to her miserable work on Space: 1999, a series that is
now unaccountably being described as a "cult classic." But the lucky
people who were able to watch the first three seasons of Mission: Impossible
know what a real cult classic is.
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