Valerie Perrine, the Oscar-nominated actress best known for her roles in Bob Fosse’s “Lenny” and the Richard Donner “Superman” films, died Monday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 82.
Her death was confirmed by close friend and filmmaker Stacey Souther, who announced the news on Facebook and said the cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, which she had battled since 2015. Mr. Souther also launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover her funeral costs, noting that years of illness had left her finances depleted. Her final wish was to be laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
A former Las Vegas showgirl, Ms. Perrine became one of Hollywood’s most distinctive presences in the 1970s, amassing nearly 70 film and television credits over four decades alongside Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson and Robert Redford.
Born Sept. 3, 1943, in Galveston, Texas, she was raised across the country and overseas as the daughter of an Army officer. She performed in Las Vegas casino revues for years before an agent spotted her at a Los Angeles dinner party and cast her in “Slaughterhouse-Five” (1972), George Roy Hill’s adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel. Time magazine called her performance as an adult film star-turned-intergalactic temptress “charming, sensual and funny.”
Her career peak came with “Lenny” (1974), in which she played Honey Bruce, the exotic dancer wife of the boundary-pushing comedian portrayed by Dustin Hoffman. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that her performance radiated “a certain tarnished sexuality.” The role earned Ms. Perrine the best actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival, a Golden Globe nomination and an Academy Award nomination — though the Oscar that year went to Ellen Burstyn for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”
Despite those accolades, Ms. Perrine was disarmingly modest about her craft. “I’ve never had any acting lessons,” she told The New York Times in 1974. “I just learn my lines, period.”
She reached an even wider audience as Eve Teschmacher — the good-hearted moll of Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor — in “Superman” (1978) and its 1980 sequel. She also made history earlier in her career as the first woman to appear intentionally nude on American television, in a PBS broadcast of “Steambath” (1973).
Her later credits included “The Electric Horseman” (1979) with Robert Redford, “The Border” (1982) with Jack Nicholson and the 2000 comedy “What Women Want.”
She is survived by her brother, Kenneth. Ms. Perrine never married.
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