--- name: "Valerie Perrine" canonical: "https://film.one/person/valerie-perrine" roles: ["Actor"] born: "3 September 1943" died: "23 March 2026" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 78 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T05:46:53.202430+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Valerie Perrine Actor. Born 3 September 1943 in Galveston, Texas, USA. Died 23 March 2026. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 3 September 1943, Galveston, Texas, USA - **Died:** 23 March 2026 - **Active:** 1974–1993 - **Also known as:** Valerie Ritchie Perrine - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Average Fi1m score:** 78, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1970s 67 (1), 1990s 89 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Perrine, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q259461, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0674781/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/26483 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*Lenny*](https://film.one/film/lenny.md) (67) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Valerie Perrine > Valerie Perrine's best screen moment is a woman telling the plain truth into a tape recorder, and she did it with no training at all. Hollywood mostly asked her for showgirls instead, and she gave them, cheerfully, for the next forty years. The scene we keep coming back to is in *Lenny* (1974). Honey Bruce, widow of the comic, sits in close-up with her hair pulled back and tells a tape recorder what the marriage was: the drugs, what she did, what she let him do. Bob Fosse shoots the film as an inquest, and everyone else in it is giving evidence for the defence. Perrine is not. It moved us more than anything Dustin Hoffman does at the microphone, and he is doing a great deal, because she is the one person in the film who is not being turned into a cause. Nothing in her past said she could do it. She came to films from the Lido de Paris revue at the Stardust in Las Vegas, where she had been a showgirl from around 1968, and was cast in her debut, as Montana Wildhack in *Slaughterhouse-Five* (1972), after being noticed at a dinner party. She never trained. "I really don’t think about anything until I get on the set," she said, and on the evidence of *Lenny* that was not a boast but a method. The courtship scenes, where Honey is a stripper and Lenny a comic and each is working the other, need an actor who knows what a hustle looks like from the inside. Perrine did. The industry took the showgirl and not the widow. She played Eve Teschmacher, Lex Luthor's secretary, in *Superman* (1978) and again in *Superman II* (1980), opposite Gene Hackman's Luthor, and Charlotta Steele in *The Electric Horseman* (1979) with Robert Redford. We will not judge those films here beyond saying that the parts she was offered ran to a type: sexy or scatterbrained, heart of gold, the woman standing beside the men while they do the plot. The same year as the second *Superman* she appeared in *Can't Stop the Music*, and her run as a leading name did not survive it. The supporting roles that followed, in film and television, ran on through the 2000s and stopped around 2016. It is a small body of work to judge from, and one film carries most of it. That is not nothing. Plenty of actors with years of training never manage a scene as plain and as unprotected as Perrine's interviews in *Lenny*, and the film would be a lesser thing without her. Watch it for Hoffman, as most people do, and then watch her face in the moments when he is not on screen. Fosse asked her for the truth once and got it. The rest of Hollywood mostly asked for the showgirl. ## Biography Valerie Perrine was an American actress. Born Valerie Ritchie Perrine on 3 September 1943 in Galveston, Texas, she died on 23 March 2026 in Beverly Hills, California. She began her career as a Las Vegas showgirl and made her screen debut in *Slaughterhouse-Five* (1972). Perrine played Honey Bruce in *Lenny* (1974), for which she won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She appeared as Eve Teschmacher in *Superman* (1978) and *Superman II* (1980), and had roles in films including *The Electric Horseman* (1979) and later television series such as *ER*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, latimes.com, theguardian.com, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Homicide: Life on the Street* (1993), Fi1m 89, as Brigitta Svendsen — [page](https://film.one/tv/homicide-life-on-the-street.md) - *Lenny* (1974), Fi1m 67, as Honey Bruce — [page](https://film.one/film/lenny.md) ## Complete filmography (62) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Silver Skies* (2016), as Ethel - *Re-Directing Eddie* (2008), as Gloria Vassick - *Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut* (2006), as Eve Teschmacher - *The Amateurs* (2006), as V - *The Californians* (2005), as Lenora Tripp - *Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star* (2003), as Teacher at Microphone - *The End of the Bar* (2002), as Mrs. Duncan - *Grounded for Life* (2001), series, as Maureen Bustamante - *What Women Want* (2000), as Margo - *Third Watch* (1999), series, as Merlene - *Family Law* (1999), series, as Helen Watson - *Shame, Shame, Shame* (1999), as Maura's Mother - *My Girlfriend's Boyfriend* (1999), as Rita - *Curtain Call* (1998), as Monica Gilroy (uncredited) - *Brown's Requiem* (1998), as Marguerita Hansen - *54* (1998), as Elaine's Patron - *A Place Called Truth* (1998), as Estelle - *Just Shoot Me!* (1997), series, as Carol - *The Practice* (1997), series, as Jane Elaine - *Nash Bridges* (1996), series, as Mrs. Nassiter - *Girl in the Cadillac* (1995), as Tilly Baker - *The Break* (1995), as Delores Smith - *ER* (1994), series, as Cookie Lewis — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/tv/er.md) - *Burke's Law* (1994), series, as Suzanne Dubonet - *The Secrets of Lake Success* (1993), series, as Honey Potts Atkins - *Walker, Texas Ranger* (1993), series, as Marge Wyman - *Boiling Point* (1993), as Mona - *Homicide: Life on the Street* (1993), series, as Brigitta Svendsen — Fi1m 89, [page](https://film.one/tv/homicide-life-on-the-street.md) - *Reflections in a Dark Sky* (1991), as Caterina - *Mountain of Diamonds* (1991), as Isabelle - *Mountain of Diamonds* (1991), series, as Isabelle - *The Burning Shore* (1991), series, as Isabelle - *Bright Angel* (1990), as Aileen Russell - *Northern Exposure* (1990), series, as Jackie Vincoeur - *Sweet Bird of Youth* (1989), as Miss Lucy - *Una casa a Roma* (1989), as Julie - *Maid to Order* (1987), as Georgette Starkey - *CBS Summer Playhouse* (1987), series, as Molly - *Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills* (1986), series, as Liz Green - *Mask of Murder* (1985), as Maria - *George Burns Comedy Week* (1985), series, Actor - *Water* (1985), as Pamela Weintraub - *When Your Lover Leaves* (1983), as Ronda Thompson - *Malibu* (1983), as Dee Staufer - *Faerie Tale Theatre* (1982), series, as Tina - *The Border* (1982), as Marcy - *Marian Rose White* (1982), as Stella White - *The Cannonball Run* (1981), as Female Cop Pulling Over Lamborghini Babes (uncredited) - *Superman II* (1980), as Eve Teschmacher - *Can't Stop the Music* (1980), as Samantha Simpson - *Agency* (1980), as Brenda Wilcox - *The Electric Horseman* (1979), as Charlotta - *The Magician of Lublin* (1979), as Zeftel - *Superman* (1978), as Eve Teschmacher - *Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women* (1978), as Lillian Lorraine - *Mr. Billion* (1977), as Rosie Jones - *W.C. Fields and Me* (1976), as Carlotta Monti - *Lenny* (1974), as Honey Bruce — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/film/lenny.md) - *The Last American Hero* (1973), as Marge Dennison - *Steambath* (1973), as Meredith - *The Couple Takes a Wife* (1972), as Jennifer Allen - *Slaughterhouse-Five* (1972), as Montana Wildhack ## Gallery - ![Valerie Perrine](https://film.one/media/person/287632/gallery-fd04ab33d0d7.jpg) Valerie Perrine — Rob Bogaerts for Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Valerie_Perrine_1975.jpg/1280px-Valerie_Perrine_1975.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Collectie / Archief : Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie : Fotoshoot van actrice Valerie Perrine, i.v.m. haar rol in de nieuwe film "Lenny" Beschrijving : Va (1975)](https://film.one/media/person/287632/gallery-e478bb500f16.jpg) Collectie / Archief : Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie : Fotoshoot van actrice Valerie Perrine, i.v.m. haar rol in de nieuwe film "Lenny" Beschrijving : Va (1975) — Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Valery_op_een_balkon_in_Amsterdam%2C_Bestanddeelnr_928-1233.jpg/1280px-Valery_op_een_balkon_in_Amsterdam%2C_Bestanddeelnr_928-1233.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Fotoshoot van actrice Valerie Perrine, i.v.m. haar rol in de nieuwe film "Lenny". Valery op een balkon in Amsterdam 26 augustus 1975](https://film.one/media/person/287632/gallery-a62fab5d2d8d.jpg) Fotoshoot van actrice Valerie Perrine, i.v.m. haar rol in de nieuwe film "Lenny". Valery op een balkon in Amsterdam 26 augustus 1975 — Rob Bogaerts for Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Valerie_Perrine_%281975%29.jpg/1280px-Valerie_Perrine_%281975%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Valerie Perrine](https://film.one/media/person/287632/gallery-5d2f01a801db.jpg) Valerie Perrine — Rob Bogaerts for Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Valerie_Perrine_1975b.jpg/1280px-Valerie_Perrine_1975b.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Valerie Perrine](https://film.one/media/person/287632/gallery-408364638589.jpg) Valerie Perrine — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 1975: Best Actress (nominated), for *Lenny* ### Other awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress 1981: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress (nominated), for *Can't Stop the Music* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/valerie-perrine