The Time Machine star Yvette Mimieux ‘found DEAD in her home at age 80 after passing away in sleep from natural causes’
YVETTE Mimieux - a prolific actress who starred in films like 1960's The Time Machine - was 'found dead' in her home on Tuesday.
The screen legend turned 80 years old on January 10 and 'died in her sleep of natural causes,' per a rep - just days later.
Yvette - who was found dead in her home on Tuesday of natural causes, as a rep told DEADLINE - was born in 1942 and had 50 acting credits to her name.
The iconic star most famously starred opposite Rod Taylor in the 1960 George Pal-directed adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel The Time Machine.
The film was produced at MGM Studios where Yvette was soon put under a long term contract.
That contract saw her star in films like Where The Boys Are, Platinum High School, Mr. Lucky, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Light in the Piazza.
The latter was especially bold for its time as it saw Yvette portray Clara Johnson, who was mentally disabled.
"I suppose I had a soulful quality," she once said. "I was often cast as a wounded person, the 'sensitive' role."
One Twitter user wrote: "I ... think Yvette Mimieux is wonderful in LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA (1962). There are small, underplayed things she does that are really excellent in this role.
Another penned: "I adore Yvette Mimieux and am so sad to hear she has died. I feel she brought a sensitivity and a depth to her roles, and she didn't get the recognition she deserved."
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YVETTE BREAKS THE MOLD
Yvette was blond, blue-eyed and in her hay-day, stardom-bound.
She made six movies before she turned 21.
Yvette, however, was fatigued by the idea of stardom and per , instead studied archaeology and did only one film a year as she traveled the world.
"I decided I didn't want to have a totally public life," she said.
"When the fan magazines started wanting to take pictures of me making sandwiches for my husband, I said no.
"You know there are tribes in Africa who believe that a camera steals a little part of your soul, and in a way I think that's true about living your private life in public.
"It takes something away from your relationships, it cheapens them."
Yvette painted landscapes, played chess, went on global archeological digs and enjoyed her life.
"I don't like to tell my age," she told WaPo in 1978 on being 37 years old. "Not because of vanity, but because in 10 years when I look 37, producers will think I'm too old for some parts."
'THEY'RE EITHER SEX OBJECTS OR VANILLA PUDDING'
In the 1960s and 1970s, Yvette pivoted to TV.
Projects like The Black Hole, The Neptune Factor and Jackson County Jail earned her three Golden Globe Awards nominations.
She starred in TV movies as well as series and wrote a thriller called Hit Lady for ABC.
She starred as a ruthless assassin in the telepic.
Though Yvette perhaps tried to correct the problem by taking up the typewriter herself - she was tired of the roles being written for women.
“The women they write are all one dimensional,” she once said, per DEADLINE.
“They have no complexity in their lives. It’s all surface. There’s nothing to play.
"They’re either sex objects or vanilla pudding.”
Her last role was in 1992's TV series Lady Boss.
Yvette mainly lived in California - her first husband was named Evan Harland Engber.
In 1972 she married her second husband and producer Stanley Donen - they divorced in 1985 after 13 years.
Yvette then married and is survived by Howard Ruby who is chairman emeritus and founder of Oakwood Worldwide - known as the largest global provider of temporary furnished apartments.
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They never divorced, remaining together for 36 years.
She had no children.
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