Leigh Taylor-Young

Leigh Taylor-Young was born in Washington, DC, to a diplomat father and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, the older sister of future actress Dey Young and writer/director Lance Young. She studied classical ballet and, following high school, attended Northwestern University where she initially majored in economics. She switched gears after developing an interest in theater and apprenticed as the youngest member of the distinguished Eaglesmere Summer Repertory Theatre. Leigh eventually moved to New York with designs on a professional career and studied under acting guru Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Her major break came when she was cast in the already popular prime-time soap Peyton Place (1964). She played the mysterious Rachael Welles, whose character was brought in to provide clues to the disappearance of Allison MacKenzie's (Mia Farrow, who had shocked ardent viewers by abruptly leaving the series). A mysterious girl herself, Leigh had a fetching figure, slightly offbeat beauty and a tendency to be cast as unsympathetic characters. She developed a bit of bad publicity when she walked off the weekly series after only one season and into the arms of the very popular--and very married--series star Ryan O'Neal. The couple married in 1967, following his divorce from actress Joanna Moore, and had one child, Patrick O'Neal.