Megan Timothy

Megan D'Ewes Timothy (born June 21, 1943) is a Rhodesian-born American actress, singer, and author of Let Me Die Laughing!: Waking from The Nightmare of a Brain Explosion, an account of her brain injury.

Megan Timothy
Born
Megan D'Ewes Timothy

(1943-06-21) June 21, 1943
Masvingo, Southern Rhodesia
OccupationActress, singer, author
Years active1967–1971

Background

The daughter of an architect,[1] Timothy was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1943. At the age of 16 she was working for the Victoria Times, a Rhodesian newspaper. Later, she worked as a horse trainer for a short period of time. In the 1960s, having left Africa, she came to the United States. She was aged around 21 at this time.[2][3][4] After coming to the United States in 1964, she arrived in California with aspirations of being either an actress or stuntwoman. She found work as a telephone operator.[5] She later did six weeks of training to be a waitress at the Playboy Club and found work there for a period of time.[2] One day while working at the club she accidentally set fire to a patrons beard while trying to light his cigarette. In a bid to extinguish the flame, she threw water in his face. This resulted in her being fired.[3] Later she would enter into the world of acting and also become a screenwriter.[6] Her first film role was in Good Morning... and Goodbye!.[5]

In the 1980s, Timothy was running La Maida House, a bed and breakfast inn which she had purchased in the mid 1970s. She had done most of the renovations herself on the building which was built in 1926.[7] She was still running the Californian inn in the 1990s.[8] In 1999, and in now in her late 50s, she sold her North Hollywood home, her car and a good deal of her possessions. This was in preparation to undertake what would be a 12,000-mile solo bicycle journey. Her journey would take her various places in Western Europe and to parts of Africa.[3] In 2003, she suffered a brain aneurysm and lost her ability to speak.[4] Her book Let Me Die Laughing!: Waking from The Nightmare of a Brain Explosion details her injury and road to recovery.

Film career

In 1967, she had a credited role in the Russ Meyer film Good Morning... and Goodbye!, which also starred Alaina Capri, Stuart Lancaster, Patrick Wright, Haji, Karen Ciral, Don Johnson, and Tom Howland.[9] In 1968, she appeared in Hells Chosen Few which would be the first of three David L. Hewitt directed films she would do.[10] This biker genre film was about a Vietnam vet who returns to find his biker brother accused of murdering a boyfriend of the local sheriff's daughter.[11] Her second film with Hewitt was The Mighty Gorga, where she played female trapper April Adams who teams up with Mark Remington (played by Anthony Eisley) who embark on a mission in search of a 50-foot gorilla.[12] She then had a role in the 1969 Elvis Presley film, Charro!, which was directed by Charles Marquis Warren.[13] Her last film with Hewitt was the exploitation actioner, The Girls from Thunder Strip.[14] This film about three bootlegging sisters taking on a gang of bikers was released in 1970. It also starred Maray Ayres and Casey Kasem.[15] Her last film appears to be the exploitation westerner, The Female Bunch which starred Lon Chaney Jr., Russ Tamblyn, Jennifer Bishop, and Regina Carrol.[16][17]

Filmography
Film list
Title Role Director Year Notes #
Good Morning... and Goodbye! Lottie Russ Meyer 1967
Hells Chosen Few David L. Hewitt 1968
The Mighty Gorga April Adams David L. Hewitt 1969 2nd lead role
Charro! Marquis Warren 1969
The Girls from Thunder Strip Jesse David L. Hewitt 1970
The Female Bunch Al Adamson
John 'Bud' Cardos		 1971 [18]
Chicken Documentary[19]

Music

During the 1960s, Timothy was a folk singer and with her guitar, she would sing at folk songs at coffee houses. She also entertained troops in Vietnam as part of a USO tour.[3] In February 1967, she was appearing six nights a week at the Rainbow Room Nashville, Tennessee.[20] By March 18 of that year she had competed a three-week engagement.[1]

Around 2010, and some years after her stroke and with a, rekindled interest in singing, she sought vocal coaching. She was coached vocally by Michael Rivers. Because of her brain injury, there were some issues with recording the album and it took some patience. Four years later her first CD album was released.[21] In 2014, she released the album As I Wander: Songs of Christmas which featured vocalist Dan Cobb, singer-guitarist / producer Rivers, and cellist Marlene Moore.[22]

Recordings
  • As I Wander: Songs of Christmas

Stroke

After her mother died, and having lost most of her possessions in a fire,[23] she suffered a stroke in September 2003, at the age of 63. The technical term for what she suffered was arterialvenous malformation.[24] She suffered severe aphasia as a result of the stroke. Being unable to speak and having no family and no funds to look after herself, she became a ward of the state and ended up in a rehabilitation facility for two weeks. According to the September / October edition of Stroke Connection magazine, the rehabilitation facility was actually a mental hospital. She was told by the head nurse there that she wouldn't be able to read and write or speak again. A couple of her friends managed to get her released.[25] Prior to the stroke she didn't have any kind of medical coverage and she was poor.[26] She was eventually enrolled in a California Medicaid program. But before this could be achieved, she had to prove she was penniless.[25] And prior to being approved she was left in limbo for a period of time in a status of MediCal-Pending.[26] A short documentary called Chicken, which was about her stroke and her adventure, was screened at the Fontaine Auditorium of Samuel Merritt University, 400 Hawthorne Avenue, Oakland, on Wednesday, August 4, 2010. [27]

Publications
List
Title Publisher ISBN Year Notes #
Let Me Die Laughing!: Waking from The Nightmare of a Brain Explosion Crone House Publishing 9781932905069 2006
12,000 Miles For Hope's Sake Crone House Publishing 9781932905113 2009

References
  1. The Tennessean Sunday, March 19, 1967 Page 5 Club Singer Defends Native Rhodesia, Rips British
  2. The Southern Herald April 6, 2006 Page 1 Author's Ride of Meaning by Coyette Stuart
  3. Chicago Tribune May 19, 1999 Wild Ride Overseas, Solo Adventurer Is Turning 60 On Biking Odyssey - By Carol Bidwell, Los Angeles Daily News
  4. Hildalgo County Herald Friday March 107, 2006 Author treks across nation promoting literacy
  5. Wild Beyond Belief!: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s By Brian Albright Page 202 - 204 The Girl From Thunder Strip, Megan Timothy
  6. The Times News Sunday, April 23, 2006 2E Timothy signing at Accent on Books
  7. The Indianapolis Star September 17, 1986 Page 34 - Bed and Breakfast
  8. Los Angeles Times July 03, 1992 DISCOVERY : All the Comforts of Home - Cindy LaFavre Yorks
  9. Russ Meyer--The Life and Films by David K. Frasier Page 97
  10. Wild Beyond Belief!: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s By Brian Albright Page 202 - 204 - The Girl From Thunder Strip, Megan Timothy
  11. Artist Direct Hell's Chosen Few
  12. A Year of Fear: A Day-by-Day Guide to 366 Horror Films By Bryan Senn Page 189 - May 16. The Mighty Gorga
  13. The Elvis Movies By James L. Neibaur Page 242 - Chapter 32 Charro! (National General Pictures, 1969)
  14. The Grindhouse Database The Girls from Thunder Strip
  15. Bikini, Surfing & Beach Party Movies By Terry Rowan Page 47
  16. Rotten Tomatoes The Female Bunch
  17. Cinema Montreal The Female Bunch
  18. Imdb Megan Timothy
  19. The Examiner July 28, 2010 - Stroke awareness and special outreach event with Megan Timothy - By Laurel Zien
  20. The Tennessean Sunday, February 26, 1967 Page 151 At The Rainbow
  21. Sequim Gazette Nov 24, 2014 Rediscovering her voice by Alana Linderoth
  22. Peninsula Daily News November 09. 2014 Singer-writer tells of surviving brain injury; will fete CD release in Port Angeles today By Diane Urbani de la Paz
  23. Virginia Grantier, "In search of confidence", Bismarck Tribune August 12, 2006.
  24. Rob Ollikainen, "Author coming to Port Angeles to speak about brain injuries", Peninsula Daily News March 20, 2011.
  25. Jon Caswell, "Let Me Die Laughing"Stroke Connection, September/October 2007, p. 20, Cover Story.
  26. Long Term Rehabilitation for Stroke and TBI: Building a Community By Beverly Greer ACUTE REHABILITATION--WHO DOES WHAT?, Vocational Therapists ...
  27. Laurel Zien, Stroke awareness and special outreach event with Megan Timothy], The Examiner July 28, 2010.
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