Cameo Actors, Musical Groups and Future Stars
Veteran movie stars regularly cropped up in cameo roles while larger supporting parts were given to up-and-coming personalities such as Don Rickles and Paul Lynde. The various beach films also provided an early look at many actors who would soon go on to greater fame in popular television programs. These include: Tina Louise and Bob Denver (Gilligan's Island), Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeannie), Marta Kristen (Lost in Space), Linda Evans (The Big Valley), Yvonne Craig (Batman), Meredith MacRae (Petticoat Junction), and Peter Lupus (Mission Impossible).
Another feature was a series of cameo appearances by veteran actors such as Buster Keaton, Vincent Price, Elsa Lanchester, Boris Karloff, Dorothy Lamour, and Peter Lorre (in his penultimate film appearance).
Integral to the series were appearances by contemporary musical stars including Stevie Wonder, Nancy Sinatra, The Supremes, The Beach Boys, The Animals, The Castaways, Little Richard, The Righteous Brothers, The Kingsmen, The Pyramids, The Hondells, and Dick Dale and The Del-Tones. Original songs performed by the cast were largely written by Gary Usher and Roger Christian, or by Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner.
Pop singer Donna Loren was a semi-regular cast member who acted and performed songs in three AIP beach films plus Pajama Party and Sergeant Dead Head.
Toni Basil served as choreographer for the dance sequences in Village of the Giants (also appearing onscreen), and appeared as a dancer, along with an uncredited Teri Garr, in Pajama Party.
Don Weis and William Asher directed the films in the AIP series, with Asher's then-wife Elizabeth Montgomery making a voice cameo in Bikini Beach, and appearing on camera in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini spoofing her character from the Bewitched TV series. Asher also went on to direct seven episodes of the Gidget TV series in 1965.
Read more about this topic: Beach Party Film
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