Megan Timothy

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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.

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, , Haji, , 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[]

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[]

References[]

External links[]

• Megan Timothy at IMDb
• Out of Africa April 2000 article page 24 - Saddle-sore Megan’s 10,000-mile odyssey
• Youtube: Megan Timothy
• California Library Literacy Services - 26-07-07: Interview with Megan Timothy, Part 1
• California Library Literacy Services - 26-07-07: Interview with Megan Timothy, Part 2, Q&A