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Belinda Bauer

Belinda Bauer brought a poised, self-possessed presence to thrillers, action films and television throughout a screen career that stretched from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. Born Belinda Sylvia Taubman in Sydney, Australia, on 13 June 1950, she trained in ballet and performed as a dancer on Barry Crocker’s television program The Sound of Music in the late 1960s. She also entered beauty pageants under her birth name, winning Miss Queen of the Pacific in 1968. After travelling abroad in the early 1970s, Bauer settled in New York City, adopted the surname Bauer and pursued modelling and acting. She worked as a fashion model, including for Revlon cosmetics, while taking acting classes. That combination of dance training and modelling experience gave her an assured physical presence that translated naturally to the screen. Bauer made an unusually prominent film debut, taking a leading role opposite Jeff Bridges and John Huston in the conspiracy thriller Winter Kills, released in 1979. She worked with Bridges again in The American Success Company, then appeared in Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann and had a supporting part in Flashdance. Television gave Bauer several substantial showcases. She played the title character in The Sins of Dorian Gray, portrayed Delilah in the miniseries Samson and Delilah, and took the female lead in the pilot episode of Airwolf. Her film work increasingly leaned into suspense and danger, with parts in The Rosary Murders, Act of Piracy and Servants of Twilight. She also made a cameo in UHF. One of Bauer’s most distinctive later roles was Dr. Juliette Faxx, an antagonist in RoboCop 2. Her final acting credits included the television film A Case for Murder and a supporting role in Poison Ivy II: Lily before she retired from acting in 1996. She later received a screenwriting credit for co-writing Happy Now, released in 2001.