Anya Major (born 1966) is an English athlete, actress, model and singer who starred in
Apple Computer's
"1984" commercial, and in 1985 appeared as "Nikita" in the video to
Elton John's
song of the same name.
In 1983, the
Chiat/Day advertising agency held a
casting call
In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra for a particular role or part in a script, screenplay, ...
in London, on behalf of their client, Apple Computer, for what would prove to be a landmark
television commercial
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
. The vision of the agency and director
Ridley Scott stipulated an actress capable of running up to a large video screen, spinning with a
sledgehammer, and releasing it at the video screen. Most of the models and actresses tested struggled to do this; one errant throw nearly struck a passerby at the
Hyde Park casting call.
She won the role with her ability to handle the hammer convincingly.
Career
The commercial officially aired only twice on American television. It was first screened in December 1983, right before the 1:00 am sign-off on
KMVT in
Twin Falls, Idaho
Twin Falls is the county seat and largest city of Twin Falls County, Idaho, United States. The city had a population of 51,807 as of the 2020 census. In the Magic Valley region, Twin Falls is the largest city in a radius, and is the regiona ...
, so that it would be eligible for advertising industry awards for that year.
In addition, starting on January 17, 1984 it was screened prior to previews in movie theaters for a few weeks.
[ Its best-known appearance was just after half-time of ]Super Bowl XVIII
Super Bowl XVIII was an American football game played on January 22, 1984, at Tampa Stadium between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion and defending Super Bowl XVII champion Washington Redskins and the American Football Conference ( ...
on 22 January 1984.music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
for his song of the same name. As a spin-off, she released a single named "Moscow Nights" using the name Anya, and with that name, in 1987, she released another song named "One Word".
In 2006, Andy Hertzfeld
Andrew Jay Hertzfeld (born April 6, 1953) is an American software engineer and innovator who was a member of the original Apple Macintosh development team during the 1980s. After buying an Apple II in January 1978, he went to work for App ...
of the Macintosh development team incorrectly stated that Major had died of breast cancer in 2000. As of 2009, she was living in England with her husband Kim Rajah and their three children. More recently in 2016, she starred in the documentary "Silicon Cowboys
References
9. ^Twice- "Talk That Talk
''Talk That Talk'' is the sixth studio album by Barbadian singer Rihanna, released on November 18, 2011, by Def Jam Recordings and SRP Records. It was recorded while traveling for the Loud Tour between February and November 2011, and was origin ...
" MV Retrieved August 26, 2022
External links
*
CNN article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Major, Anya
1966 births
English actresses
Living people
Apple Inc. advertising