Leigh French (born July 14, 1945) is an American actress.

Early life

French was born in Ashland, Kentucky.

Career

In her early career as a regular on ''

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ''The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'' is an American television comedy, comedy and variety show television series hosted by the Smothers Brothers and initially airing on CBS from 1967 to 1969. The series was a major success, especially consid ...

'' of the late-1960s, French portrayed a

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

named Goldie O'Keefe. The character was originally introduced, in an ostensible studio-audience interview segment, as Goldie Keif; both "Goldie" and "Keif" were slang terms for

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

at the time. Reportedly, the slight name change to O'Keefe when she became a semi-regular was at the television network's insistence. Her segment of the show was called "Share a Little Tea with Goldie". At the time, "sharing tea" was a popular euphemism for getting high on marijuana. Following suit, her segment consisted largely of "helpful" household advice loaded with sex- and drug-related double entendres. French played a similar character, a San Francisco hippie type named Cobalt-Blue, in a 1968 episode ("Tag, You're It") of the ''

I Spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

'' series. She and

Rob Reiner Robert Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and liberal activist. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence with the role of Michael Stivic, Mike "Meathead" Stivic on the CBS sitc ...

(both of whom had been members of The Committee improv group in San Francisco) also played hippies in the 1969 "Flower Power" episode of '' Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.'' French can also be seen in the films '' WUSA'' (1970), ''

The Drowning Pool ''The Drowning Pool'' is a 1950 mystery novel by American writer Ross Macdonald, then writing under the name John Ross Macdonald (and simply John Macdonald in the UK). It is his second book in the series revolving around the cases of private de ...

'' (1975), ''

Aloha, Bobby and Rose ''Aloha, Bobby and Rose'' is a 1975 American road drama film written and directed by Floyd Mutrux and starring Paul Le Mat, Dianne Hull and Robert Carradine. The plot concerns a young working-class couple who accidentally cause the death of a sto ...

'' (1975), '' The Hollywood Knights'' (1980), and '' The Long Days of Summer'' (1980). She appeared as Goober Pyle's (

George Lindsey George Smith Lindsey (December 17, 1928 – May 6, 2012) was an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his role as Goober Pyle on ''The Andy Griffith Show'', '' Mayberry R.F.D.'' and his subsequent tenure on '' Hee-Haw''. Life a ...

) sister on a pilot episode for a sitcom called ''Goober & the Truckers' Paradise''. The show, in which Goober and his sister managed a highway truck stop, was not picked up by networks. French's acting work continued steadily through 2010, with her primarily performing behind the scenes and in voiceover roles in animated features up to 2014.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:French, Leigh 1945 births American film actresses American television actresses Actresses from Kentucky Living people 21st-century American women