Jacqueline Beer


Jacqueline Beer is a French actress and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss France 1954. She represented her country at Miss Universe 1954, where she placed in the Top 16.
Beer later served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Thor Heyerdahl Institute, located in Larvik, Norway. Her second husband was scientist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl. She was sometimes credited as Jacqueline Baer.

Early years

Beer's father was "a well-known writer and owner of a large horse farm." She received her formal education at a convent near Paris.

Film and TV

Soon after winning the Miss France contest, Beer signed a contract with Paramount Pictures.
Her American film debut came in 1956 with an uncredited role as a model in the Bob Hope comedy That Certain Feeling. That same year, she portrayed Marianne in the war drama Screaming Eagles. In 1963, she played Monique Souvir in the mystery thriller The Prize.
Beer also guest-starred in the first season of Maverick in a 1958 episode titled "Diamond in the Rough," starring Jack Kelly. The episode was loosely based on the true story of the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872.
She is best remembered for her five-year role as Suzanne Fabray, nicknamed "Frenchy," the charming and efficient switchboard operator on the classic private-eye TV series 77 Sunset Strip.

Personal life

Beer married Jean Antoine Garcia Roady, an accountant, on November 26, 1955. They had two sons, Serge and Laurent, and a daughter, Sabine.
In 1991, Beer married ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl, whom she met in Güímar on the Spanish island of Tenerife. She became involved in his work, utilizing her skills as an amateur photographer. After his death in 2002, she remained active in the Thor Heyerdahl Research Centre in Aylesbury, UK, where she serves as Chair of the Board of Directors.

Television appearances