Her film debut was in the Otto Preminger drama Hurry Sundown in 1967. There was an impressive cast with Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, George Kennedy, and Burgess Meredith. It was another film released that year however, that shot Faye Dunaway to stardom. Director Arthur Penn cast her as Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde, the tale of the infamous bank robbers. Warren Beatty, playing Clyde Barrow, and Faye were a charismatic pair and the stylish movie was a huge hit. Michael J Pollard and Gene Hackman were successful in support.

Arthur Penn cast Faye Dunaway again, this time in the western Little Big Man, in which Dustin Hoffman starred with Martin Balsam and Chief Dan George co-starring. Faye made another cult hit when she co-starred in Chinatown, directed by Roman Polanski; Jack Nicholson starred with support from John Huston. Afterwards, director Sydney Pollack chose Faye for his tense thriller, Three Days of the Condor, also starring Robert Redford, Cliff Robertson, and Max von Sydow.

Dunaway won an Oscar for her portrayal of a hard hearted television executive in Network. Sidney Lumet directed and the other stars were William Holden, Peter Finch, and Robert Duvall. Faye made another impressive thriller called Eyes of Laura Mars, directed by Irvin Kershner and co-starring Tommy Lee Jones and Brad Dourif.

Faye Dunaway has already earned her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has more projects stacked up for release in late 2006, each at different stages of development. Pandemic is a mini TV series about an outbreak of bird flu in Los Angeles, in which Faye stars with Tiffani Thiessen, Vincent Spano, Bruce Boxleitner, and Eric Roberts. The Gene Generation is a science fiction movie directed by Pearry Reginald Teo and co-stars Ling Bai, Parry Shen, and Alec Newman. Dunaway is also expected in Rain, a drama with Brooklyn Sudano and Robert Loggia. An episode of the popular television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, in which Faye appears, has already been aired. The show about a group of police forensic specialists features regulars, William L Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan, and Robert David Hall.

Romantic liaisons for Faye Dunaway have included comic Lenny Bruce and actor Marcello Mastroianni. She has been married twice, the first time from 1974 to 1979 to Peter Wolf, front man with the J Geils Band. The second marriage was from 1984 to 1987, to British photographer Terry O’Neill and they adopted a child together.

YUDDY