New York actress Sylvia Miles started her career in episodic television, but her brief, Oscar-nominated 
turn as the pampered Park Avenue wife who sleeps with wannabe hustler Jon Voight—
and then takes money from him!—in John Schlesinger's 1969 Academy Award-winner Midnight Cowboy
started her on a career trajectory during which she has moved from mainstream to offbeat with ease.
turn as the pampered Park Avenue wife who sleeps with wannabe hustler Jon Voight—and then takes money from him!—in John Schlesinger's 1969 Academy Award-winner Midnight Cowboy
Her roles in Cowboy and Dennis Hopper's troubled The Last Movie (1971) surely must have brought her to the attention of Andy Warhol's Factory, and she played the faded actress 
opposite Joe Dallesandro's gigolo in Paul Morrissey's Sunset Boulevard pastiche, Heat (1972).
Paul Morrissey's semi-parody of Sunset Blvd, Heat, puts Joe in the shoes on an ex-child actor. 
Living at a semi-resort neighboring a vulgar landlady and a crazed lesbian named 
Jessica(played by the amazing Andrea Feldman in a role that is just as memorable and
amazing as her role in Trash), Joe hooks up with Jessica's mother Sally Todd as a means of getting back into the industry.
The problem is that Todd is not as prolific or as well known as he was led to believe, and things get complicated when Jessica decides to get involved. 
This is Paul Morrissey's most mainstream film in his trilogy starring Joe Dallesandro as well as the more narrative-based. In addition to all this is the Oscar nominated actress Sylvia Miles playing Sally Todd in what could probably be considered the best performance of all of Paul Morrissey's films since Holly Woodlawn. This would unfortunately my least favorite of the Paul Morrissey
trilogy, and I will get into why further down, but I will say right now that this is one of the best films to start with if you have an interest in this style of film.
She was memorable in the bizarre and somewhat repugnant The Sentinel (1977), playing half of a Sapphic couple with a young Beverly D'Angelo. She was also fun as Madame Zena, the sleazy fortune teller in Tobe Hopper's 1982 The Funhouse, who manually...ahem...relieves and then is murdered by the deformed killer who lives under an amusement park. 
On the other hand, she was in the Robert Mitchum classic Farewell, My Lovely and the Agatha Christie all-starrer Evil Under the Sun. Hell, she's even done soap operas and an Afterschool special!her hard features and Noo Yawk rasp,
Miles makes for quite an imposing figure, yet she is also capable of projecting a kind of motherly warmth.
And can you imagine her as Sally Rogers in "The Dick Van Dyke Show"? She was in the pilot! 
Her latest film appearance is in this year's sequel to Wall Street, reprising the role she'd played in the original.
opposite Joe Dallesandro's gigolo in Paul Morrissey's Sunset Boulevard pastiche, Heat (1972). 
Paul Morrissey's semi-parody of Sunset Blvd, Heat, puts Joe in the shoes on an ex-child actor. Living at a semi-resort neighboring a vulgar landlady and a crazed lesbian named Jessica(played by the amazing Andrea Feldman in a role that is just as memorable and amazing as her role in Trash), Joe hooks up with Jessica's mother Sally Todd as a means of getting back into the industry. The problem is that Todd is not as prolific or as well known as he was led to believe, and things get complicated when Jessica decides to get involved. trilogy, and I will get into why further down, but I will say right now that this is one of the best films to start with if you have an interest in this style of film.She was memorable in the bizarre and somewhat repugnant The Sentinel (1977), playing half of a Sapphic couple with a young Beverly D'Angelo. She was also fun as Madame Zena, the sleazy fortune teller in Tobe Hopper's 1982 The Funhouse, who manually...ahem...relieves and then is murdered by the deformed killer who lives under an amusement park. On the other hand, she was in the Robert Mitchum classic Farewell, My Lovely and the Agatha Christie all-starrer Evil Under the Sun. Hell, she's even done soap operas and an Afterschool special!her hard features and Noo Yawk rasp, Miles makes for quite an imposing figure, yet she is also capable of projecting a kind of motherly warmth. And can you imagine her as Sally Rogers in "The Dick Van Dyke Show"? She was in the pilot! Her latest film appearance is in this year's sequel to Wall Street, reprising the role she'd played in the original.
And I love her line in Cowboy when Voight hits her up for money after they have sex:
"I could kill ya wid my beah hands!"
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