Leslie Graves

Leslie Marie Graves (September 29, 1959 – August 23, 1995) was an American actress.

Leslie Graves's father, Michael Graves, was a theatre actor and introduced her to the entertainment industry when she was about 10. She started her career with a small role in a Broadway play A Cry of Players (1968–1969) written by William Gibson, and then moved to acting for TV series: Sesame Street (1969, first 13 episodes), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1971, in the episode titled "Baby Sit-Com"), Here We Go Again (1973), and some uncredited commercials.

In the late 1970s she left Hollywood, supposedly to move with a boyfriend to Texas, where she worked on a shrimp boat for three years.

Graves's return to Hollywood in early 1980 was marked by some nude photoshoots. Phillip Dixon shot her for OUI Magazine, a Playboy corporation affiliate and put her on the cover in November 1980 and again in May 1981 with a shoot by five photographers). At that time, rumors arose about her involvement with Penthouse publisher, Bob Guccione, and an argument with Playboy publisher, Hugh Hefner, as reported in specialised entertainment business magazines and books.

As she started to be noticed, she had small roles in two exploitation movies: Piranha II: The Spawning (1982) and Death Wish II (1982). In 1982 CBS cast her, aged 23, in the role of Brenda Clegg in the daytime soap Capitol. On the set she found a sort of second, supportive mother in Carolyn Jones. When Jones died of cancer in 1983, Graves was devastated and suffered from depression and eventually became addicted to drugs.

In late summer 1984, Graves left the CBS show due to a serious drug problem and a heroin overdose, although her departure was reported as stress-related. Her last public appearance was a nude photo shoot by Jean Rougeron published in the October 1984 issue of OUI Magazine.

Leslie Graves was married and had two children. On August 23, 1995 she died of an AIDS-related illness in Los Angeles, California.