Simone Griffeth . . . Bluffton Beauty

Written by Tamela Maxim
Photography courtesy of Simone Griffeth

quaint 1920’s “Bluffton” home near Myrtle Island Road. A place where the waves of the May River can be heard from open windows gracefully splashing with the tide. A place where spanish moss drips from beautiful, old, enormous live oak trees. A place in a southern sleepy, little town. This is where Simone Griffeth grew up.

Simone is a real Bluffton girl. She learned how to hunt (she was a crack shot by the age of 11), fish, crab and throw a shrimp net. Her mother took the squirrels they caught and cleaned and fried them up for breakfast! What made her a successful actor is also what makes her such an interesting woman. She’s as much oyster as camellia - as much pluff mud as dolphin - graceful, mischievous, daring, loving, brainy, playful and infinitely creative. Only a real Bluffton girl could be as sophisticated as Audrey Hepburn, look as lovely as Grace Kelly, and yet be at home with mud between her toes and a shotgun in her hand.

Simone Griffeth moved to Bluffton when she was 5 years old and lived all of her growing up years in a home on the May River near Myrtle Island with her parents Frances and Robert “Mack” and her brother and sister Bob and Roseanne. Bob is married to Heidi and lives on the May river next to his family home. He is a Captain with U.S. Air and flies all over the United States. Roseanne has a Masters degree in Costume Design, lives in Tennessee and owns an organic jammery. Simone has one daughter, the beautiful Savannah, who is a student at the College of Charleston.

Simone’s mother taught 2nd grade in Bluffton and her father was the Dearing Chevrolet manager in Savannah. They were members of the Church of the Cross church, which had a much smaller congregation back then. There were both bees and bats in the belfry and she recalls bats making nose dives - sometimes aimed towards the unfortunate priest during his sermon. Simone remembers that on good fishing days, she could sometimes see her father through the open windows of the church as he rode by on his boat. She was born on April 4th (Happy Birthday Simone!) at the Telfair Hospital in Savannah Georgia next to Forsyth Park. The azaleas and dogwoods of the park would have been in full bloom under the canopy of the large, majestic moss draped oaks. It was a Griffeth family joke that everyone was born on one side of Forsyth Park in the Telfair Hospital and buried on the other side at Fox and Weeks Funeral Home, now a luxury hotel.

Simone made her acting debut as a cabbage in a ballet of “Mr. McGreggor’s Garden.” She was always theatrically inclined and she and her brother Bob would make up plays and then perform them after dinner at their grandparents’ home. Simone, as both director and actor, smacked her brother Bob when he didn’t remember his cues. Her brother gladly escaped her bossy temper as he grew to eventually tower over her at 6’5”. Simone had two passions when she was young. She loved horses and theater. Her mother took them to plays, movies and musicals in Savannah. When she was 11 she saw The Sound of Music and made up her mind then and there that she was going to be an actor! Simone’s other love was for horses and she had her first horse when she was 7. She spent many years with her best 4 legged friend, Gingerbread, riding around Bluffton’s dirt roads.

When Simone was 15, her beauty and horseback riding experience landed her a commercial for Gulf Oil, filmed on the Port Royal beach on Hilton Head Island. They were having trouble because the high strung palomino horse had refused to cooperate with the film crew and wouldn’t go near the ocean. Martha Crapse, a local Blufftonian heard of their dilemma and suggested that the production company call Frances Griffeth about her daughter and thus Simone was “discovered.” Sure enough, with Simone as rider, three days of shooting were accomplished and the commercial made its television debut during one of the Apollo Space missions. The first shot was of Simone riding bareback and barefoot as the Palomino raced over a sand dune, reared up and headed for the ocean with the horse’s mane and Simone’s waist length blonde hair flying behind them. Simone’s mother refused to allow her young daughter to accept their offer of modeling and commercials in New York, but Simone was undeterred by the delay and spent the next few years in high school and at the University of SC performing in theater, making local commercials and she had her own television show for children when she was only 19.

After college, she moved to Atlanta where she worked in national commercials and made 2 feature films. Nearing her 21st birthday, she decided to make the move to Los Angeles, where she continued to make more commercials, while taking acting and dance lessons. Here’s a list of just some of the commercials: American Egg Board, Arrow Shirts, Apple Shampoo, Budweiser Beer (x 2), Christian Door Sunglasses, Coppertone-- she was the Coppertone girl that year, Ford Automobiles (2) (I’ll bet “Mack” (her Daddy) wanted it to be Chevrolet!), Johnson’s Baby Oil—she was the Johnson’s Baby Oil Girl that year, Max Factor, Maybelline, Milton Bradley Games—she worked with Vincent Price, Sears, Weight Watchers and Xerox.

She studied acting with some of the very best coaches, including the legendary Milton Katselas at the Beverly Hills Playhouse for 6 years. Simone moved to New York where she created the character of the ballerina “Lisa” in the play “Jockeys,” which made its debut at the Promenade Theater at 76th and Broadway in New York. Her choreographer was none other than Gerry Arpino, the director for the Joffrey Ballet. Her work in that show landed her a deal with Universal Studios and she moved back to L.A. where she was under contract with Kim Cattrall of Sex and the City fame. Her good looks and excellent horsemanship brought her favor once more when she was signed for the part of Lady Anne in the mini-series “Black Beauty,” where she did her own stunt riding - side saddle! Her career took off as she then starred in a 2 hour TV movie special of the “Six Million Dollar Man,” and she had the lead in “Mandrake the Magician,” where she did her own magic tricks after being trained by the famous magician Harry Blackstone. Her first big movie --- still a cult favorite, was “Death Race 2000,” in which she starred as the lead opposite David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. Her other credits include a regular role in the CBS comedy series “Ladies Man” as Gretchen opposite Larry Pressman and Louise Sorel.

Simone starred as Bea Arthur’s daughter-in-law in the ABC TV series “Amanda‘s,” which was an American version of the British comedy, “Fawlty Towers,” starring John Cleese. After “Amanda’s,” she starred in the feature film, “The Patriot,” an action film where she played a Navy seal where you can watch her scuba dive and then while still in her wetsuit, blow the bad guy away with a machine gun. Co-stars were Leslie Nielsen, who played the part of her uncle, an Admiral, and Jeff Conway (Taxi). The film, a serious drama in which they were supposed to be saving the world from nuclear disaster was made in Santa Barbara, California. Leslie Nielsen kept them all in hysterics with his ever-present whoopee cushion, which he would let “rip” before takes. She played Chrissy on “The Golden Girls,” the flight attendant who stole Bea Arthur (Dorothy’s) husband. She was a guest star/co-host with Dabney Colman on “Buffalo Bill.” One of her favorite roles was as “Christine Webber” in the feature film “Hot Target.” Reminiscent of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, she played a woman caught in a love triangle where nothing was as it seemed. Filmed on location in New Zealand, she starred in the picture with British actor Brian Marshall as her husband. Simone’s mother, Frances, passed away while she was making this film. Although she was not well when Simone got the part, she encouraged her to go ahead and accept the work --- always a wonderful source of inspiration, love and support - Simone‘s mother was a true “dream smith” for her children. She enjoyed the role as Jeff Goldblum’s fiancee on “10 Speed and Brownshoe,” which also gave her a chance to work with Ben Vereen. Other favorite roles were as a CIA agent (love-interest) with Tom Selleck in “Magnum PI.,” and her role in a 2 hour pilot of “Brett Maverick,” as a southern “lady of the night” (Jasmine Dubois) for Columbia Pictures. One of her movies made after she “retired” and moved back to Bluffton was “The New Swiss Family Robinson,” where she plays Jane Seymour’s best friend, also starring David Carradine and James Keach, which was filmed in Puerto Rico. Simone also performed on Hilton Head, starring in the last performance at the Dunnagan’s Alley Theater in “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.” I remember seeing that show - she had so many lines and the action was so rapid that it was amazing; she was fabulous!

The first time that I heard of Simone was when working in Savannah for the Georgia Gazette newspaper. The “Gazette” was owned by Marjorie and Albert Scardino. (Albert was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial excellence in 1984) Albert and Marjorie have always loved Bluffton, and although they live in London, they have a home here. Simone went to school in Savannah, where Albert was raised, and they were friends as teenagers. I can’t remember how it happened that Simone’s name was mentioned, but I remember Albert’s reply included the compliment, “... the beautiful and intelligent Simone!” with much emphasis on the AND. I met her for the first time in the social hall of the Church of the Cross at least 10 years later. I noticed her standing alone in one of the corners of the room. In a moment of impulse and discernment of something kindred, I walked over and said, “You know what, I’m Tamela and I’m sure we’re going to be great friends.” We were about the same age, both blondes, both in the habit of wearing a headband - somehow we felt connected. I asked another one of Simone’s friends, Mary Fielder, who also grew up in Bluffton, to describe her for this story. Mary said that she thought what I told Simone’s husband Wayne when they were a new couple was perfect. Mary and I teased Wayne and warned him to be good to our friend or “answer” to us and then I added, “After all, Wayne, I hope you realize that you married the Belle of Bluffton!” I haven’t confirmed this with Tommy Heyward, but Simone’s mother once said that Tommy gave Frances and Mack Griffeth (Simone’s parents) credit for providing Bluffton with its first jet pilot (Bob) and its first movie star (Simone).

Another of Simone’s many talents and passions is cooking. She once baked one of her famous coconut cakes for James Coburn who was dating a beautiful ballerina and he wanted to surprise his lovely dancer with a birthday party and asked for Simone‘s help. James Coburn kept Simone company during the cake-making and she still laughs about the possibility that the cake might have been slightly tobacco flavored because he smoked a very long Cuban cigar the entire time. Simone is the kind of friend who will invite you to lunch and rather than dining out, seats you in her kitchen and prepares and serves a meal fit for a princess.

Simone (married name Simone McDonald) works with her husband Wayne McDonald, broker/owner of the Prudential Premier Island Properties on Hilton Head www.hiltonheadluxuryproperties.com/ She also teaches acting classes. Her current students are Michael Morgan, Lili Torre, Sandra Fosado, Tara Bianco and Ella Cuda . They are all very talented! Simone’s acting class is a scene study class with emphasis on character development. They are working on scenes for an evening of theater that will be performed in May. Since she received a wonderful response from many age groups wanting to take acting classes, she will be forming adult classes as well. For information, call Simone at 384-4466.