Susan George

Susan George isn’t a household name like, for example, Diana Rigg or Helen Mirren. But with two roles in the ‘70s, this British actress defined an incredibly hot paradox: Blatant, raw sexuality restrained in frustration behind a proper front. And that proper front was always on the verge of crumbling because of the carnal force behind it. That, of course, made both films controversial. In Mandingo, interracial lust dominates the film, which is set in the Deep South during the 1840s. You know things can’t turn out well when George, a plantation wife, has the best sex of her life with a slave. Then there’s Straw Dogs (the original Peckinpah version). She wants it. She doesn’t want it. She wants it. Moral ambiguity was never hotter. And neither was Susan George.