Actress Carol Lynley

There's always been something very British about Carol Lynley - her poise, her demeanor, her understatement . . .

. . . and she happens to be an American. :-)

Carol Lynley was a young ingenue when she debuted as an actress in the late fifties. Her portrayal of Janet Willard, a teenager dealing with an unwanted pregnancy and an then-illegal abortion, in the 1959 movie Blue Denim (she had played the same role in the play of the same name) won her a Golden Globe nomination for the most promising female newcomer of the year.

Her sixties movies include 1963's Under The Yum Yum Tree, a sex comedy starring Jack Lemmon as a lustful landlord who tries to seduce Lynley's tenant character (Lemmon later disavowed that movie), the title role in 1965's Harlow (about the actress Jean Harlow) and the 1967 horror movie The Shuttered Room.

One of her biggest roles in the seventies was in 1972's The Poseidon Adventure, as a lounge singer on the ill-fated ocean liner Poseidon, which capsizes in a tidal wave.  Although she is seen performing the song "The Morning After," which won the Oscar for Best Original Song, she didn't actually sing it - she lip-synced it to someone else's voice (not that of Maureen McGovern, who recorded it later).  The response to the song by a member of the Poseidon's crew - "Give me a Strauss waltz any time!" - is the best line in the movie. :-D 

Without giving too much away, Lynley's character is one of the few that make it out of the Poseidon alive.  

Carol Lynley's profile in the movies has diminished in recent years, but she has also performed occasional or one-shot characters in television shows - too many TV shows to list.  :-)   She remains active into her seventies.