Biographie
Leslie Graves, the original Brenda Clegg, was born on September 29, 1959, in either Albuquerque or Silver City, New Mexico. She began her career in the entertainment industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s, around the age of 10, with small roles in the Broadway play "A Cry of Players" (1968-1969) by William Gibson, as well as appearances in TV series such as Sesame Street (1969, first 13 episodes), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1972, episode titled "Baby Sit-Com"), and Here We Go Again (1973). After this early start, she disappeared from the public eye for about a decade.
Her return in the early 1980s was marked by nude photo shoots, including covers and sessions for OUI Magazine (a Playboy corporation affiliate), photographed by Phillip Dixon in November 1980 and again in May 1981 by a team of five photographers. She also took on minor roles in slasher films like Piranha: The Spawning (1981) and Death Wish II (1982). These appearances helped her gain recognition, and in 1982, at age 23, CBS cast her as Brenda Clegg in the daytime soap opera Capitol, a role for which she remains fondly remembered. On set and in life, she formed a close, supportive bond with Carolyn Jones, the original Myrna Clegg, whom she regarded as a second mother. Leslie was deeply affected by Carolyn's passing.
In late summer 1984, Leslie fainted on the set of Capitol due to a heroin overdose. She recovered but left the show permanently. Her final public appearance was a nude photo shoot by Jean Rougeron featured in the October 1984 issue of OUI magazine. Afterward, little was known about her until Soap Opera Weekly reported her death in the Los Angeles area on August 23, 1995, from an AIDS-related illness. Leslie was married to Jerry Schoenkopf, with whom she had two children: a daughter, Amanda, and a son, Jimmy, born in 1994.
