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Cheryl Lynn Miller was the archetypal 1960s American 'girl-next-door'. A gorgeous blonde with a peaches-and-cream complexion, she hailed from Sherman Oaks, California, born to an architect father and a mother who worked in the accounting department at Sears, Roebuck and Co. Having graduated from high school with a predilection for science and music, Cheryl pursued further studies at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. She then did some modelling work and began acting in occasional supporting roles on television from 1957. In her spare time, she enjoyed varied outdoor activities, such as skiing, jogging and horseback riding.
Cheryl's pivotal years were 1965 and 1966. In 1965, she appeared with an elephant and a chimpanzee in several episodes of the popular family series Flipper (1964). This was noticed by Walt Disney, who personally signed her under contract for a small role in the comedy The Monkey's Uncle (1965), describing her as 'the typical American girl'. More importantly, Cheryl also came to the attention of writer-producer Ivan Tors. Tors was impressed by her ability to work with animals and proceeded to cast Cheryl in a co-starring role as the spirited Paula Tracy (daughter of a veterinarian based at an East African animal hospital) in Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965). This cinematic release served as the de facto pilot for the ensuing CBS TV series Daktari (1966). Her fortuitous casting also coincided with Cheryl becoming one of twelve young actresses awarded the title of Hollywood Deb Star of 1966, as well as being named Miss Golden Globe (as co-presenter with Andy Williams of the Golden Globe Awards).
Before filming began, Cheryl trained for a month at a 200-acre animal farm called Africa U.S.A., located forty miles north of Los Angeles. It was operated by Ivan Tors in conjunction with animal behaviorist and author Ralph Helfer, who also created Marine World. While there, Cheryl learned to walk among and interact with lions, chimps, cheetahs and leopards. She ended up forming a special bond with a tame tiger named Sarang.
Daktari had a run of four seasons and 89 episodes. By present standards, the show has not aged particularly well. It could be argued, that its strongest points were the cute and highly photogenic Cheryl, Clarence the lovable lion (who really was cross-eyed and extremely tame) and Judy the Chimpanzee (also familiar to viewers as 'Debbie the Bloop' from Lost in Space (1965), but rumoured to have been rather less docile than Clarence). On the minus side: simplistic scripts bordering on twee, wooden acting from Cheryl's (human) co-stars and excessive use of frequently incongruous stock footage, some of it repeated over and over in the course of multiple episodes. No new footage for the series was ever shot in Africa.
In August 1970, Cheryl had a brief run as the Dodge "Fever Girl," promoting the car brand in magazine spreads, TV ads and national car shows. This gig lasted a couple of years. Until the end of the decade, Cheryl continued to make sporadic guest appearances in shows like Cade's County (1971), Barnaby Jones (1973), Gemini Man (1976) and Police Story (1973). She left the world of acting in 1980, later declaring "I had earned enough money. I wanted to concentrate purely on my family."
