In the 1980s I was shooting lots of home and studio photo layouts with Hollywood actors for domestic and international magazines. One that I remember fondly was with Cassie Yates who posed for me with her musician husband, Steven Humphries, and even ordered a large sushi platter for the occasion. At the time the couple co-owned the popular Cat & Fiddle Pub with Kim and Paula Gardner.
Then the actress agreed to pose in my Hollywood studio, showing off her workouts with weights.
During our interview Cassie talked about Sam Peckinpah who had recently passed away. “Peckinpah was a cult figure to me, I’ve always been so amazed by him, he is such an individual, I’ve never met anybody like him in my life. He is his own person, he does things his own way, he certainly does not kiss anybody’s ass, and he can be a reaI bastard. But on the other side of that he is very passionate and he is a real lady lover, contrary to what people will think because of his violence to women in movies, to the point that he got married to the same woman 3 or 4 times. I feel very honored that I was able to be in the last two films he made, Convoy with Kris Kristofferson and Osterman Weekend, and now that he is gone we will miss him.”
The actress mentioned some of her other movies and costars: “I did F. I .S.T. by Norman Jewison with Sylvester Stallone. My latest film was Unfaithully Yours with Dudley Moore and Nastassja Kinski. Dudley is such a pleasure to work with, he constantly keeps it cool and going, in between set-ups and lighting there are touchy waiting periods and he would always entertain us either on the piano or making sure the morale was high and the humor was up, because it was a comedy.”
And her work on television: “When I started doing the series Rich Man, Poor Man, that opened the doors. I thought my best work ever was on the TV pilot from the movie Norman Rae, where I played the Sally Field’s role. The hardest role was in the TV version of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. I did TV movies like Love Thy Neighbor with Penny Marshall and John Ritter.”
When we spoke in 1985, Yates was starring in the TV series Detective in the House with Judd Hirsch: “I play a housewife with three kids married to a successful engineer, who decides to give up his high paying job to live out his fantasy of being a detective. Therefore I have to go back to work teaching English to immigrants in night school. I don’t have three kids, but I have a dog, a cat and a husband. The situation between these two characters is very similar to Steve and I. If I am working, he is supportive and takes care of the house and viceversa.”
As for her food preferences she said: “I don’t eat fat or red meat, I don’t eat sweets at all, mainly because I don’t like them. I eat a lot of salads. I love sushi, Thai food and Indian food.”
Whatever you are doing now, Cassie, we wish you a Happy Birthday!