Azizi Johari

Azizi Johari
Playboy centerfold appearance
June 1975
Preceded byBridgett Rollins
Succeeded byLynn Schiller
Personal details
Born (1948-08-24) August 24, 1948
New York City, United States
Height5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)

Azizi Johari is a Black American model and actress who was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for June 1975.

Early life

Azizi Johari was born in New York City[a] on August 24, 1948. Due to her stepfather's military service, her family moved frequently before settling in Seattle, where she attended high school and college.[2] For a time, her family lived in Germany.[1] While in school, she formed a singing group called the Marvelles with two friends and released the single "Call Me Back".[3] She later moved to San Francisco and worked as a stewardess for United Airlines.[3]

Modeling and acting

Johari joined the Black Arts West theatre group and appeared in productions of A Raisin in the Sun, Black Girl and Ladies in Waiting.[3] She had a minor role in the 1974 film McQ.[3]

Herbie Hancock gave her the stage name Azizi Johari, which means "rare jewel" in Kiswahili.[1][4] She gained attention for the 1973 poster Supernatural Dream, which showed her nude, her face surrounded by smoke and a large Afro.[b][3][6] Johari had met the poster's photographer while working for United.[1] Among the poster's admirers was Sammy Davis Jr., who hung it in his dressing rooms during tours and hired Johari as a dancer in his troupe.[3][1] She toured with the show for about a year, visiting New York, Chicago, Honolulu and Miami Beach, playing a comic foil to Davis.[1]

She was photographed nude for Playboy as the June 1975 Playmate of the Month, in a 10-page gatefold spread for which she was paid $6,000 (equivalent to $36,000 in 2025).[2][3][1] Johari later wrote she had posed to show the beauty of dark-skinned Black women.[4] The following year, she appeared nude on the cover of Leon Ware's 1976 album Musical Massage.[5]

She was featured in magazines such as Jet and Players, and appeared on several Players covers.[7][8][9][10]

She appeared on television and in several films between 1976 and 1981,[2] including John Cassavetes's The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), starring Ben Gazzara.[11][12] She was cast in the film through a European film distributor, whom she had first met at a party and spoken with in German.[1] She also was reportedly cast in the science fiction film Assassins in Time in 1979, though it was never released.[13]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1974McQ[12]—Uncredited
1976The Killing of a Chinese Bookie[14]Rachel—
1979Dreamer[15]Lady—
1979Rocky II[16]Ringside girlUncredited
1980Seed of Innocence[17]DeniseAlso released as Teen Mothers
1980Exit Sunset Boulevard[18]——
1981Body and Soul[19]Pussy Willow—

Television

Year Title Role Episode or notes
1975The Six Million Dollar Man[2]Girl"Clark Templeton O'Flaherty"
1977The Richard Pryor Show[20]Blueberry—
1977Redd Foxx TV Special[21]——

The 1987 video game Dungeon Master named one of its playable champions after Johari.[22][23]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ In 1976, Black Stars magazine reported that Johari was born near New Orleans, Louisiana.[1]
  2. ↑ Johari's Supernatural Dream image was photographed for a calendar that was never published, and was later issued as a poster by The Old School Inc. around 1973. It is briefly visible in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining, hanging on the wall of Dick Hallorann's Florida apartment.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Weston, Martin (August 1976). "Azizi Johari: Hollywood Picks Up a Rare Jewel". Black Stars. pp. 20–25.
  2. 1 2 3 4 McCann, Bob (2010). Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television. McFarland & Company. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-7864-3790-0 – via Internet Archive.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Rare Jewel". Playboy. Vol. 22, no. 6. Photography by Ken Marcus. June 1975. pp. 104–111.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. 1 2 Johari, Azizi (December 1978). "I Am... Azizi Johari". Black Stars. pp. 6–8.
  5. 1 2 Benson, Paula (July 27, 2018). "FFFind: The picture of woman with afro in The Shining". Film and Furniture.
  6. ↑ "Supernatural Dream poster". Oakland Museum of California. OMCA.
  7. ↑ "1978 photo of U.S. actress Azizi Johari". Pulp International.
  8. ↑ "Cover". Players. Vol. 7, no. 3.
  9. ↑ "Cover". Players. Vol. 9, no. 1.
  10. ↑ "Cover". Players. Vol. 9, no. 6.
  11. ↑ "Cassavetes' Film to Open". Los Angeles Times. February 11, 1976. p. F14 – via ProQuest.
  12. 1 2 "Actress-Model Scores In Chinese Bookie Film". Jet. Vol. 50, no. 4. April 15, 1976. p. 56.
  13. ↑ "Starlog". Starlog. No. 26. September 1979. p. 14.
  14. ↑ Lopate, Phillip (October 24, 2013). "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie: The Raw and the Cooked". The Criterion Collection.
  15. ↑ Schmidt, J. R. (2017). The Bowling Chronicles. McFarland & Co. p. 111.
  16. ↑ "Azizi Johari". Playboy Plus.
  17. ↑ "Seed of Innocence (1980)". BFI. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved October 14, 2023.
  18. ↑ "Azizi Johari". BFI. Archived from the original on February 10, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2023.
  19. ↑ Romano, Frederick V. (2004). The Boxing Filmography. McFarland & Co. p. 15.
  20. ↑ "Jet". Jet. July 28, 1977. p. 21.
  21. ↑ "Jet". Jet. November 10, 1977. p. 24.
  22. ↑ Maher, Jimmy (December 18, 2015). "Dungeon Master, Part 2: The Playing of". The Digital Antiquarian.
  23. ↑ Dungeon Master Handbook. Special Reserve & Official Secrets. p. 5 – via Internet Archive.
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