
Rosanne Katon
Rosanne Katon is an American model, actress, comedian and activist. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its September 1978 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Mario Casilli.
Katon was born in New York City to a Jamaican-born father and an African-American mother. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Katon worked steadily in Hollywood, including a stint on Grady, the short-lived spin-off of the hit situation comedy Sanford and Son that starred Whitman Mayo in the title role, and guest appearances on Jason of Star Command, What's Happening!!, Good Times and That's My Mama, which starred Clifton Davis. She then had leading roles in two Cirio Santiago action films, both released in 1976, Ebony, Ivory & Jade, in which she received top billing, and The Muthers, in which she acted alongside former Playboy centerfold Jean Bell. However, the shapely actress was often typecast in sex kitten roles in R-Rated comedies such as The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974), Chesty Anderson, U.S. Navy (1976), American Raspberry (1976), Lunch Wagon (1981), Zapped! (1982) and Bachelor Party (1984). This was solidified by her appearance as the September 1978 Playboy centerfold. She had a recurring role opposite Denzel Washington on the medical drama St. Elsewhere and her appearance in two award-winning UCLA student films, Julie Dash's "Illusions," released in 1982, in which she portrayed a singer doubling for a white actress in 1940s Hollywood (whether she did her own singing in the role was not known as of mid December 2012), and S. Torriano Berry's "Rich," in which she portrays the title character's supportive girlfriend. Her other film credits included the TV movie The Night They Took Miss Beautiful (1977), the cult horror film Motel Hell (1980), Body and Soul (1981), City Girl (1984) and Harem (1985), opposite Nastassja Kinski and Ben Kingsley.
Katon was selected as Miss Golden Globes for the 1981 awards show. The honor and the task of presenting the statuettes during the ceremony goes to an up-and-coming actress. Katon was the first African American to be selected, since the custom started in 1962.
Additionally, Katon has had several stage credits, including a Broadway lead role in Godspell and a featured role in the parody of women in prison movies, Women Behind Bars.
At one point, Katon segued into the world of stand-up comedy, and during that period in her career, she appeared in the June 1991 Playboy pictorial "Funny Girls," which covered female comedians.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 0.032 |
Birthday | 1954-02-05 |
Place of Birth | New York City, New York, USA |
Also Known As |

1974

The Swinging Cheerleaders
6/27
In order to write an expose on how cheerleading demeans women, a reporter for a college newspaper infiltrates the cheerleading squad.
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The Swinging Cheerleaders

1980

Motel Hell
5.762/246
Farmer Vincent Smith and his sister Ida run a motel attached to a farm where they capture unsuspecting travelers, bury them alive, fatten them up and...
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Motel Hell

2007

Autism: The Musical
6.9/11
Follows five autistic children as they work together to create and perform a live musical production.
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Autism: The Musical

1976

Ebony, Ivory & Jade
6.3/3
An American track team has just arrived in The Philippines for an international competition. Among the competitors are Ginger and Pam, nicknamed "Ivor...
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Ebony, Ivory & Jade

1981

Lunch Wagon
4.6/5
Three women start a lunch wagon business but run into stiff resistance from a competitor.
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Lunch Wagon

1976

The Muthers
4.9/24
A band of female pirates go undercover at a prison camp on a coffee plantation to rescue their leader's sister.
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The Muthers

1976

Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy
4/5
When one of her friends goes missing, Chesty and several fellow WAVEs go looking for her and end up in a world of senatorial corruption and Mafia inti...
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Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy

1988

Police Story: The Watch Commander
0/0
This is the story of policeman who has been on the job for over forty years. And one of his duties is to look out for all of the officers under him ca...
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Police Story: The Watch Commander

1984

The City Girl
7/2
A female photographer who is engaged to a businessman investigates a cult in the local club scene. By living out some of her sexual fantasies, she fac...
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The City Girl

1980

The Comeback Kid
6/10
A down-on his-luck baseball pitcher finds a new set of rewards coaching a gang of underprivileged youngsters and romancing a career-oriented playgroun...
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The Comeback Kid

1985

Harem
4.6/23
Diane is a sophisticated trainee on the New York Stock Exchange who is suddenly kidnapped and held captive in a North African desert hideaway by Selim...
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Harem

1979

Playboy's Roller Disco & Pajama Party
1/2
Hugh Hefner invites you to Playboy’s Roller Disco and Pajama Party! With your host, Richard Dawson!
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Playboy's Roller Disco & Pajama Party

1983

Casting
0/0
A famous director wants to make a film about true love, the kind his grandparents experienced when they lived together for 60 years. For this project,...
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Casting

1983

Rich
0/0
A young man living in the inner city, runs into conflicts with his mother when he decides to pursue a college education instead of accepting an offer...
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Rich

1984

Bachelor Party
6.276/655
On the eve of his wedding to his longtime girlfriend, unassuming nice guy Rick is dragged out for a night of debauchery by his friends.
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Bachelor Party

1982

Zapped!
5.2/129
Peyton and Barney are fun loving high school students working on a science project with white mice. When one of the mice begins to move food toward it...
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Zapped!

1982

Illusions
5.5/12
A woman in a Hollywood dubbing studio struggles with race and preconceptions.
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Illusions

1977

The Night They Took Miss Beautiful
5.6/5
Criminals hijack an airplane carrying five beauty contest finalists, but unknowingly they've also kidnapped a government agent carrying a dangerous vi...
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The Night They Took Miss Beautiful

1989

Peter Gunn
4.6/5
Peter Gunn, a connoisseur of beautiful women and cool jazz, is an ex-cop turned private eye who's caught in the middle of a dangerous gang war.
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Peter Gunn

1978

Coach
3.6/7
A young, blonde and beautiful woman is hired to coach a team of underachieving basketball players and against all odds, leads them to victory.
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Coach

1981

Body and Soul
3.9/8
A young man struggles to become a boxing champ, but success blinds him. It is only through the love of his girlfriend that he is brought back to reali...
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