Both the IMDB and the allmovie guide list a birthdate in 1945 for German actress Christine Kaufmann. If accurate, that would mean that she played Steve Reeves' leading lady in THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1959) at the age of 13 or 14, depending on when the film was actually shot. Is this plausible? Certainly, some actresses have been known to "make a mistake" regarding their birth years.

The information is certainly widespread, including on a website devoted to the actress. The IMDb page mentions that she started dating Tony Curtis at the age of 17 when they met on the set of TARAS BULBA (1962); they married a year later and had two children. It's that "married a year later" part that leads me to believe the date is true.

Reeves would have been 32 or 33 at the time of filming LAST DAYS OF POMPEII, so it kind of creeps me out to think that Kaufmann was 13 or 14 at that time.

Olivia Hussey, a similar actress in some ways, played Juliet in Zefferelli's ROMEO AND JULIET at 15. She had to share the screen with Leonard Whiting's bare bum, so Christine Kaufmann got off easy, don't you think?

(Until TOWN WITHOUT PITY when, at 15 or 16, she had to play a gang-rape scene with four actors, including Robert Blake and GOMER PYLE U.S.M.C.'s Frank Sutton.) :o

Tony Curtis was even older, about 36 in TARAS BULBA (1962) when he and Christine met. And, as Tim pointed out, she married him.

Older guys are cool.

Now that I'm older, I realize that. :lol: