Brenda Sykes
Nude

When you appear in Playboy in articles titled, “Sex in Cinema 1972,” “Sex Stars of 1972,” and “Sex Stars of 1975,” you’re a shoe-in for a page on Mr. Skin. Brenda Sykes was one of the hot heroines of the ’70s “blaxploitation” film scene, and the foxy Black bombshell had her first feature-film jam as “Jelly” in The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970) with Lola Falana. The 5’5” Louisiana native went on to make nine more films in the following five years, including The Baby Maker (1970) as Francis, starring Barbara Hershey; playing Luan in Getting Straight (1970) with Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen; as Pamela in Pretty Maids All in a Row(1971) with Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, and Telly Savalas; Skin Game (1971), as Naomi with James Garner and Louis Gossett Jr.; the lead role of Sheila Smith in Honky (1971); a leading role of Judith in Black Gunn (1972) with Martin Landau, where you can see her bouncing breasts as she sits up in bed; Cleopatra Jones (1973) playing the role of Tiffany; Mandingo (1975), where you see her character Ellen’s breasts and a flash of bush in the shadows as she sits in bed, fanning an equally naked Perry King; and Drum (1976) with Pam Grier, where she bares her boobs again, along with a substantial amount of long leg tangled up in sheets. Brenda also appeared on numerous TV shows, and even scored regular gigs as Brenda MacKenzie in Ozzie’s Girls in 1973, a spin-off of Ozzie & Harriet; and as Summer Johnson in Executive Suite from 1976-1977. When the ‘70s ended, so did appearances of Brenda…and her reasons for appearing in Playboy.