I was a student at Ball State living off-campus back in the summer of 1982, in those nostalgic days when cable TV was cheap ($12/month with HBO). It was a Saturday, and I was watching some sword-and-sorcery movie, where a really handsome visitor was asking a wizard for help in killing a dragon. The wizard gets killed and his apprentice goes in his place. Along the way one morning the apprentice decides to join the visitor for a swim in a forest pool. The visitor tries to warn him away. The apprentice finds out why.
Whoa.
That handsome what-I-thought-was-a-guy turned out to be a very handsome woman. It was then that I fell for actress Caitlin Clarke.
I would like to say that Caitlin Clarke had won the hearts of male fans such as myself by her performance alone. But, you know, I'm sure Ms. Clarke would not want me to lie. :) It was Ms. Clarke's looks that got us: She was so handsome a person that it would not have mattered to some of her fans if Katie was a guy.
Yet, in putting my admiration in Ms. Clarke I and other fans haven't gone amiss. She turned an excellent performance in that movie, and it was that performance that sealed the loyalty of her fans. And in the two decades since, as I followed her career in the theater, I found praise for her performances even in plays parbroiled by critics in their reviews. She has also done well in film and television, even though her career never panned out in Hollywood.