The New York Times<\/a>, referring to Sharon Tate. <\/p>\n‘Whew. I also dated Jay Sebring’\u00a0 \u2014 Tate\u2019s celebrity hairdresser, played by Emile Hirsch in the movie.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both Tate and Sebring were tragically murdered by the Manson family in August 1969 at the home she shared with husband Roman Polanski.<\/p>\n
In addition to her choreography career, Basil also acted, with roles in counterculture classics like Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1970), both of which helped define the era Tarantino\u2019s film draws from.<\/p>\n
Basil said she was floored by Tarantino\u2019s encyclopedic knowledge of her work \u2014 even recalling her offbeat duet with Davy Jones, Daddy\u2019s Song, in the Monkees\u2019 1968 film Head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"If](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98841157-14759099-If_you_said_Toni_Basil_you_re_absolutely_right_seen_in_2023_-m-54_1748468624491.jp.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
If you said Toni Basil \u2014 you’re absolutely right!; (seen in 2023)<\/p>\n
![\"Toni's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98841049-14759099-Toni_s_song_Mickey_topped_the_charts_in_1982-a-12_1748473019119.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Toni’s song Mickey topped the charts in 1982\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Her](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98840341-14759099-Her_showbiz_heyday_included_choreography_work_on_American_Graffi-a-13_174847301921.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Her showbiz heyday included choreography work on American Graffiti, a lead dancer role in the 1964 beach party film Pajama Party, and a performance in the Elvis classic Viva Las Vegas\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"More](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98840343-14759099-image-a-47_1748468488863.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
More recently, Toni choreographed Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the age of 75;\u00a0<\/p>\n
His ’60s dance expertise also left her stunned.<\/p>\n
When Basil mentioned that Bonanza star Michael Landon once danced ‘the Freddie’ on Hullabaloo, Tarantino instantly stood up and demonstrated the moves himself \u2014 rocking side to side and slapping his arms across his torso.<\/p>\n
‘Not a lot of people know that dance,’ Basil said. ‘I certainly don\u2019t know another director who can dance it. When Quentin did the Freddie, I thought to myself: ‘Well, I\u2019ll never pull the wool over this guy\u2019s eyes.”‘<\/p>\n
Basil was born Antonia Christina Basilotta on September 22, 1943, in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
With a vaudeville performer for a mother and an orchestra leader for a father, showbiz was in her blood. Of Italian descent, she was raised in Las Vegas after her father relocated the family there for work.<\/p>\n
She graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1961, where she served as head cheerleader \u2014 a role that would later help define her signature style.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The iconic cheerleader outfit she wore in the Mickey video wasn\u2019t a costume \u2014 it was her actual high school uniform, repurposed decades later for one of the most unforgettable pop visuals of the 1980s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans of one of the biggest one-hit wonders of the ’80s were in for a surprise when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,92,77,813,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-140737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tvshowbiz","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114589764650875043","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Fans](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98840067-14759099-image-a-35_1748468332120.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98840069-14759099-image-a-36_1748468335812.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Despite](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/98840067-14759099-image-m-46_1748468432583.jpg\")
<\/p>\n