20 Things You Didn't Know About Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

15. “I Call These Girls My Acorns.”

Diamonds Are Forever Moon
MGM/UA

Dean Martin’s uncle, Leonard Barr enjoyed a brief but memorable role as Shady Tree, a stand-up comic working at The Whyte House who also moonlights as a key link in the diamond smuggling pipeline.

When Shady Tree appears before a live audience flanked by two dancing girls - his "Acorns" - Barr is sharing the stage with two soon-to-be-famous faces: Valerie Perrine and Cassandra Peterson.

Although they were both uncredited in the finished film, Valerie Perrine went on to become Eve Teschmacher opposite Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie (1978) and Superman II (1980), whilst her fellow "Acorn", Cassandra Peterson became gothic horror hostess, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Sadly, a cameo appearance from Sammy Davis Junior was left on the cutting room floor, as was Shady Tree’s death at the hands of Mr Wint and Mr Kidd (Bruce Glover and Putter Smith), who shot him with a "trick" stage pistol.

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