Joyce Nizzari

Joyce was Playmate of the Month for December 1958. Her pictorial was titled Model Playmate.

Joyce was born May 20, 1940 in New York City. She was “discovered” by photographer Bunny Yeager in Miami when she was only 15, but did only bikini shots until she turned 18. In August 1957, she won a cup awarded by the Florida Photographers Association and was chosen queen of their annual convention.

Joyce first appeared in Playboy on the July 1958 issue cover.

Following her Playmate pictorial, Joyce dated Hugh Hefner for a few years. She worked as a Bunny at the first Playboy Club in Chicago, trained Bunnies at the New Orleans Playboy Club and worked as a Bunny at the Miami Playboy Club.

Joyce appeared in a number of movies and television shows. Her first role was as one of the “The Wild Women of Wongo” in the movie of the same title in 1958, before her Playmate pictorial. She had roles in two episodes of “The Beverly Hillbillies” and other popular shows of the time, such as “Petticoat Junction” and “Green Acres.” She also performed in Chips Off the Old Block, a Barry Ashton dance revue, at the Statler Hilton in Los Angeles.

She was married to actor Jack Hogan, of the television show “Combat,” from 1967 to 1980. They had two children. She later was married to a real estate agent and builder for a period of time.

Joyce worked for a while as a medical transcriber in the Los Angeles area. In the late 1990s she returned to the Playboy fold full-time as one of Hefner’s assistants in the Playboy Mansion.

All posts about Joyce

Digital | Later in life | Informal

Playboy appearances:

Covers:

Calendars:

NSS:

Foreign:

Other publications:

Television:

  • Playboy’s Penthouse (Oct. 24, 1959)
  • Burke’s Law, as Molly Baker in the episode “Who Killed Molly?” (1964); as Bunny #2, Tammy in the episode “Who Killed the Grand Piano?” (1965); and as a girl at a bar in the episode “Who Killed Hamlet?” (1965)
  • McHale’s Navy, as “The 1st Girl” in the episode Giuseppe McHale (1965)
  • The Beverly Hillbillies, as Mabel Slocum in the episodes “Clampett’s Millions” (1965) and “Double Naught Jethro” (1965); and as a Kitty Kat Showgirl in the episode “Brewster’s Baby” (1966)
  • Green Acres, as a cigarette girl in the episode “Eb Discovers the Birds and the Bees” (1966)
  • Petticoat Junction, as a hat check girl in the episode “The Windfall” (1966)
  • Hawaii Five-O, as Carla Balford in the episode “A Stranger in His Grave” (1978)

Movies:

  • The Wild Women of Wongo (1958) as a woman of Wongo
  • A Hole in the Head (1959) as Alice
  • Come Blow Your Horn (1963) as Snow Eskanazi
  • Seven Days in May (1964) in an uncredited role
  • The Candidate (1964) as a party girl
  • Pajama Party (1964) as a Pajama Girl
  • The Great Race (1965) in an uncredited role as a woman in the West
  • Nevada Smith (1966) in an uncredited role as a saloon girl
  • Chubasco (1968) in an uncredited role as a girl in a cannery