Wynona Cheyney

Wynona Cheyney (b. 04/05/1934) was an actress. Also credited as Wynona Cheney.

Biography

Wynona Millicent Cheney became the third unofficial Miss South Africa in a beauty pageant that was held in 1949, keeping the title until 1951. Her first film was Alles Sal Regkom! (Hyman Kirstein/1951) with Al Debbo and Frederick Burgers, followed by Vadertjie Langbeen (Pierre de Wet/1955), Matieland! (Pierre de Wet/1955), Rip van Wyk (Emil Nofal/1960) and Hans en die Rooinek / Sidney and the Boer (Jamie Uys/1961). In February 1962 Die Huisgenoot reported that she was working on a film to be called Kalahari and would be making a short film for the Eye-Bank, but there is no evidence that these productions were completed. A film called Sands of the Kalahari, directed by Cy Endfield, was released in 1965, but she was not in it. In between films she concentrated on her modelling career. She was married and divorced three times, but after her divorce from Nigel Steggall, who had a role in the Al Debbo film Gevaarlike Spel (1962), she disappeared from sight.

(Trivia: In March 1956, several regional American newspapers reported that that she and another beauty contest entrant hoping to obtain a modeling job in London refused to parade in swimming suits at a frog jumping contest. “I can’t see what parading in bathing suits in front of a crowd at a frog jumping contest has got to do with modeling in London,” Miss Cheyney said.