Minah Ogbenyealu Bird (also known as Mynah Bird and Minah Uko) (11 March 1950 – July 1995) was a Nigerian model and actress active in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
Early life Bird was born in from Aba in Nigeria and was educated in Nigeria and Finland.
She appeared in several UK films of the 1970s.
Described as the "only major black starlet in British sex films", she vanished from public view from the late 1970s and was found dead in her Londonflat in Belgravia, London SW1; a few weeks after suffering an apparent heart attack in 1995.
Career Bird was listed as one of the "top black fashion models who paved the way for black women in fashion" alongside Iman and Grace Jones.
She appeared on the cover of Oz magazine in November 1970. She is credited with a series in the Sunday Mirror in the mid-1970s that birthed the trend of Kiss N Tell stories in newspapers.
Filmography Year Film Role 1971 Up Pompeii Girl Bather (uncredited) 1972 The Love Box (aka Lovebox) Black Girl ("New Colours" segment) Four Dimensions of Greta Cynthia Layout for 5 Models Maria 1974 Percy's Progress Miss America Vampira aka Old Dracula Rose It's Not the Size That Counts Maria 1976 Alfie Darling Gloria 1978 The Stud Molly Play For Today (BBC TV) S9.E2: "Victims of Apartheid" Clara 1979 The London Connection Narcotics Agent A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square Mavis (final film role)
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