If you spent any time in front of a television in the mid-1960s, you couldn't miss her. Joey Heatherton was everywhere. She was the girl with the platinum hair and the "frug" dance moves that made Johnny Carson blush. She was a USO staple, a Bob Hope favorite, and the quintessential "sex kitten" of an era that didn't yet have a word for the kind of chaotic, high-energy fame she carried.
But then, she just... stopped.
The transition from "it girl" to missing person in the public record didn't happen overnight, though it feels that way when you look at the gap in her credits. Honestly, the story of what happened to Joey Heatherton is a messy, tragic, and deeply human tale that tells us more about the brutality of 1970s Hollywood than it does about her talent. She didn't just retire. She was dismantled by a series of scandals that she didn't always start, but certainly couldn't finish.
The Marriage That Broke Her Momentum
You can’t talk about Joey Heatherton’s decline without talking about Lance Rentzel. In 1969, they were the ultimate power couple: the dazzling variety star and the Dallas Cowboys wide receiver. It looked like a storybook. It wasn't.
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In 1970, Rentzel was arrested for exposing himself to a 10-year-old girl.
The fallout was nuclear. This was decades before the public learned how to separate the actions of a spouse from their partner. In the eyes of the 1970s public, Joey was guilty by association. People didn't just pity her; they were repulsed by the proximity to the crime. She stood by him initially, which the press used to paint her as a woman who condoned the behavior. By the time they divorced in 1972, the "sweetheart" image was dead.
She tried to pivot. She released The Joey Heatherton Album in '72, and while the single "Gone" actually hit the charts, the momentum was gone, too. She was no longer the fresh-faced girl next door; she was the woman from the tabloids.
The Legal Spiral and the Steak Knife Incident
The 1980s were even harder. While her peers were enjoying "where are they now" nostalgia tours, Heatherton was making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The most infamous moment—the one that basically sealed her fate in the industry—happened in August 1986.
Joey was arrested for assault.
She had been in a heated argument with her former boyfriend and manager, Jerry Fischer, and ended up stabbing him in the hand with a steak knife. When the police showed up, they didn't believe she was the famous Joey Heatherton. To prove her identity, she handed over her purse. The cops found a foil packet with less than a gram of cocaine inside.
While the drug charges were eventually dropped due to an unconstitutional search, and Fischer eventually dropped the assault charges, the damage was permanent. You've got to understand how the industry worked back then. Hollywood can forgive a lot of things, but it has a very short fuse for "unpredictable" women. She wasn't a star anymore; she was a liability.
Where is Joey Heatherton Now?
Fast forward to 2026. Joey is now 81 years old.
She has spent the last several decades as a virtual recluse in New York City. Unlike many of her contemporaries, you won't find her on the convention circuit signing autographs for $50 a pop. She doesn't have an active Instagram. She isn't writing a "tell-all" memoir.
There were brief flickers of a comeback in the 90s. John Waters, ever the lover of camp and forgotten icons, cast her in Cry-Baby (1990). It was a brilliant move, but it didn't lead to a late-career resurgence. After a 1993 appearance on The Ricki Lake Show, she mostly pulled the curtain shut for good.
Reports from those who have crossed paths with her over the years suggest she lives a quiet, private life. She isn't "missing," but she is intentionally absent. After a life lived in the glare of flashbulbs—and the harshness of a public that loved her until she became "complicated"—who can blame her for choosing silence?
Key Takeaways for the Curious:
- The Turning Point: Her career never truly recovered from the 1970 scandal involving her then-husband, Lance Rentzel.
- Legal Woes: A string of arrests in the mid-80s, including an assault charge and a passport office dispute, made her "unhirable" in mainstream Hollywood.
- Net Worth: Despite the chaos, estimates place her net worth around $3 million to $5 million, largely due to smart management of her peak-year earnings and family estate.
- Current Status: She resides in Manhattan, avoiding the spotlight entirely to maintain her privacy in her 80s.
If you’re looking to revisit her work, skip the tabloid archives. Go find the clips of her on the Bob Hope USO tours or her guest spots on The Dean Martin Show. That’s where the real Joey Heatherton lives—a performer with a level of electric energy that very few modern stars can actually match.
The best way to respect her legacy now is to let her have the privacy she clearly fought so hard to find. If you want to dive deeper into that specific era of television, look for archival footage of the Hullabaloo series from 1965; it’s the best time capsule of the "Joey-mania" that once took over the country.