Their debut single, “C·30 C·60 C·90 Go!,” released in July 1980, was groundbreaking as the world’s first-ever cassette single. In November 1980, they released a cassette-only mini-album, Your Cassette Pet, which included tracks like “Sexy Eiffel Towers” that sparked early controversy due to suggestive moaning from the then-14-year-old Lwin.

Their first full-length album, See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!, was released in October 1981 after they signed with RCA. Their 1983 album, When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going, opened with the track “Aphrodisiac,” which, despite Lwin being only 16 at the time of its release, featured lyrics about drug-fueled sexual encounters.

She was credited simply as “The Girl,” but anyone who ever saw Cool Hand Luke knows her as “Lucille.” Harmon was the 27-year-old actress who tantalized a chain-gang of sweaty convicts in the Paul Newman classic in 1967. In just over 3 minutes of screen time, she left her mark on the film, the 196os, and pop culture at large: the car wash scene in Cool Hand Luke consistently ranks among the most iconic in cinema.

“I was just washing a car to my best ability and having fun with it, with the sponge and everything,” said Harmon. “My concept of the [scene] was not like what came out. I was not aware that there were two meanings to things that I was doing, and I’m still not really that much aware of what they all were.”

Joy Harmon—who had debuted on Broadway in 1958’s Make a Million and then partnered with Groucho Marx on his early 1960s TV show—said she scored the role after Newman marveled at the blueness of her eyes during the audition process. But once she arrived in Stockton, California, to film the scene, Harmon began to have second thoughts. The producers suggested the shoot would be better if Harmon smoked marijuana beforehand in order to act more uninhibited for the camera. “I don’t do that; I never have done that,” Harmon said in the interview in 2017. “I was so upset, and I called my dad and he said, ‘You just come on home. Don’t do the movie.’ I told Mr. Rosenberg I was going home and then they came to the room, and he brought me flowers and chocolate. He said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’re not doing marijuana; you don’t need it.’ And it worked out fine.”

Most of the credit for the sequence goes to Harmon, who displays the perfect combination of sexual power and mischievousness. But director Stuart Rosenberg clearly was trying to milk the scene for titillating effect—so much so that he had kept wives and girlfriend away from the set for weeks and then surprised the men with Harmon’s appearance so as to capture their genuine reactions. When she emerges from the dilapidated country house, turns on the portable radio and the hose, and goes to work washing the car, Rosenberg pointed the cameras at the men, watching her from a distance. They didn’t require instruction on how to act. “The only one that I talked to was Stuart Rosenberg and the photographer,” Harmon added. “He just worked it like—‘Now, get the sponge, and squeeze it, and wash the car’ and so forth. I just followed [his instruction]. The shots were all like kind of broken up, you know, how he wanted me to do it. It was easy. It was so easy.”

Harmon realized that she’d made an impression after the film came out. In 1968, she married film editor Jeff Gourson, and their Las Vegas honeymoon was comped and their hotel introduced her at shows as “The Girl From Cool Hand Luke.” But she didn’t chase fame, and she eventually left acting to raise her three children. “I was never one who said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be a big star,’” Harmon said. “I just took whatever came to me. It got to be the point where I would just get calls—I didn’t have to go in and read for it—go in for wardrobe and do scenes in all those TV shows that were out at that time. It was simple and easy and fun.”

Their relationship was primarily one of friendship and mutual respect within the burgeoning punk scene. They often played at the same venues and were part of the same community of artists. There are several well-known photographs of them together, including one taken by Blondie’s Chris Stein in 1977 that was used for a photo montage in Punk magazine titled “Mutant Monster Beach Party.”

Both artists were highly influential in shaping the sound and image of punk and new wave. Joey Ramone’s distinctive vocal style and the Ramones’ fast, raw, and melodic punk rock were hugely impactful. Debbie Harry, with her powerful vocals, striking stage presence, and Blondie’s innovative blend of punk, pop, disco, and reggae, also left an indelible mark on music. Their respective bands helped define an era and influenced countless musicians who followed.

Rowan was in his first year of university here, having just graduated from the public school St. Bees, where he’d had quite the reputation as a highly intelligent student (especially in science and maths), but also an unruly and rebellious troublemaker. One fellow student remembered him as “the one who is always kept behind after lessons and gets his revenge by writing scurrilous verse in Latin about the master who kept him in.” 

But he could also often be found tinkering with equipment on campus, as he had a great passion for fixing things, and he became a valued member of the school choir and even served as choir secretary. Most notably, though, he had a great talent for the stage, and his performances in school plays left a lasting impression on teachers and peers alike, even prompting his headmaster to tell him, “I have never recommended to anyone that they should take up a career in the entertainment industry, but it would seem silly for you, Atkinson, not at least to try.”

But Rowan, who adored all things electrical and mechanical, put aside his gift for performance for awhile. He followed in the footsteps of his two older brothers and went to Newcastle University, pursuing his passion for engineering. He recalled that he kept to himself and “worked very hard” there, and he was nearly at the top of his class upon earning his undergraduate degree at only 20 years old.

He would next go on to Oxford to do research, and it was there he would discover that he wanted to seriously embrace and pursue a career in comedy and performance. Lucky for all of us!

The info and quotes are from the Rowan Atkinson biography by Bruce Dessau, and Rowan’s Desert Island Discs episode from 1988. (via rowanatkinsonlibrary)