Girls in
The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

A weekly look back at celebrity nudity happenings of note from the earliest days of famous females to today’s hottest starlets.

Learn all about skincredible events that happened during the week of October 24 through November 1, including: Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith exits the field, Kim Kardashian butts into Playboy, Susan Dey lets her Partridge pair free in Looker, naked Heather Graham skates throughout Boogie Nights, and Larry Flynt hustles for the first time.

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October 25, 2002
Cheerleader-movie icon Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith dies.

After a string of remarkable exploitation films such as The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974), The Pom Pom Girls (1976), Massacre at Central High (1976), and The Incredible Melting Man (1977), Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith ruled as the most singularly beguiling starlet of the drive-in era.

Then, when Cheryl vanished in 1982, she became one of cinema’s most enigmatic figures, prompting fans to wonder for decades what became of their beloved Rainbeaux.

Tragically, news of Ms. Smith succumbing to liver disease hit just as Synapse Films began work on a special-edition DVD of one of her most sought-after titles, Lemora (1973).

Thanks to her legion of devotees, though, the legacy of Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith lives on. Rah-rah-raw, forevermore.

Read about the rest of this week's historical events after the cut.

"What Pam Grier was to blaxploitation movies, what Bruce Lee was to kung fu movies, what Burt Reynolds was to good-ol'-boy movies, Rainbeaux Smith was to cheerleader movies. She truly has, without trying whatsoever, a Marilyn Monroe quality. She doesn't look like Monroe at all; she just has that kind of vacantness. She's not so much acting as she is existing. Imagine Marilyn Monroe as kind of a '70s hippie junky, then you kind of have Rainbeaux Smith." -- Quentin Tarentino

And on this date in 2002, the remarkable beauty who loomed so ethereal that the world naturally called her “Rainbeaux” departed this mortal coil.

Learn more and mourn with Mr Skin after the jump.