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From:
Al Cruz
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Friday, December 31, 2021
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On December 24, Sylvie’s birthday, I heard from Al Jenke the news of Sylvie’s passing. It was shocking.... Back in 1988 on a Culver City studio, when I met Sylvie, she said during a conversation: “I will die young…” I didn’t have a clue why she said that…. And she continued: “I’m like Marilyn…I’m tempestuous…”
10 years later, working in a secretarial job at Long Beach airport her colleague, an older lady, said that Sylvie had special psychic capabilities. She explained that Sylvie was extremely sensitive to all sorts of passengers and even sensitive to the plane’s engines and could detect if the planes passing over her office had their engines well maintained or not…this was unrelated to her training at Air France when she worked at LAX and was responsible to board elderly passengers. …
Being extremely talented and original, the conclusion might be that Sylvie had indeed a more evolved sensorial mechanism. It could’ve been a huge plus in a different society, but it ended up going against her-- it scarred people a lot.
Original, talented, intelligent, brave, and highly intuitive… as Al Jenke put it very well: “Her love of others - coupled with her childlike innocence and openness - disarmed and charmed all those who encountered her.”
From 17 to 31 years of age she embodied roles as a model, street photographer, actress, storyboard artist, art painter…just to name a few… she embodied them all with great talent. She could have pursued any of these fields professionally, however being too original and a nonconformist by nature, she constantly broke norms or rules and drove employers crazy, not to say, movie directors... She did it for the sake of art…it cost her a lot…it felt as if she were not living in her own time, or world, or universe…
She took life as a very special event, a rare opportunity, and her nature impelled her to live life to the fullest: in her late teens and early 20s while swinging from modeling and photography she studied in top schools like the acting school at Lee Strasberg Institute in West Hollywood. She even took classes in several clown schools in Hollywood. She practiced her clown abilities attracting kids’ attention—she went to the LA Zoo and played with monkeys who responded and soon kids gathered to laugh and watch the show. The problem was she got too close to animals and sometimes jumped the fence to be closer particularly to monkeys and wild cats until she was finally prohibited to visit the zoo. She then moved to Hollywood, where she took a part-time job at the Scientology Celebrity Center on Franklin Ave., taking care of and entertaining kids there, but soon applied for and got a job as administrative secretary in the famed AFI (American Film Institute). It was a great time for Sylvie, she was happy, she liked her job very much, and began a renewed enthusiasm to the world of culture, art and studies—she was taking acting classes also in downtown LA. She loved to take long rides, driving her beloved 1967 Mustang, a classic praised everywhere by admirers. The way she would dispose of it a few years later during a manifestation against the first Iraq war should have earned her a citizen medal of honor…if…
While at AFI, she was referred to applying for an acting role at Universal Studios and got the part for a big movie that never got out the ground, which led her to depression. Then she decided to finish her high school. She entered Santa Monica College aiming at an AA in Theater arts. Meanwhile, she worked part-time at Air France at LAX and then started a studying a program to become a stewardess so she could travel to France to visit her relatives.
Some events really marked Sylvie, as if testing her emotions, swinging like a pendulum on both sides of her emotional spectrum. She joined the health revolution in LA and read dozens of books on the dangers of modern nutrition and its connection to modern diseases. She worked part-time in several health food stores in Santa Monica and West LA. One day, amid her schooling, Sylvie couldn’t get a hold of her best friend, also a model. She then went to her house in Culver City just to find her friend mourning the death of her boyfriend who had just shot himself in the head in the backward. This accident shocked Sylvie, but another one would shock her even more.
Sylvie and her friend from school usually skated together to Santa Monica College every day. One day Sylvie took a break, and her friend skated alone to school. A few days later, Sylvie got the news that her friend was kidnapped and that the friend had disappeared and was never to be found. Sylvie entered into a deep state of melancholy. Needing a break, she went to France, bringing along all her modeling photo albums. For about four months she worked as a model in France but found hostility and incompatibility with her French agent, which was a very disappointing for her.
Back in LA, she tried to regain strength and concentrated on finishing her studies. While graduating from Santa Monica College, she applied for the most prestigious universities in California including UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Cruz. As a surprise to many people who doubted her intellectual talents, besides her natural talents, she was accepted by all these universities. She picked UCLA to stay in her hometown. UCLA’s Theater, Film, and Television School, with a 4% acceptance rate, was and still is one of the top 5 schools in the country.
She worked part-time around the UCLA campus in various jobs: as a ticket agent for the Geffen Playhouse, and as assistant manager for the UCLA Performing Arts at Royce Hall. Although enjoying her time in the theater program, she still had some communication problems especially with directors who she thought were stuck up, shallow, and non-interesting. She got acting roles in students’ projects, including main roles, but it was at the DGA (Directors Guild of America) that someone big spotted her. During a film retrospective of Bernardo Bertolucci’s works, Bertolucci himself approached Sylvie and asked her to send him any acting work of hers—he wanted to audition her for the leading role in his next movie, Stealing Beauty. We prepared for it, and I was sure she would be the best actress for the role. After trying to put something together, she ended up not sending him anything and for some strange reason didn’t want to talk about it. Right there, it could’ve been her big break…. In any case, something seemed to be bothering her… She then graduated from UCLA. What to do after graduation?...she often asked. While preparing for her next move, she moved into a nice West LA apartment, sharing the apartment with the owner, an old lady who developed an authoritative desire to control Sylvie. Well, that will never happen…
One day, when the old lady decided to play the role of a superior general, Sylvie didn’t measure words and call her names, more than what she deserved to be called, and they had a real nasty fight. Sylvie was so disturbed that a few days later she opened the California map and pointed her finger at a location close to the Oregon border: “I want peace…they might even have a good school over there for me to continue …”
We rented a car and traveled to Humboldt County. On the way, we stopped at a famed art museum in Big Sur just to find out that the museum had been broken in. We went in and saw nobody. The gate was turned down and the museum door was open. Sylvie couldn’t believe it; she had a profound admiration for the works in the museum. We rushed to the city center to inform anyone about the incident and found no one in town, which seemed abandoned. Then, someone at the Post Office informed us that the city had no authorities around that day. Big Sur had representation in Monterey. Sylvie insisted that the museum needed to be taken care of…and couldn’t be left abandoned… The person told Sylvie: “would you like to play mayor today?...” Immediately, Sylvie said yes…the person prepared a document and asked Sylvie to sign. There she was the temp mayor of Big Sur… The only thing she wanted to do was to take care of the museum which she did. We got the tools and drove back to the museum and fixed the gate and put the wooden wall/fence back up in place…. We spent 4 days there then they even joked if Sylvie would like to take the mayor job seriously…. She said she needed to reach Humboldt County…. “it’s my gold rush…” she said laughing…
She really liked Arcata and the University campus, and the beauty of the region. Back in LA, she started planning her move to Arcata and applied to the university. She was then accepted to the MFA in theater arts at Humboldt University.
Once settled in Arcata, everything was going well until her final thesis, an acting role in a movie shot in Humboldt County, playing the main character. The director was strange, and she was the one who knew more about the character she was playing than the director himself, leading up to an antagonistic relation with the director and then to a big fight…and she left the project. She went to the school principal who told her she needed to obey the director, “that’s the role of an actress…no matter what…” She off course disagreed, and they got into a nasty argument, and she left the school with an unfinished MFA. Too bad because with the MFA she would have been able to teach.
Besides, she had exciting project plans: she had initiated a program with the city on what she called “enlightenment” designed for people with mental health disorders. She met with the group twice a week. Visiting, I attended one session: it was a sizeable house owned by the city, about twenty people, all males, and Sylvie who was the coordinator. They all looked up to Sylvie, and I was amazed by the respect they had for her. The other project was for criminals in prison—she convinced the local police authorities to spend time talking to prisoners. She liked to meet alone with them in their jails, even with the toughest criminals, just to be able to get the real picture, their motives, and their mental states... She created the concept of “healing with theater”. Sylvie got data from the prisoners, wrote the play for them, and cast them. She then created the performance and included all of them. Her intention was to write a report to the State and prove that making them creative would be a healing process, making them better people, so the “returning to society idea” would make more sense. She was very successful in one prison project in the city of Ferndale. However, the events leading up to her not finishing her MFA thesis that required her in a leading role in a finished movie, plus the conflicts with the university were too distressful for her…
Highly frustrated she decided to return to LA. I flew from Long Beach to Oakland then took the 10-hour bus ride to Arcata. We put everything on a U-Haul truck and pulled her VW Fox car. Her cat came along. His name was Garrincha—when he was little in West LA, he loved to dribble resembling a skilled soccer player, so she gave him the name as a tribute to a brilliant, original, underrated soccer player. However, 1 hour driving down the 101, Garrincha became really agitated and then we heard a strange big boom and the traffic suddenly stopped. Everybody got out of their cars and walked down to see what had just happened. …and we saw something terrible, we saw the head of a man hanging out of his driver’s seat window. We heard the humming noise of a boy crying; he was in the back seat. Everybody around was desperately calling 911. In the end, the firemen managed to take the 10-year-old boy out of the wreckage, but his young sister, mother, and father were dead. After hours of waiting on the 101, we then were cleared to proceed. But we instead took a detour and took the 36 highway just to get out of the 101. Garrincha was very quiet. Sylvie was silent for hours, and when we finally stopped for a break, she just said “life is very precious…”
In Long Beach, she got a secretarial job at Long Beach airport…There her colleague, a nice older lady, really admired Sylvie, certain that Sylvie had special psychic abilities. Everything was going fine in her job, but at home Sylvie’s neighbor, for some strange reason, purposefully had her TV loud all the time especially at night. The mobile homes were only 6 ft apart. Despite several unsuccessful attempts politely asking the lady to turn her TV down and then the mobile home managers to convince the lady to be reasonable, Sylvie finally found a solution: she managed to cut off the electrical wiring going into the lady’s home. Finally, Sylvie had a piece of mind. However, the managers asked her to leave the property.
After a few months living between Long Beach and Orange County, she got tired of the widespread rudeness and indifference in Southern California, in her words “I’m beginning to be afraid of people, I keep trying to make them invisible to me but it’s not working…I’ve been very sad…I think it’s time to go, I know I’ll be terribly lonely but it’s beautiful over there…” …she missed the nice people of Humboldt County. So, she moved back to Arcata, this time for good…and lived for 20 years medicated taken care of by psychiatrists and psychologists and in isolation, but peacefully in her quiet solitude, as well described by Al Jenke, living among the nicest people, close to nature and her family…
This is just a glimpse of her. What could she have done if she were allowed to, if one door had opened? People like Sylvie should have a special place in society. Perhaps one day, when society becomes more evolved, there will be a special place for them. Throughout history, people like her have always been on the side of life no matter how rigorous the existing values were... It is their DNAs, their souls, their reason to be here. Throughout history, they have paid a high price, just for being originals. How many of them were burned, beheaded in public places, jailed in unreachable islands, or their voices shut off, their talents stifled. In the end she’ll be fine, to say the least, reuniting with the primordial elements that originated her, in her trajectory alongside the evolutionary forces of the cosmos.
In early 1990 in Culver City, one known fine art photographer told me very sincerely that more than anybody he knew he liked seeing Sylvie around the studio. I asked why. “Because we learn a lot with her…it is something hard to explain...” Another literary figure in LA would later tell me that if he were holding the gates of heaven, he would’ve stuck his arms far out just to fetch Sylvie in: “She would be the first one on my list…”
Losing her gives me an eerie feeling we lost the last survival of what was once humanity. Thank you for all the light you shone upon us, for all the teachings and inspiration, and joy you brought to the ones who knew you. You will be profoundly missed.
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From:
Al Jenke
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Sunday, December 5, 2021
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Sylvie was a simple, unsophisticated, unpretentious, open soul. Her love of others - coupled with her childlike innocence and openness - disarmed and charmed all those who encountered her. ****** She had known MUCH pain and loneliness throughout her 51 short years, yet she usually went about with a smile on her face and a warm word for those whom she encountered upon her road of life. ****** She intended harm to no one and had a warm smile for everyone. ****** Sometimes, she could be VERY exasperating in her stubbornness and self-will, but she had a heart of forgiveness, never held a grudge and was always ready to welcome you with open heart and arms !! ****** You will be missed beyond the ability of words to express, Sylvie, and I have no doubt that I shall NOT encounter another of your heart during the rest of my journey through this life. ****** I dedicate this beautiful song by Roy Orbison to YOU, My Love [ https://youtu.be/tl2SraVKsVI ]. ****** My ardent prayer is that we shall meet and continue to grow in friendship in the life to come. ****** May you rest in the Love, Joy and Peace of Jesus Christ NOW !!
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From:
noella Romeo
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Sunday, November 28, 2021
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From Noella Sylvie's Mother
Sylvie was a great child a wonderful daughter . Her friend and very carrying room mate Al Jenke said it all in his tribute.
she was a very smart, intelligent and a beautiful person. losing a child is one of the hardest thing that can happen to a parent.
Sylvie call me almost daily to tell me how much she loved me. I loved her so much and will miss her . I know she is now in heaven has one of the Angel resting in peace with no more pains and suffering.
Sylvie I miss you but you will always be with me.
Love you always !
MOM
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