Minah Bird

{{Infobox person

| name = Minah Bird

| image = Minah_Bird.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Detail of photo by Lewis Morley (1970)
© National Portrait Gallery

| birth_name = Minah Ogbenyealu Bird

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1950|03|11|df=y}}

| birth_place = Nigeria

| death_date = July 1995

| death_place =

| nationality =

| other_names = Minah Uko

| known_for =

| occupation =

| years_active =

}}

Minah Ogbenyealu Bird (also known as Mynah Bird and Minah Uko) (11 March 1950 – July 1995) {{cite web|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp60072/minah-ogbenyealu-bird|title=National Portrait Gallery - Person - Minah Ogbenyealu Bird}} was a Nigerian model and actress active in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.{{cite web|url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba7c15cfc|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120721210821/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba7c15cfc|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-07-21|title=Minah Bird|work=BFI}}{{Cite news|last=Jennings|first=Michael-John|title=This month in the Times photographic archive: October 2020|newspaper=The Times|language=en|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/this-month-in-the-times-photographic-archive-october-2020-0fgknjrjn|access-date=2021-08-08|issn=0140-0460}}

Early life

Bird was born in from Aba in Nigeria and was educated in Nigeria and Finland.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IIE6AQAAIAAJ&q=Minah+Bird+Nigerian+model|title=Drum: A Magazine of Africa for Africa|date=1971|publisher=African Drum Publications|language=en}}

She appeared in several UK films of the 1970s.

Described as the "only major black starlet in British sex films",{{Cite book|last=Bourne|first=Stephen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0N1Ou7V5IJUC&q=Minah+Ogbenyealu+Bird&pg=PA148|title=Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television Second Edition|date=2001-11-30|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-5539-0|language=en}} she vanished from public view from the late 1970s and was found dead in her London council flat, a few weeks after suffering an apparent heart attack in 1995.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHzGw-FmigAC&q=minah+bird+actress&pg=PA245|title=With Balls and Chutzpah|isbn=9781462002740|last1=Gutowski|first1=Gene|date=2011-08-04|publisher=iUniverse }}{{Cite book|last=Laud|first=Derek|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GR8mBgAAQBAJ&q=Minah+Ogbenyealu+Bird&pg=PT74|title=The Problem With Immigrants|date=2015-01-27|publisher=Biteback Publishing|isbn=978-1-84954-877-9|language=en}}

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.{{Cite book|last=Zartosht|first=Shahin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cV8XEAAAQBAJ&q=Minah+Bird+1970s&pg=PA32|title=MODELING by Shahin Zartosht: A guide to becoming a Model|date=2021-01-27|publisher=Shahin Zartosht|isbn=979-8-7012-4573-8|language=en}}

She appeared on the cover of Oz magazine in November 1970.{{Cite web|title=Hippie Hippie Shake by Richard Neville|url=https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=ccs}} 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.{{Cite web|date=2011-04-20|title=Have super-injunctions killed the kiss'n'tell?|url=http://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/apr/20/super-injunction-kiss-tell|access-date=2021-08-08|website=the Guardian|language=en}}