Juliet Prowse Gets 5-Stitch Bite From ‘Playful’ Leopard

Actress and dancer Juliet Prowse was bitten by a leopard Monday while rehearsing for the annual “Circus of the Stars” television special.

Prowse, 51, required five stitches to close neck wounds she suffered in the 9 a.m. attack that occurred while she was training with two leopards and three panthers, according to Dan Jenkins, spokesman for “Circus of the Stars.”

Jenkins said one of the wounds came dangerously close to severing the vital carotid artery, which supplies blood to the brain.

“Today was the beginning of her fourth week of rehearsal” with the cats and their trainers, Lucio and Jilda Cristiani, Jenkins said.

The three were practicing with the animals on the campus of California State University, Northridge, when “Out of the blue, this leopard just struck.”

Jenkins said Jilda Cristiani, 42, rushed up to the leopard and hit it on the nose, got its mouth open and pulled it away from Prowse.

Prowse was taken to Granada Hills Community Hospital about 9:15 a.m. She was treated and released by 9:45 a.m., hospital spokesman David Hughes said.

Jenkins said Prowse handled the attack calmly and planned to continue with the act.

“It was the trainer who was terribly upset and frightened. It was Juliet who calmed her down,” Jenkins said.

“When she got back from the hospital, she wanted to go right back to the rehearsal. They wouldn’t let her rehearse, but she did pet and talk to each of the animals as she does at the end of each rehearsal.”

Jenkins said it took two weeks for the leopards to get used to Prowse.

“Juliet was the first person other than Jilda to work with these animals,” he said.

Jenkins said Prowse joked with him last week about why she chose the leopards over a trapeze act, which the circus organizers had originally offered.

He said Prowse told him: “I could get hurt doing that, I could break my leg. Doing this (working with the leopards) all I could do is lose an arm.”

Lucio Cristiani, 65, said the 8-year-old leopard, Sheila, probably did not mean to hurt Prowse.

“You always get nipped,” Cristiani said. “It doesn’t mean they’re mean, they just want to play.”

Cristiani said Prowse “got bitten a little bit in the neck” while petting Sheila.

“She was embracing the animal. Sometimes when they want to show affection they nip,” he said. “It was nothing serious.”