Mara Corday

Known for ActingBorn 1930-01-03Died 2025-02-09Santa Monica, California, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mara Corday, born Marilyn Joan Watts (January 3, 1930 — February 9, 2025) was an American showgirl, model, actress, Playboy Playmate and a 1950s cult figure. Wanting a career in films, Corday came to Hollywood while still in her teens and found work as a showgirl at the Earl Carroll Theatre on Sunset Boulevard. Her physical beauty brought jobs as a photographer's model that led to a bit part as a showgirl in the 1951 film Two Tickets to Broadway. She signed on as a Universal International Pictures (UI) contract player where she met actor Clint Eastwood with whom she would remain lifelong friends. With UI, Corday was given small roles in various B-movies and television series. In 1954, on the set of Playgirl, she met actor Richard Long. Following the death of Long's wife, the two began dating and wed in 1957. Her roles were small until 1955 when she was cast opposite John Agar in Tarantula, a Sci-Fi B-movie that proved a modest success. She had another successful co-starring role in that genre (The Black Scorpion) as well as in a number of Western films. Respected film critic Leonard Maltin said that Corday had "more acting ability than she was permitted to exhibit." Corday appeared as a pin-up girl in numerous men's magazines during the 1950s and was the Playmate of the October 1958 issue of Playboy, together with famous model and showgirl Pat Sheehan. In 1956, she had a recurring role in the ABC television series Combat Sergeant. From 1959 to early 1961, Corday worked exclusively doing guest spots on various television series. She then gave up her career to devote her time to raising a family. During her seventeen-year marriage to Long, she had three children. A few years after her husband's passing in 1974, Corday's friend Clint Eastwood offered her a chance to return to filmmaking with a role in The Gauntlet (1977). She acted with him again in Sudden Impact (1983), Pink Cadillac (1989), and in her last film, The Rookie (1990). Description above from the Wikipedia article Mara Corday,licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.Read more

Movies & web series

So This Is Paris

Sweethearts on Parade

The George Gobel Show

Dawn at Socorro

Wanted: Dead or Alive

Toughest Man in Arizona

The Colgate Comedy Hour

Sudden Impact

The Gauntlet

Foxfire

The Quiet Gun

Peter Gunn

Man Without a Star

Tarantula

Sea Tiger

Naked Gun

Surfside 6

Raw Edge

The Rookie

Girls on the Loose

Adventures in Paradise

Francis Joins the WACS

The Adventures of Kit Carson

A Day of Fury

The Man from Bitter Ridge

Pink Cadillac

Drums Across the River

Son of Ali Baba

The Black Scorpion

Tarzan and the She-Devil

Mr. & Mrs. North

The Giant Claw

Allen in Movieland

Problem Girls

Playgirl

Undersea Girl

Tall, Dark and Dead