Mara Corday

Mara Corday

Birthday: 1930-01-03

Deathday: 2025-02-09

Place of birth: Santa Monica, California, USA

Also known as: Marilyn Joan Watts

imdb_id: nm0179408

Biography:

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.

Played in movies:

So This Is Paris

Score: 8.5

Dawn at Socorro

Score: 7.2

Naked Gun

Score: 6.8

The Gauntlet

Score: 6.6

Sudden Impact

Score: 6.6

Tarantula

Score: 6.5

Man Without a Star

Score: 6.4

The Quiet Gun

Score: 6.4

The Man from Bitter Ridge

Score: 6.0

Raw Edge

Score: 6.0

Foxfire

Score: 6.0

The Rookie

Score: 5.9

Francis Joins the WACS

Score: 5.8

Drums Across the River

Score: 5.6

A Day of Fury

Score: 5.5

Pink Cadillac

Score: 5.5

Girls on the Loose

Score: 5.4

The Black Scorpion

Score: 5.2

Sea Tiger

Score: 5.0

Allen in Movieland

Score: 5.0

The Giant Claw

Score: 4.8

Tarzan and the She-Devil

Score: 4.8

Playgirl

Score: 4.3

Undersea Girl

Score: 3.7

Problem Girls

Score: 3.3

Sweethearts on Parade

Score: 0.0

Tall, Dark and Dead

Score: 0.0

Toughest Man in Arizona

Score: 0.0

Played in tv shows:

The George Gobel Show

Score: 7.3

Wanted: Dead or Alive

Score: 6.8

The Colgate Comedy Hour

Score: 6.8

Peter Gunn

Score: 6.5

Adventures in Paradise

Score: 5.7

The Adventures of Kit Carson

Score: 5.3

Surfside 6

Score: 5.0

Mr. & Mrs. North

Score: 4.3