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Allison Hayes

Allison Hayes

Actor · 1930 – 1977 · Charleston, West Virginia, USA

Born Mary Jane Hayes in Charleston, West Virginia, she was in the class of 1948 at Calvin Coolidge High School. Hayes won the title of Miss District of Columbia. She went on to represent D.C. in the 1949 Miss America pageant. Although she did not win the competition, it provided her with the opportunity to work in local television before moving to Hollywood to work for Universal Pictures in 1954. Taking the name Allison Hayes, she played small roles in a handful of films at Universal for a couple of years. In 1955 she filed a lawsuit against the studio over injuries she sustained while filming her second picture, SIGN OF THE PAGAN. Universal released Hayes from her contract, and she was subsequently signed by Columbia Pictures. After appearing in a handful of Columbia films including COUNT THREE AND PRAY, MOHAWK, and WOLF DOG, Hayes was given in the lead role in ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958). The film would eventually gain a cult following and become the performance for which she is best known. However, it did not escalate Hayes's career at the time. For several years she remained consistently employed in movies and on television (including an extended stint on the soap opera "General Hospital" and several appearances on her friend Raymond Burr's "Perry Mason" series). By the mid-1960s, though, Allison Hayes's career was all but over and she was beset by health problems. She would later admit that the pain of her illness led her to contemplate suicide, and that her symptoms were not taken seriously by doctors. After reading about metal poisoning in factory workers and recognizing the similarity of the symptoms described to her own, she hired a toxicologist to test a calcium supplement she'd been using for an extended time. The tests revealed that the pills contained an extreme amount of lead, and that Hayes was likely suffering from lead poisoning. She mounted a campaign to pressure the Food and Drug Administration into banning the supplement, but her condition deteriorated to the point of total incapacity. In 1976 she was diagnosed with leukemia, and began regular cancer treatment. Allison Hayes died February 26, 1977 at the UCSD Medical Center in La Jolla, California, just short of her 47th birthday. In a letter that arrived after her death, the FDA informed her of amendments being made to the laws governing the importation of nutritional supplements, largely as a result of her advocacy.

Movies24

  • Movie4.8
  • Movie5.8

    The Purple Mask

    1955 · 6 votes

  • Movie6.8

    The Movie Orgy

    1968 · 19 votes

  • Movie6.1
  • Movie6.0

    Sign of the Pagan

    1954 · 7 votes

  • Movie5.2

    Double Jeopardy

    1955 · 13 votes

  • Movie4.6

    The Prodigal

    1955 · 9 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Tickle Me

    1965 · 34 votes

  • Movie4.7

    Count Three and Pray

    1955 · 15 votes

  • Movie4.3

    Gunslinger

    1956 · 33 votes

  • Movie9.0

    So This Is Paris

    1954 · 3 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Chicago Syndicate

    1955 · 20 votes

  • Movie4.0

    The Unearthly

    1957 · 27 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Francis Joins the WACS

    1954 · 14 votes

  • Movie4.5

    The Undead

    1957 · 50 votes

  • Movie5.6

    Mohawk

    1956 · 17 votes

  • Movie5.5

    Zombies of Mora Tau

    1957 · 33 votes

  • Movie5.8

    The Hypnotic Eye

    1960 · 28 votes

  • Movie7.3

    A Lust to Kill

    1958 · 3 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Hong Kong Confidential

    1958 · 5 votes

  • Movie4.8

    The Disembodied

    1957 · 7 votes

  • Movie3.2

    The Crawling Hand

    1963 · 32 votes

  • Movie5.4

    Counterplot

    1959 · 8 votes

  • Movie5.6

    The Steel Jungle

    1956 · 8 votes

Series16

  • TV7.7

    Perry Mason

    1957 · 139 votes

  • TV5.6

    The F.B.I.

    1965 · 25 votes

  • TV6.8

    Four Star Playhouse

    1952 · 11 votes

  • TV6.2
  • TV7.2

    Rawhide

    1959 · 49 votes

  • TV7.1

    Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

    1964 · 35 votes

  • TV7.2

    77 Sunset Strip

    1958 · 26 votes

  • TV5.8

    The Millionaire

    1955 · 4 votes

  • TV6.4

    Bat Masterson

    1958 · 16 votes

  • TV6.3

    Surfside 6

    1960 · 3 votes

  • TV6.8
  • TV6.9

    Tombstone Territory

    1957 · 11 votes

  • TV6.7

    The Alaskans

    1959 · 3 votes

  • TV7.4

    Men Into Space

    1959 · 5 votes

  • TV6.7

    Ripcord

    1961 · 3 votes

  • TV6.5

    Acapulco

    1961 · 2 votes