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Mara Corday

Mara Corday

Actor · 1930 – 2025 · Santa 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.

Movies24

  • Movie6.5

    Sudden Impact

    1983 · 1K votes

  • Movie5.9

    The Rookie

    1990 · 637 votes

  • Movie6.5

    The Gauntlet

    1977 · 626 votes

  • Movie5.5

    Pink Cadillac

    1989 · 269 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Man Without a Star

    1955 · 125 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Tarantula

    1955 · 313 votes

  • Movie5.6

    Son of Ali Baba

    1952 · 15 votes

  • Movie4.8

    The Giant Claw

    1957 · 95 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Dawn at Socorro

    1954 · 12 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Raw Edge

    1956 · 16 votes

  • Movie5.9
  • Movie5.9

    A Day of Fury

    1956 · 14 votes

  • Movie5.2

    The Black Scorpion

    1957 · 67 votes

  • Movie5.2

    Tarzan and the She-Devil

    1953 · 16 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Drums Across the River

    1954 · 24 votes

  • Movie9.0

    So This Is Paris

    1954 · 3 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Foxfire

    1955 · 10 votes

  • Movie4.5

    Problem Girls

    1953 · 4 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Francis Joins the WACS

    1954 · 14 votes

  • Movie7.0
  • Movie6.2

    Girls on the Loose

    1958 · 6 votes

  • Movie4.5

    Allen in Movieland

    1955 · 2 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Naked Gun

    1956 · 10 votes

  • Movie6.4

    The Quiet Gun

    1957 · 8 votes

Series8

  • TV7.1

    Wanted: Dead or Alive

    1958 · 38 votes

  • TV6.9

    The Colgate Comedy Hour

    1950 · 13 votes

  • TV6.6

    Peter Gunn

    1958 · 26 votes

  • TV6.1

    Adventures in Paradise

    1959 · 7 votes

  • TV6.3

    Surfside 6

    1960 · 3 votes

  • TV6.0
  • TV7.8

    The George Gobel Show

    1954 · 4 votes

  • TV5.0

    Mr. & Mrs. North

    1952 · 7 votes