Latest news with #MaraCorday
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Mara Corday, Starlet of Monster Movies and Magazines, Dies at 95
In the 1950s, Mara Corday — a nightclub showgirl and popular pinup model — was a star of three science-fiction thrillers, including 'Tarantula' (1955), in which she fled from a 100-foot-tall spider that had escaped from a laboratory. 'The whole world is after him,' Ms. Corday told the gossip columnist Hedda Hopper that year about the terrifying arachnid. 'He's a pretty unhappy spider, I can tell you. I'm a lady scientist, and Leo Carroll and John Agar are playing two top roles.' At a time when sci-fi cinema was focused on subjects like alien invasions, space exploration and nuclear paranoia, Ms. Corday was cast in B-movie tales about nasty, gigantic creatures. In 1957, she played a mathematician in 'The Giant Claw,' in which a gigantic bird (first thought to be a U.F.O.) tears down buildings and foments panic. She returned that year to outsize insects, as a rancher in 'The Black Scorpion,' about giant scorpions threatening the countryside after rising out of a volcanic eruption in Mexico. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Toronto Sun
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
Mara Corday, Hollywood starlet of the 1950s, dies at 95
Published May 24, 2025 • 5 minute read Mara Corday is pictured in a publicity photo for the film, 'Man Without a Star' in 1955. Photo by Universal Pictures / Wikipedia Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Mara Corday, a raven-haired pinup who became a Hollywood starlet in the 1950s running from killer spiders and scorpions in sci-fi thrillers, and who later made a career comeback as a supporting actress opposite Clint Eastwood, died Feb. 9 at her home in Valencia, California. She was 95. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The cause was arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to a death certificate filed with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Her death has not been previously reported. Marilyn Watts, as Corday was born, grew up in California and was drawn to performance from her earliest recollection. She took her stage name – Mara, a more exotic-sounding variation on her given name, and Corday, a brand of perfume – when she became a showgirl at the age of 17 at a theatre on Sunset Boulevard. She began acting and modelling, landing a contract with Universal-International and appearing in Playboy as one of the magazine's Playmates of the Month in October 1958. As an actress, both with Universal and later as a freelancer, Corday was known for her roles in sci-fi films that captured – in however outlandish and low-budget fashion – Cold War-era anxiety about societal destruction. Some of her films, perhaps in spite of themselves, became cult classics. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In 'Tarantula' (1955), opposite John Agar, Corday ran from a gargantuan hirsute spider that had escaped from a desert laboratory. 'The Giant Claw' (1957) put her up against a monster bird flying at supersonic speed. (Corday was newly pregnant while filming the movie and did not reveal her condition to her on-set colleagues for fear that she would not be permitted to keep the part.) Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Also in 1957, she acted in 'The Black Scorpion,' another of her credits whose titles largely speak for themselves. Corday 'was regularly menaced by these bugs-from-hell,' a journalist for the Toronto Star wrote in 1994, recapping her career in a 'whatever happened to' column. 'And somehow, as she screamed, she always managed to put her head back and throw into profile a figure we assume was enhanced by those bras much beloved of '50s moviemakers.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Corday confessed that she outsourced to a stand-in some of the more stomach-turning moments of her horror films – she declined to touch mice and rats, for example – and conceded that many of her movies did not strive for film-festival sophistication. 'You're at the mercy of the 'fright,' the 'horror,' or whatever,' she remarked in an interview published in the book It Came From Horrorwood by Tom Weaver. 'You're at the mercy of the special effects people, 'cause if they don't do a good job, then the whole picture goes in the toilet. For instance, 'The Giant Claw'!' Although she attracted more notice for her thriller fare, Corday also appeared prolifically in westerns, among them 'Drums Across the River' (1954) with Audie Murphy, 'The Man From Bitter Ridge' (1955) starring Lex Barker, with whom she said she had an offscreen romance, and 'Man Without a Star' (1955) featuring Kirk Douglas. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Her favourite part, she said, was as an alluring young Frenchwoman in 'So This Is Paris' (1954), starring Tony Curtis, Gloria DeHaven and Gene Nelson, about romance-minded sailors on leave in the City of Love. Corday curtailed her acting career after her marriage in 1957 to fellow actor Richard Long and the birth of their three children, making her last on-screen appearance in that phase of her career in 1961. She told interviewers that her husband severely restricted her professional opportunities, turning down roles without her knowledge or consent and attempting to 'sabotage' her. 'I divorced him 10 times the first year of our marriage, getting a lawyer and everything, and 13 times the second year. He'd plead – literally on his hands and knees, 'Please forgive me, I don't know why I did it, give me another chance,'' she said in an interview published in the book Westerns Women by Boyd Magers and Michael G. Fitzgerald. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Corday added that she loved her husband and remained in love with him decades after his death in 1974. She credited Eastwood, who had been a fellow contract actor at Universal early in their professional lives, with reviving her career after she was widowed. 'When my insurance ran out, he put me in 'The Gauntlet,'' she recalled, referring to the 1977 action thriller. She continued: 'When it ran out again, he put me in 'Sudden Impact,'' released in 1983. Corday also appeared with Eastwood in 'Pink Cadillac' (1989) and 'The Rookie' (1990), her two final credits. Marilyn Joan Watts, the younger of two children, was born in Santa Monica, California, on Jan. 3, 1930. According to an online biography, her family moved frequently during the Depression until her father settled into work as a certified public accountant. A profile published in The Washington Post in 1955 reported that he ran a laundromat and that Corday's mother was a stenographer. Corday also once said that her mother had been a bootlegger. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Corday recalled whiling away entire days at the cinema, falling in love with movies. As a young teenager, she ushered at theatrical performances. She was 17 when she was accepted as a showgirl at the Earl Carroll Theatre in Los Angeles and said that her mother forged a birth certificate to help her pass as 18 – and therefore eligible to perform. 'You go over there and see what you can do, or you're going back to school and study stenography and learn typing, and stop this wishful thinking,' she recalled her mother saying. Corday excelled in her performances and moved on to dancing engagements in Las Vegas and theatrical productions. Modelling opportunities helped raise her profile in Hollywood. She had her first credited movie role in the seafaring adventure 'Sea Tiger' (1952) and appeared the following year in 'Money From Home' with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Corday had three children, Carey, Valerie and Greg, but a complete list of survivors could not be confirmed. Efforts to reach her family were not immediately successful. Corday's friendship with Eastwood, whom she likened to a brother, dated to their appearance together in 'Tarantula,' in which she had second billing and he had a small uncredited part. Decades later, their respective levels of prominence reversed, Corday contributed to one of the most memorable scenes of Eastwood's career. In 'Sudden Impact,' she played the hostage whose life is on the line during the scene in which Eastwood utters his immortal words: 'Go ahead. Make my day.' — Aaron Schaffer and Anusha Mathur contributed to this report. 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