Known for Acting
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.
Born
January 3, 1930
Died
February 9, 2025 (age 95)
Birthplace
Santa Monica, California, USA
Filmography
29 films, 8 shows


The Rookie
1990 · 2h 1m
country: United States
Veteran cop Nick Pulovski is used to playing musical partners; many of the partners he's had in the past have died on the job, and often as a result of Nick's risky tactics. But the rookie who's been assigned to help Nick bust a carjacking ring is almost as hotheaded as he is … and when Nick gets kidnapped, his newbie partner is his only hope.


Pink Cadillac
1989 · 2h 2m
country: United States
A skip tracer helps out a bail-jumper after her child is kidnapped by a group of ethno-nationalist thugs, of which her husband is a member, going by the name of Birthright. The baby is taken as leverage because, although initially oblivious, she has their money!


Sudden Impact
1983 · 1h 57m
country: United States
When a young rape victim takes justice into her own hands and becomes a serial killer, it's up to Dirty Harry Callahan, on suspension from the SFPD, to bring her to justice.


The Gauntlet
1977 · 1h 49m
country: United States
Phoenix cop Ben Shockley is well on his way to becoming a derelict when he is assigned to transport a witness from Las Vegas. The witness turns out to be a belligerent prostitute with mob ties—and incriminating information regarding a high-ranking official.


Girls on the Loose
1958 · 1h 18m
country: United States
A nightclub operator, her sister, a beautician and two other women rob a payroll.


Undersea Girl
1957 · 1h 14m
country: United States
A woman reporter, a navy investigator, and a heavyset police detective come across a gang which scuttled a ship in order to loot her later, underwater, for a Navy money consignment.


The Black Scorpion
1957 · 1h 28m
country: United States
Volcanic activity frees giant scorpions from the earth who wreak havoc in the rural countryside and eventually threaten Mexico City.


The Quiet Gun
1957 · 1h 17m
country: United States
A mild mannered sheriff must fight both a hired gun and local anti-Indian bigotry in a small frontier town.


The Giant Claw
1957 · 1h 14m
country: United States
Global panic ensues when it is revealed that a mysterious UFO is actually a giant turkey-like bird that flies at supersonic speed and has no regard for life or architecture.


Naked Gun
1956 · 1h 9m
country: United States
Don Pablo Salazar steals a fortune in jewels from an Indian tribe and an Aztec medicine man puts a curse on the jewels until they are returned. Years later, an American insurance man promises to deliver the Salazar fortune to the rightful heir...


A Day of Fury
1956 · 1h 19m
country: United States
Town marshal Alan Burnett life is saved by a stranger he meets on the trail. His rescuer turns out to be Jagade, a gunslinger just returned after years away, who finds when he gets into town that he can't abide the peace that has been settled between "his" people (i.e. the saloon-keepers, gamblers, etc.) and the righteous, "respectable" folk.


Raw Edge
1956 · 1h 16m
country: United States
A Texan arrives in Oregon and seeks justice for his innocently-hanged brother.


Tarantula
1955 · 1h 20m
country: United States
A rogue scientist near a small desert town arouses the suspicion of the town's doctor when his lab assistant is found dead from a case of acromegaly, which took only four days to develop. As the doctor investigates, aided by the scientist's new female assistant, they discover that something is devouring local cattle and humans in increasingly large quantities.


Foxfire
1955 · 1h 32m
country: United States
A part-Indian mining engineer looks for gold in an Arizona ghost town with his socialite bride.


Allen in Movieland
1955 · 1h 30m
country: United States
TV goes Hollywood when Steve Allen visits Universal-International to prepare for his upcoming title role in "The Benny Goodman Story."


The Man from Bitter Ridge
1955 · 1h 20m
country: United States
The Man from Bitter Ridge is a film directed by Jack Arnold. Jeff Carr, a special investigator, arrives in Tomahawk. His assignment is to discover who has been holding up the local stagecoach and is guilty for a series of killings that terrorize the town. Sheepman Alec Black is suspected by the local population but it is not long before Jeff realizes the man is innocent. Alec even becomes a good friend although he is in love with the same woman as him, Holly. Jeff will manage to arrest the real culprits but not before the latter try to compromise him down.


Man Without a Star
1955 · 1h 29m
country: United States
A wandering cowboy gets caught up in a range war.


So This Is Paris
1954 · 1h 36m
country: United States
Three sailors on leave head for Paris with one thing on their minds.


Dawn at Socorro
1954 · 1h 21m
country: United States
Brett Wade, gambler, gunslinger, and classical pianist, is wounded in a gunfight with the Ferris clan; the doctor finds signs of tuberculosis. En route to Colorado for his health, Brett stops in Socorro, New Mexico along with Ferris gunfighter Jimmy Rapp. Sheriff Couthen fears another shootout, but what Brett has in mind is saving waif-with-a-past Rannah Hayes from a life as one of Dick Braden's saloon girls.


Francis Joins the WACS
1954 · 1h 35m
country: United States
Peter Stirling (with his old friend the talking mule) is recalled to active duty...in the WACs!


Drums Across the River
1954 · 1h 18m
country: United States
All the gold in a small Colorado town has been panned, save for a bit on land belonging to the Ute. Greedy Frank Walker rounds up the locals and makes plans to raid the territory, but even-tempered settler Sam Brannon tries to dissuade Walker. As the battle nears, Sam's conflicted son, Gary, is torn between his belief in his father's morality and his hatred of the Utes, who killed his mother.


Playgirl
1954 · 1h 25m
country: United States
If you remember Shelley Winters from "The Poseidon Adventure" or "Bloody Mama," you might tend to forget what a knockout she was early in her career. This film will give you the chance to see her as a sexy nightclub singer teaching her just-in-from-the-sticks friend Colleen Miller the ropes in New York City. When Winters finds out that her married boyfriend Barry Sullivan has fallen for Miller, the recriminations...and bullets...start to fly!


Sweethearts on Parade
1953 · 1h 30m
country: United States
Cam Ellerby brings his traveling medicine show to town and it spells glamour and excitement to young Sylvia Townsend.


Tarzan and the She-Devil
1953 · 1h 15m
country: United States
The king of the jungle fights off ivory poachers.


Problem Girls
1953 · 1h 11m
country: United States
A medical student learns about a scheme to drug a girl and pass her off as an heiress to an oil fortune.


Toughest Man in Arizona
1952 · 1h 25m
country: United States
Marshal Landry captures outlaw Girard and bringing him in finds a woman and two children, the only survivors of an Indian attack. Later, transferring the prisoner his brothers free him. Then a stage is robbed of a silver shipment by Girard and his brothers. Examining telegrams gets Landry a confession from Girard's girlfriend. The telegraph line has been tapped and the telegrapher is the supposedly dead husband of the woman he brough in. Now knowing Girard's location he sets out after him.


Son of Ali Baba
1952 · 1h 15m
country: United States
In ancient Persia the son of Ali Baba (of forty thieves fame), Kashma Baba is a military cadet by day and a party goer by night. He falls for a girl who he later finds is an escaped slave girl belonging to the wicked Caliph. They flee to his father's palace. But alas, there's more to her than meets the eye. Will the evil schemers succeed? The sons of the Forty Thieves to the rescue!


Sea Tiger
1952 · 1h 11m
country: United States
Murder ensues when owners and hired help contrive against each other to obtain diamonds and gold ingots secretly hidden on a derelict and abandoned Japanese freighter left lying in anchor in a New Guinea cove at the end of WW II.
Tall, Dark and Dead
Tall, Dark and Dead
1952 · 1h 5m
country: United States
A 1952 crime film edited from tv series Craig Kennedy, Criminologist. A well-known stage star is shot at when he approaches the front door of Craig Kennedy's laboratory. Later, the actor is murdered in his backstage dressing room, and Kennedy, aided by Police Inspector J. J. Burke and Evening Star reporter Walt James, is drawn into one of his most bizarre adventures. Blamour, sex and publicity motivate the mystery, played before an intriguing background of Oriental stage-settings and theatrical backdrops. Passions, bot homicidal and amorous, almost lead to Kennedy's death at the hands of the killer.