Biography for
Mara Corday More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

3 January 1930, Santa Monica, California, USA

Birth Name

Marilyn Joan Watts.

Height

5' 5" (1.65 m)

Mini Biography

The actress was born Marilyn Watts in Santa Monica, California, 17 years before she put her foot on the bottom step of the show biz ladder, dancing in the back row of the chorus in "Earl Carroll's Revue" at the famed showman's theater-restaurant in Hollywood. Modeling for photographers led to wider exposure and ultimately to TV roles and bit parts in low-budget movies. As a Universal-International contract player, she was in most every type of B picture that the studio made. She gave up acting in the early '60s to concentrate on marriage and motherhood during 17 tumultuous years as the wife of actor Richard Long. Since his 1974 death, she's played supporting parts in her friend Clint Eastwood's movies, just as he played a supporting role in one of hers (Tarantula (1955)).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Tom Weaver <TomWeavr@aol.com>

Spouse

Richard Long

(26 January 1957 - 21 December 1974) (his death) 3 children

Trivia

Playboy Playmate of the Month October 1958 (with Pat Sheehan).

Mother of actress Valerie Long, Carey Long and Gregory Long.

Sister-in-law of Marshall Thompson and Barbara Long.

Interviewed in "It Came from Horrorwood: Interviews with Moviemakers in the SF and Horror Tradition" by Tom Weaver (McFarland, 1996).

1955 Deb Star.

Personal Quotes

I do not believe in frontal nudity, that's just the way I am. If you show that, what's left, what do you do for an encore?

Once I got married, I just sort of put blinders on and concentrated on my children; that was the most important thing in my life, my family.

[on Audie Murphy, with whom she worked on Drums Across the River (1954)] We were shooting on the backlot--it got to be suppertime and Audie asked me out for a little dinner. We got in his car, anxious to get that prime rib! It was turning dark and we were at a stoplight. There were kids in back of us and when the light changed, they honked because Audie didn't start right away. The teenagers gave him the finger--and took off up the street. And right behind were Audie and me. He reached in his glove compartment--while rolling down his window. He got a gun and said, "I'm gonna get them!" We followed along Ventura Boulevard--I said, "My God, I just signed a contract. I can't die now!" Audie said to me, "Oh, I scared you, didn't I?" I told Tony Curtis, "I'm terrified of him". Tony told me a story about Audie shooting up one of his sets one day! Audie was very quiet, soft-spoken and boyish--yet a flirt with the girls. But he had a short fuse, so you walked around on eggshells whenever he was near.

[on Kirk Douglas, with whom she worked in Man Without a Star (1955)] My option had just been picked up. Kirk Douglas has mellowed extremely since then. Early on in the film I played a whore--there were two scenes at a dance hall. All the guys were leaning on the bar. All of us girls took a poll as to which butt was best. We picked Richard Boone's. We told him, "We pick you" and Kirk heard. It made him so angry at me! Publicity wanted a photo of Kirk grabbing me by the necklace--he grabbed it and almost choked me! When I said something he stated, "I'm not acting! You should take this business more seriously. I don't like your attitude and your kidding around". I said, "Go screw yourself, I just got renewed!" How dare he tell me I can't kid around! Kirk also treated little King Vidor, the director, badly. Whatever King said, he had to defer to Kirk. In the '70s--13 or 14 years later--I met Kirk and now he's the sweetest man in the world!

Salary

The Man from Bitter Ridge (1955)

$1,600