Mara Corday extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

Mara Corday
Playboy centerfold appearance
October 1958
Preceded by	Teri Hope
Succeeded by	Joan Staley
Born	Marilyn Joan Watts January 3, 1930 (1930-01-03) (age 78) Santa Monica, California, United States
Measurements	Bust: 35" Waist: 24" Hips: 35"
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Weight	118 lb (54 kg/8.4 st)
Official website

Mara Corday (born Marilyn Joan Watts on January 3, 1930 in Santa Monica, California) is a showgirl, model, actress, Playboy Playmate and a 1950s cult figure.

Wanting a career in films, Mara 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 married 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 Mara Corday had "more acting ability than she was permitted to exhibit."

Mara Corday appeared as a pinup 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 Richard Long she would have 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 his 1977 film The Gauntlet. She would act with him again in Sudden Impact (1983), Pink Cadillac (1989), and in her last film, 1990s The Rookie.

Partial filmography

• Two Tickets to Broadway (1951)
• Drums Across the River (1954)
• Dawn at Socorro (1954)
• So This Is Paris (1955)
• Tarantula (1955)
• A Day of Fury (1956)
• Naked Gun (1956)
• The Giant Claw (1957)
• The Black Scorpion (1957)
• The Quiet Gun (1957)
• Girls on the Loose (1958)
• The Gauntlet (1977)
• Sudden Impact (1983)
• Pink Cadillac (1989)
• The Rookie (1990)

See also

• List of people in Playboy 1953-1959

External links

• Mara Corday at Playboy.com
• Mara Corday at the Internet Movie Database
• Mara Corday Official Site

v • d • e Playboy Playmates of 1958 Elizabeth Ann Roberts Cheryl Kubert Zahra Norbo Felicia Atkins Lari Laine Judy Lee Tomerlin Linné Ahlstrand Myrna Weber Teri Hope Mara Corday, Pat Sheehan Joan Staley Joyce Nizzari Playmates of: 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959 · 1960 · 1961 · 1962 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 1968 · 1969 · 1970 · 1971 · 1972 · 1973 · 1974 · 1975 · 1976 · 1977 · 1978 · 1979 · 1980 · 1981 · 1982 · 1983 · 1984 · 1985 · 1986 · 1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009