Faith Domergue

Faith Marie Domergue (Template:IPAc-en; June 16, 1924, or 1925 – April 4, 1999) was an American film and television actress. Discovered at age 16 by media and aircraft mogul Howard Hughes, she was signed to a contract with Hughes's RKO Radio Pictures and cast as the lead in the studio's thriller Vendetta, which had a troubled four-year production before finally being released in 1950.

Domergue appeared in science-fiction and horror pictures, such as Cult of the Cobra, This Island Earth, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and The Atomic Man, all released in 1955, earning her a reputation as an early "scream queen". Domergue's later career consisted of B movies, television guest roles, and European productions.

Early life

Domergue was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 16, 1924 or 1925 (sources differ). She was adopted by Adabelle Wemet when six weeks old. When Faith was 18 months old, Adabelle married Leo Domergue.Template:Sfn

The family moved to California in 1928, where Domergue attended Beverly Hills Catholic School and St. Monica's Convent School. While a sophomore at University High School, she signed a contract with Warner Bros.,Template:Sfn and made her first on-screen appearance with an uncredited walk-on role in Blues in the Night (1941).Template:Sfn The same year, she appeared on the cover of Photoplay as Faith Dorn; the name change, she later claimed, was "because Jack Warner was too stupid to pronounce Domergue".Template:Sfn

Career

1943–1950: Early work; Howard Hughes

File:Faith Domergue and Robert Mitchum 1950.jpg

Domergue and Robert Mitchum in Where Danger Lives (1950).

After graduating in 1942, Domergue continued to pursue a career in acting, but after sustaining injuries in a near-fatal car accident, her plans were put on hold.Template:Sfn While recuperating from the accident, she attended a party aboard Howard Hughes' yacht.Template:Sfn Enamored with her, Hughes bought out her contract with Warner Bros.,Template:Sfn signed her to a three-picture deal with RKO,Template:Sfn and cast her in the thriller Vendetta (1950). The film had a long and troubled production history, with reshoots and several changes of director, further exacerbated by Hughes's health problems following a near-fatal plane crash he endured in July 1946.Template:Sfn The production extended over four years and cost $3.5 million.

By the time of VendettaTemplate:'s premiere in 1950, Domergue had left Los Angeles for Palm Springs, and was pregnant with her second child.Template:Sfn After the film's release, Domergue separated from Hughes, disappointed with the way the film and her career had been handled: "I was told he spent five million dollars publicizing me", she said, "but [the] film was[n’t properly] released. It was all wasted."Template:Sfn The critical reception was also dismissive. The New York Times panned the film as "a garrulous, slow, and obvious period piece, weighed down by a profusion of exotic accents, undistinguished dialogue, and unconvincing play acting... set against a background of the wild, Corsican countryside, which does give the picture an atmosphere of suspenseful authenticity". The review damned Domergue's performance with faint praise: "Faith Domergue, the heralded newcomer, is less than a fiery heroine. But despite the flamboyant lines that are her lot, the attractive Miss Domergue does occasionally contribute genuine emotional acting to the proceedings."

Following Vendetta, Domergue freelanced in the film noir Where Danger Lives (1950), playing a femme fatale opposite Robert Mitchum and Claude Rains. Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times, criticized Domergue's performance for "manifest[ing] nothing more than a comparatively sultry appearance and an ability to recite simple lines".

1951–1959: Universal and science-fiction films

After having lived briefly in England with her husband, Domergue returned to the United States in 1953, when she signed a contract with Universal Pictures.Template:Sfn Her final credit for RKO was the drama This Is My Love (1954), which was shot after the release of her first film with Universal, The Duel at Silver Creek (1952), in which she appeared opposite Audie Murphy.

In 1955, Domergue appeared in another Western, Santa Fe Passage, playing an ammunition retailer opposite John Payne and George Keymas. Domergue then appeared in a series of science-fiction, monster, and horror films. The first of these was Cult of the Cobra (Universal Pictures 1955), in which six American Air Force officers discover a cult of snake worshippers. This was followed with a role in Columbia Pictures's It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), a science-fiction, monster film that was a major commercial success, grossing $1.7 million at the box office. The following year, Domergue starred in This Island Earth (also 1955), Universal's first color science-fiction film. The film received moderate critical praise for its performances, writing, and inventive special effects. Domergue's tenure in these pictures earned her a reputation as an early scream queen.

Domergue appeared in a string of European productions: the British science-fiction film The Atomic Man (1955), directed by Ken Hughes; British noir films Soho Incident (1956) and Man in the Shadow (1957), released in the United States as Violent Stranger ; and the Italian production, The Sky Burns (1958).

1960–1974: Late career and retirement

In the late 1950s and 1960s, she made many appearances on television series, including Sugarfoot, two episodes of Hawaiian Eye, two episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel, two episodes of Bonanza, The Rifleman, and two episodes of Perry Mason. In her first Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Guilty Clients" (1961), she played murderer Conception O'Higgins, and in "The Case of the Greek Goddess" (1963), she played murder victim Cleo Grammas.

By the late 1960s, Domergue was appearing mainly in low-budget "B" horror movies and European productions. Domergue's last foray in science fiction was Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965), an American version of a Russian film, mainly backed by Russian producers and populated with Russian actors.Template:Sfn She began traveling to Italy in 1952, living in Rome for extended periods. She relocated to Europe permanently in 1968, moving from Rome to Geneva, Switzerland, and Marbella, Spain, until the death of her Italian husband, Paolo, in 1991. In the late 1960s, she appeared in several Italian giallo films, including Lucio Fulci's One on Top of the Other (1969), and Alberto De Martino's The Man with Icy Eyes (1971). Her final film credit was for The House of Seven Corpses (1974), an independent horror film shot in Salt Lake City.Template:Sfn

Personal life

In 1942, Domergue began an intermittent relationship with Howard Hughes. After she discovered that Hughes was also seeing Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner, the couple broke up in 1943. She later described those experiences in her 1972 book My Life with Howard Hughes.

On January 28, 1946, Domergue married bandleader Teddy Stauffer at the San Diego Superior Courthouse. On October 8, 1947, hours after divorcing Stauffer in Ciudad Juárez, she married director Hugo Fregonese there. Their first child, Diana Maria, was born on January 1, 1949, in Buenos Aires. Their second child, John Anthony, was born on August 22, 1951, in Los Angeles. John, who became an urban planner, died on what would have been his mother's 94th birthday. The couple separated twice before Domergue was granted an uncontested divorce on June 24, 1958.

In 1966, she married director Paolo Cossa, with whom she remained until his death in 1992. Despite the divorces, Domergue remained a practicing Roman Catholic.Template:Sfn

Death

Domergue spent her later years in retirement in Palo Alto, California.Template:Sfn She died on April 4, 1999, in Santa Barbara of cancer.

In popular culture

In the 2004 Howard Hughes biopic film The Aviator, Domergue was played by Kelli Garner.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1941	Blues in the Night	Jitterbug	Uncredited
1946	Young Widow	Gerry Taylor	Alternative title: The Naughty Widow
1949	Hardly a Criminal		Template:Unbulleted list
1950	Where Danger Lives	Margo Lannington
	Vendetta	Colomba della Rabia
1952	Template:Sortname	Opal Lacy	Alternative title: Claim Jumpers
1953	Template:Sortname	Joan Britton
1954	This Is My Love	Evelyn Myer
1955	Santa Fe Passage	Aurelie St. Clair
	Cult of the Cobra	Lisa Moya
	This Island Earth	Dr. Ruth Adams
	It Came from Beneath the Sea	Professor Lesley Joyce	Alternative title: Monster from Beneath the Sea
	Timeslip	Jill Rabowski	Alternative title: The Atomic Man
1956	Soho Incident	Bella Francesi	Alternative title: Spin a Dark Web
1957	Man in the Shadow	Barbara Peters	Alternative title: Violent Stranger
1958	The Sky Burns	Anna	Alternative title: Il Cielo brucia
1959	Escort West	Martha Drury
1963	California	Carlotta Torres
1965	Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet	Dr. Marsha Evans	Additional material only, dubbed version of the Soviet film Planeta Bur (1962)
1967	Track of Thunder	Mrs. Goodwin
1969	Besieged	Lorenzo's mother	Alternative title: Template:Ill
	One on Top of the Other	Martha	Alternative titles: Una sull'altra, Perversion Story
1970	Template:Sortname	Signora Del Isolla
1971	Blood Legacy	Veronica Dean	Alternative title: Legacy of Blood
1971	The Man with Icy Eyes	Mrs. Valdes	Alternative title: L'Uomo dagli occhi di ghiaccio
1974	So Evil, My Sister	Millie	Alternative titles: Psycho Sisters The Siblings
	The House of Seven Corpses	Gayle Dorian

Television

Year(s)	Title	Role	Notes
1953	Template:Sortname	Laurie Rogers	1 episode
1953–1954	Lux Video Theatre		2 episodes
1954	Fireside Theatre	Template:Unbulleted list	2 episodes
1954	Ford Theatre		1 episode
1954–1958	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Template:Unbulleted list	2 episodes
1955	Celebrity Playhouse		1 episode
1956	Template:Sortname	Renee Morrell	1 episode
1957	Overseas Press Club - Exclusive!	Helen Zotos	1 episode
1959	Sugarfoot	Isabel Starkey	1 episode
1959	State Trooper	Template:Unbulleted list	2 episodes
1959	Bourbon Street Beat	Susan Wood	1 episode
1959	Cheyenne	Maria	1 episode
1959–1961	Hawaiian Eye	Template:Unbulleted list	2 episodes
1960	Colt .45	Suzanne Tremaine	1 episode
1960	Bronco	Catalina	1 episode
1960	Michael Shayne	Kara	1 episode
1961	77 Sunset Strip	Gretchen Jervis	1 episode
1961	Template:Sortname	Kate Elder	1 episode
1961	Lock-Up	Marianne	1 episode
1961–1963	Perry Mason	Template:Unbulleted list	2 episodes
1961–1964	Bonanza	Template:Unbulleted list	2 episodes
1962–1963	Have Gun – Will Travel	Template:Unbulleted list	2 episodes
1966	Combat!	Madame Fouchet	1 episode
1968	Garrison's Gorillas	Carla	1 episode

External links

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