February Death of Beloved 1950s Actress Revealed in New Report: Mara Corday Was 95

Actress, showgirl, and model Mara Corday has died. She was 95.

Corday died from arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease on February 9 at her home in Valencia, California. Her death was only just announced.

Corday began her career as a showgirl on Sunset Boulevard at 17. She then started modeling, and later became a Playboy Playmate.

Universal signed her to an acting contract and she began appearing in several of the studio’s films during the Golden Age of Hollywood—most of them sci-fi thrillers focused on the country’s general feelings of anxiety around the Cold War. Several of her early films became cult classics, although usually not for intentional reasons.

In 1955’s Tarantula, for example, she and John Agar escaped from giant spiders that escaped from a nefarious laboratory. 1957’s The Giant Claw saw her escaping from enormous monster birds. Also in 1957, The Black Scorpion had her escaping from… well, you get the picture.

In 1957, she married actor Richard Long, then temporarily retired from acting in 1961.

After her husband’s death in 1974, her acting career was revived after Clint Eastwood began putting her in several of his movies, including The Gauntlet, Sudden Impact, and Pink Cadillac. Her final on-screen credit was also in one of Eastwood’s movies, in the 1990 film The Rookie.

Mara Corday is survived by her three children.