Faith Domergue

Faith Domergue
Born	(1924-06-16)June 16, 1924 or (1925-06-16)June 16, 1925 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	April 4, 1999(1999-04-04) (age 73–74) Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Cancer (unspecified)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1941–1974
Religion	Roman Catholic
Spouse(s)	Teddy Stauffer (m. 1946–47) Hugo Fregonese (m. 1947–58) Paolo Cossa (m. 1966; d. 1996)
Children	2

Faith Marie Domergue /doʊmɜːrɡ/^[1] (June 16, 1924 or 1925 – April 4, 1999) was an American television and film actress. Discovered at age eighteen by media and aircraft mogul Howard Hughes, she was signed to a contract with Hughes' RKO Radio Pictures. She was cast as the lead in the studio's thriller Vendetta, which had a troubled four-year production before finally being released in 1950.

Domergue went on to appear in a multitude of sci-fi and horror pictures, including Cult of the Cobra, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and The Atomic Man (all 1955), earning her a reputation as an early "scream queen." Domergue's later career was populated with B movies and television guest roles, with her final screen appearance being in The House of Seven Corpses (1974).

Early life

Domergue was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 16, 1924 or 1925 (sources differ).^[2] Domergue was of part-Creole descent.^[3] She was adopted by Adabelle Wemet when she was six weeks old.^[3] When Faith was 18 months old, Adabelle married Leo Domergue.^[4]

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 was signed to a Warner Brothers contract,^[5] and made her first on-screen appearance with an uncredited walk-on role in Blues in the Night (1941).^[6] 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."^[7]

Career

1943–1950: Early work; Howard Hughes

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.^[4] While recuperating from the accident, she attended a party aboard Howard Hughes' yacht.^[8] Hughes was enamored with her, buying out her contract with Warner Brothers,^[7] and signed her to a three-picture deal with RKO.^[9] Domergue was cast as a lead in the thriller Vendetta (1950), which had a long and troubled production history, exacerbated by reshoots and multiple changes in director, as well as producer Hughes's health problems following a near-fatal plane crash he endured in July 1946.^[7] The production lasted over four years, and cost $3.5 million.^[10]

After the 1950 release of Vendetta, Domergue separated from Hughes. "I was told he spent five million dollars publicizing me," she said, "but [the] film was['nt properly] released. It was all wasted."^[11] By the time of Vendetta's premiere in 1950, Domergue was pregnant with her second child, and was residing in Palm Springs, having left Los Angeles.^[11] The film was criticized by The New York Times, with a review calling the film "a garrulous, slow and obvious period piece, weighed down by a profusion of exotic accents, undistinguished dialogue and unconvincing play acting. Mr. Hughes' troupe, however, has been set against a background of the wild, Corsican countryside, which does give the picture an atmosphere of suspenseful authenticity."^[12] In spite of the critical review of the film, Domergue's performance was given 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."^[12]

Following Vendetta, Domergue freelanced in the film noir Where Danger Lives (1950), playing a femme fatale opposite Robert Mitchum and Claude Rains. The film received a negative review by Bosley Crowther in The New York Times, and Domergue's performance was criticized for "manifest[ing] nothing more than a comparatively sultry appearance and an ability to recite simple lines."^[13]

1951–1959: Universal and sci-fi films

In 1953, after having lived briefly in England with her husband, Domergue returned to the United States, where she signed a contract with Universal Pictures.^[14] Her final credit for RKO was the 1954 drama This Is My Love; prior, she filmed Duel at Silver Creek (1952) with Universal, opposite Audie Murphy.^[15]

In 1955, Domergue appeared in another Western, Santa Fe Passage, playing an ammunition retailer opposite John Payne and George Keymas.^[16] Following this, Domergue appeared in a series of sci-fi monster and horror films, first Cult of the Cobra (1955), a film released by Universal Pictures focusing on six American Air Officers who witness a Lamian cult of snake worshippers.^[17] This was followed with a role in Columbia Pictures's It Came from Beneath the Sea, a sci-fi monster movie which was a major commercial success, grossing $1.7 million at the box office.^[18] The following year, Domergue starred in This Island Earth (1955), Universal's first color sci-fi film.^[19] The film received moderate critical praise for its performances and writing, as well as its inventive special effects.^[19] Domergue's tenure in horror pictures in the mid-1950s earned her a reputation as an early scream queen.^[20]

Beginning in late 1955, Domergue began to appear in British and European productions: first in The Atomic Man (1955) , directed by Ken Hughes, followed by a role in the British film noir Soho Incident (1956).^[21] This was followed by Man in the Shadow^[22] (1957; released in the United States as Violent Stranger), and the Italian-produced The Sky Burns (1958).

1960–1974: Late career and retirement

In the late 1950s and 1960s she made many appearances on popular television series,^[23] including Sugarfoot, Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, and The Rifleman. She appeared in two episodes of Perry Mason, starring Raymond Burr. In 1961 she played murderer Conception O'Higgins in "The Case of the Guilty Clients," and in 1963 she played murder victim Cleo Grammas in "The Case of the Greek Goddess." By the late 1960s, Domergue had lost interest in acting as a career; her last acting appearances were mainly in low-budget 'B' horror movies.

Domergue's last foray in sci-fi was Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965), an American version of a Russian film, mainly backed by Russian producers and populated with Russian actors.^[24] She began traveling to Rome, Italy, in 1952, and lived there for extended periods. She moved there permanently in 1968, and remained an expatriate in Rome, Geneva, Switzerland, and Marbella, Spain, until the death of her Roman 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 in The House of Seven Corpses (1974), an independent horror film shot in Salt Lake City.^[25]

Personal life

In 1941, Domergue began an on-off 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 wrote a book about her relationship with Hughes entitled My Life with Howard Hughes (1972).^[26][27]

In 1946, Domergue married bandleader Teddy Stauffer. The marriage lasted six months, ending in 1947. That same year, she married director Hugo Fregonese with whom she had two children, Diana Maria (b. 1949) and John Anthony (b. 1951).^[26][28] The couple divorced in 1958. In 1966, she married Paolo Cossa, with whom she remained until his death in 1992.^[3]

Domergue was a practicing Roman Catholic.^[25]

Death

Domergue spent her later years in retirement in Palo Alto, California.^[29] On April 4, 1999, Domergue died from an unspecified cancer at age 74 in Santa Barbara.^[30] Domergue was cremated.^[26]

In popular culture

In the 2004 Howard Hughes biopic film The Aviator, Domergue was played by Kelli Garner.^[31]

Filmography

Film

Television

References

Bibliography

• Carter, Steven (2003). I Was Howard Hughes. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-582-34375-4. 
• Charyn, Jerome (1996). Movieland: Hollywood and the Great American Dream Culture. New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-814-71550-5. 
• Hagen, Ray (2002). Say How?: A Pronunciation Guide to Names of Public Figures. Library of Congress, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. 
• Parla, Paul; Mitchell, Charles P. (2000). Screen Sirens Scream!: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Science Fiction, Horror, Film Noir, and Mystery Movies, 1930s to 1960s. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0701-8. 
• Weaver, Tom (2011). I Was a Monster Movie Maker: Conversations with 22 SF and Horror Filmmakers. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-786-46444-9. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Faith Domergue.

• Faith Domergue at the Internet Movie Database
• Faith Domergue at the TCM Movie Database
  
• Faith Domergue at Find a Grave