Laurette Luez (born Loretta Mary Luiz; August 19, 1928 – September 12, 1999) was an American supporting actress and successful commercial model who appeared in films and on television during a 20-year career. She was a widely known Hollywood celebrity during the 1950s, owing much to publicity about her social life.Laurette Luez profile
/ref> She is best known for her supporting role as photographic model Marla Rakubian in Rudolph Maté's 1950

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

'' D.O.A.''.

Early life

Luez born in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

, as the second child of the three children of Frank and Francesca Luiz (née Clancy),

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

singers and dancers who performed traditional Hawaiian and Spanish music. Luez's father was from Hawaii and had Portuguese ancestry. Her mother was Australian, the daughter of an actor. Luez first showed up on stage doing a

hula Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form expressing chant (''oli'') or song (Mele (Hawaiian language), ''mele''). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli ...

dance at age three. In July 1935 the family left Honolulu on the to settle in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. That same year, six-year-old Loretta performed for Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, who was known as one of the wealthiest men in the world at that time.

Hollywood career

About working with Errol Flynn, Luez said

Errol and I play our love scenes through the window and do not kiss. But we took stills embracing each other. They asked me if I enjoyed working that way with Errol and I told them it was very, very disturbing, to say the least.

In 1949, she participated in a later famous ''

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'' magazine photo layout, in which she posed with other up-and-coming actresses,

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Lois Maxwell Lois Ruth Maxwell (née Hooker; February 14, 1927 – September 29, 2007) was a Canadian actress. She was best known for portraying Miss Moneypenny in the first 14 Eon Productions, Eon-produced James Bond in film, ''James Bond'' films (1962–1 ...

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, Suzanne Dalbert,

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and Jane Nigh. From that time forward she was cast mostly in exotic, sexy character roles in films and television. In 1953, she appeared in '' Siren of Bagdad'' as a dancing slave girl. The following year, she played a small role in the Bowery Boys film '' Jungle Gents'', opposite

Huntz Hall Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall (August 15, 1920 – January 30, 1999) was an American radio, stage, and movie performer who appeared in the popular "Dead End Kids" movies, including ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938), and in the later "The Bowe ...

's character "Sach" (her one line was "Kiss, kiss, kiss"). In 1956, she appeared in another exotic slave-girl role as Karamaneh in the syndicated TV series '' The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu''. She also was a regular on '' The Donald O'Connor Show'' (1954–1955). Luez left the film industry in 1965.

Marriages

* Actor Philip Sudano (August 16, 1947, Los Angeles, California; divorced 1948), with whom she had her first son, Alexander Eden. * Greek director Gregg Tallas (1950, Las Vegas, Nevada; the marriage lasted three months, from June to September 1950); at the time Tallas said he hoped to open a production company in Greece featuring Luez as his star. * Real estate investor Edward A. Harrison (October 30, 1951, "secretly" in

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; annulled early 1952). Luez claimed Harrison had not divorced his former wife and also said he threatened both her life and film career. * Robert Creel (1956; divorced 1983), with whom she had two children, a son, Craig T. (born September 14, 1962, Los Angeles) and a daughter, Claudette M. (born May 1, 1968, Los Angeles).

Last years

By 1990 Luez was living in the

Los Feliz LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

district of

with her sister Lei, along with a nephew. Luez died on September 12, 1999, in Milton, Florida, aged 71, from undisclosed causes.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Luez, Laurette 1928 births 1999 deaths Actresses from Honolulu American female models American film actresses American people of Portuguese descent American people of Australian descent Actresses from Greater Los Angeles 20th-century American actresses People from Los Feliz, Los Angeles