Myrna Fahey

Myrna Fahey (March 12, 1933 – May 6, 1973) was an American actress known for her role as Maria Crespo in '' Walt Disney's Zorro'' and as Madeline Usher in ''The Fall of the House of Usher''.

She appeared in episodes of 37 television series from the 1950s into the 1970s, including ''Bonanza'', ''Wagon Train'', ''The Time Tunnel'', ''Maverick'', ''77 Sunset Strip'', '' Laramie'', ''Gunsmoke'', '' The Adventures of Superman'', ''Kraft Suspense Theatre'', ''Perry Mason'', and ''Batman''.

Early years

Myrna Elisabeth Fahey was born in Carmel, Maine, near Bangor, the youngest of three children for Francis Edward Fahey and Olivia Newcomb. She attended Carmel Grammar School until age six, along with her older brothers. By early 1940 the family had moved to Southwest Harbor, where her father took a job at the Manset Boat Yard.

As a youngster, Myrna was active in the Girl Scouts, swimming, and acrobatics, and took dancing lessons. Fahey did her secondary education at Pemetic High School in Southwest Harbor, where she performed in musicals, plays, and took part in public speaking events. Despite her short stature, she was athletic, outscoring all other girls in her school to win a state-level Girls Athletic Association award. Fahey took part in her school's wilderness exploring club, was a cheerleader for four years, and captain of the girls' undefeated varsity basketball team.

Drama school and beauty pageants

Fahey graduated from high school in June 1951 and worked briefly at a retail job in Bangor. The following October, she enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse Unable to find acting work after her drama school stint, Fahey returned to Maine in late spring 1952. Having been chosen Miss Mount Desert Island 1950 and Miss Poultry Queen of Hancock County 1951 while in high school, she decided to enter the Miss Maine pageant. At the state fair in August 1952, representing Bangor, Fahey came in first runner-up to winner Norma Lee Collins. Fahey immediately entered another beauty pageant the following month, winning the Miss Maine Cosmetology 1952 title.

Start in television

Fahey's placement in the Miss Maine contests brought her to the attention of Hollywood scouts. Encouraged by their overtures, she returned to California and found work at local television station KHJ in Los Angeles. Fahey served as one of the fashion model hostesses on ''Queen for a Day'' and did photo shoots and general publicity events for the station's advertisers and other programs. Her first real acting job was for a television anthology series, ''Cavalcade of America'', appearing on episode "Margin for Victory".

Fahey continued doing occasional work on KHJ through 1954. She also did fashion modeling for the Broadway department store. Fahey's first real break came in March 1955, when Warner Brothers gave her a small, uncredited part in what was then called ''A Handful of Clouds'', but was later released as ''I Died a Thousand Times''. She did well enough in her first film that the studio also used her for its premiere television program, '' Warner Brothers Presents''. This show had three rotating series; Myrna Fahey had a feature role in the first episode of '' King's Row'' starring Jack Kelly and Robert Horton.

Interlude

However, the Warners job finished during summer 1955, so Myrna Fahey committed to an extended publicity campaign for the title of Miss Rheingold. This commercial beauty contest lasted from August through October 1955. It featured six "finalists", all aspiring actresses, whom the general public could vote for at various venues around the country. Although she didn't win, Fahey received a lot of national publicity from personal appearances and newspaper photos. Publicity of a different sort came from syndicated columnist Harrison Carroll, who reported in December 1955 that she was at the Cocoanut Grove night club with Frank Sinatra associate Nick Sevano.

In January 1956, Fahey was selected to be a "Baby Star", a short-lived attempt to revive the old WAMPAS annual tradition. It fizzled, and so did Myrna's career for the rest of the year. She had no performing work, and was relegated to doing "hostess" bits for public events.

Breakthrough

With the beginning of 1957 Myrna had a steady stream of film and television work, though her roles in the former were still small and uncredited. She moved from Burbank to a large apartment in Beverly Hills that she shared with her mother, and registered as a Republican.

''Matinee Theater'', an anthology series that presented a new hour-long movie every afternoon, was Fahey's mainstay for television work at this time. She did many of these live original productions during 1957, though the titles of some are no longer known. Myrna Fahey also did a lot of work for Disney Studios in the fall of 1957 that would not be released or broadcast until the following year. Starting about this time some columnists compared Myrna Fahey's looks with those of Elizabeth Taylor, though Myrna had bright green eyes quite unlike Taylor's distinctive violet.

At the end of 1957, Myrna Fahey had her first professional stage role, with a principal part in the Pasadena Playhouse production of ''Holiday for Lovers'', later made into a 1959 film. Reviewer Franklin Argyle said "Myrna Fahey (Betsy Dean) is a fine actress confined to a lightweight part".

Film and television work

Fahey complained in a 1960 interview that she was being typecast in "good girl" roles because of what directors called her "moral overtones," even though she wanted to play darker and more complicated characters. She had worked in many Westerns in the late 1950s, usually in the role of the sheriff's daughter, including an appearance on ''Gunsmoke'' in 1958 (an episode entitled: "Innocent Broad"). Fahey also appeared in a supporting role in " Duel at Sundown", a notable episode of ''Maverick'' with James Garner, featuring Clint Eastwood as a trigger-happy villain. In another appearance in ‘‘Maverick’’ she starred as Dee Cooper, the owner of a cattle ranch, in conflict with Maverick's herd of sheep. She starred in two episodes of ''Wagon Train'', "The Jane Hawkins Story" (1960) and "The Melanie Craig Story" (1964), and an episode of '' Straightaway'', "Troubleshooter," in 1961. Fahey's image branched out in the 1960s, helped by ''House of Usher'' and a role on the Boris Karloff TV series ''Thriller'' that same year titled "Girl with a Secret". Even her Western parts became "darker." After a rough love scene in the 1960 episode of ''Bonanza'' "Breed of Violence", in which Fahey cut her lip, the cast presented her with an award for "Best Slapper in a Filmed Series".

Fahey's most sustained television work was a starring role in the one-season (1961–62) series '' Father of the Bride'', based on a film of the same name starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor. Fahey likely got the role because, as one newspaper reviewer pointed out, she "looks enough like Liz Taylor to be her sister." Fahey was not flattered by the comparison, however, telling one interviewer "the fact that I'm supposed to look like Elizabeth Whats-Her-Name had nothing to do with my getting he part because we don't really look alike I don't think, we just happen to have the same colorings." Fahey wanted to be released from the show even before it came up for renewal, reportedly feeling too much emphasis was being placed on the "father" character and not enough on her "bride". She also portrayed Jennifer Ivers on the TV version of '' Peyton Place''.

Fahey made four guest appearances on the drama series ''Perry Mason'': Lydia Logan in the 1960 episode, "The Case of the Nimble Nephew"; defendant Grace Halley in the 1961 episode "The Case of the Violent Vest"; murder victim Myrna Warren in the 1965 episode "The Case of the Gambling Lady"; and defendant Holly Andrews in the 1966 episode "The Case of the Midnight Howler". In 1966, she played Blaze in the ''Batman'' episodes " True or False-Face" and " Holy Rat Race".

Later life

Fahey became an avid skier in California. She invested in stocks and one of her contracts stipulated that she have a stock ticker in her dressing room. In addition to dating baseball player Joe DiMaggio, she dated actor George Hamilton.

Fahey became the subject of death threats while dating baseball great Joe DiMaggio in 1964. The FBI determined the threats came from a patient at the Agnews Developmental Center, a mental hospital in San Jose, California. Apparently the patient could not bear to see DiMaggio with anyone other than Marilyn Monroe, who died in 1962.

Fahey died on May 6, 1973, at age 40, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, after a long battle with cancer. She is buried in Mount Pleasant Catholic Cemetery in Bangor, Maine.

Filmography

Television: 1953-1959

Television: 1960-1973

References

External links

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Myrna Fahey on ''Zorro''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fahey, Myrna
1933 births
1973 deaths
American film actresses
American television actresses
People from Penobscot County, Maine
People from Mount Desert Island
20th-century American actresses
Deaths from cancer in California