Happy Birthday Faith Domergue (1924 - 1999)

Hailing from the state of New Orleans, it is actress Faith Domergue's birthday. Best known for sci-fi/horror films like This Island Earth, It Came From Underneath The Sea and The House of Seven Corpses.

Part Creole, but primarily of Irish and English extraction. She was adopted when she was six weeks old. In 1927, her adoptive parents took her to live in California, where she was educated at Catholic schools in Santa Monica. She had her first flirt with the acting profession, while still at school, on stage at the Bliss Hayden Theatre. Just after her graduation, she suffered a disfiguring injury during a car accident when she was thrown into a windshield, and spent eighteen months undergoing intensive plastic surgery.

By 1941, she was back in circulation. 'Discovered' by a Warner Brothers talent scout, she was signed to a contract and her name streamlined a la Hollywood to Faith Dorn. Sometime at the end of May that year, young Faith found herself at a studio party (it was not unheard of for under-age ingenues to be thrown together with rich or influential men) given on board the Southern Cross, a yacht owned by billionaire Howard Hughes. Hughes, twenty-one years her senior, became quickly infatuated with the teenager and bought out her contract from Warner Brothers for $50,000, then signing her at RKO instead. He also mollified Faith's adoptive parents by buying them a house and paid for Faith to take lessons to perfect her diction and acting. The romantic affair continued on-and-off until mid-1943, and was eventually scuttled by Hughes's various indiscretions with stars Lana Turner, Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth.

As Margo in the film noir Where Danger Lives with Robert Mitchum checking her out and Claude Rains with drink in hand....

Faith never really caught on as a big star but she has a devoted following thanks to her foray into sci-fi and horror. And especially This Island Earth which is her biggest and best role.  And she did star in the film noir Where Danger Lives with Robert Mitchum. So happy birthday Faith Marie Domergue.