In Remembrance: Liz Renay

     Liz Renay, the model turned actress who gained more notoriety for her off-screen life than on-screen roles, has passed away on January 22, 2007 in Las Vegas. She was 80.

     Born Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins in Chandler, AZ on April 14, 1926, Renay was raised in rather abject poverty with four brothers and sisters. With her father a heavy drinker and her mother deeply religious, Renay began running away from home repeatedly at the age of 13. Physically mature for her age, she at one point managed to secure work as an underage cocktail waitress. By the time she was 15, she had a two-week marriage with a soldier that produced a daughter. Ultimately, five of her seven marriages would end in divorce, while she was widowed twice.

     Renay’s first taste of fame came in 1950 when the film The Sound Of Fury was filming on location and advertised for local extras for a scene involving a lynch mob. Renay applied and was hired for the scene. While on set she caught the eye of a Life magazine photographer and writer who were there to write a piece on the film’s stars Frank Lovejoy and Adele Jergens. Instead, they wound up producing a five page article focusing on Renay as a “young movie hopeful” entitled “Pearl’s Big Moment.”

     Following a stint in New York where she worked as a high fashion model culminating with an appearance on the cover of Esquire magazine, she headed to Hollywood in 1957 to give acting a try. After an uncredited bit part in The Naked And The Dead (1958), Renay landed a lead roll in the crime film Date With Death (1959). Director Cecil B. De Mille approached her about appearing in the title role of a biblical epic based on the Old Testament’s Book Of Esther. However, the project never came to fruition as Renay was detained by federal agents in order to testify before a grand jury investigating her boyfriend, Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen.

     Although she testified in front of more than a dozen similar grand juries, she was eventually charged and found guilty of five counts of perjury. Following a 27 month jail term, she found that her acting career prospects not what they once were. She was able to find work in some low-budget films such as The Thrill Killers (1964), Hot Rods To Hell (1967), Lady Godiva Rides (1969) and Blackenstein (1973). Although by the early 70s she was married to millionaire entrepreneur Tom Freeman, she continued to work, even as a stripper at times

     In 1977 Renay gained herself a new cult following when she appeared in the John Waters’ crime comedy Desperate Living as the aging sexpot Muffy St. Jacques. Her final big screen appearance was in 1998’s Dimensions In Fear, though she was featured in two direct to video productions- The Corpse Grinders 2 (2000) and Mark Of The Astro-Zombie (2002).