Deborah Walley
Encyclopedia
Deborah Walley was an American actress.
, to Ice Capades
skating stars and choreographers Nathan and Edith Walley. She attended Central High School in Bridgeport. At fourteen she was playing summer-stock theatre. She studied acting at New York City's
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
. She began working on stage in the city and made her Hollywood film debut in 1961's Gidget Goes Hawaiian
, a role for which she is most remembered. From then until 1974 she appeared in fifteen feature length films, including several of the "Beach Party" films
produced by American International Pictures
.
From 1964–1966, Walley was married to actor
John Ashley
, a costar of ABC
's Straightaway
series about auto racing
from 1961–1962. He preceded her in death by two years.
On television
, she portrayed Suzie Hubbard Buell in the comedy series The Mothers-in-Law
. Comedienne Eve Arden
played her mother, Eve Hubbard, while singer-comedienne Kaye Ballard
played her mother-in-law, Kaye Buell. Originally, actress Kay Cole (A Chorus Line
) had played Suzie in the original pilot, but Walley later replaced her, and played her through the series' two seasons on the air.
After moving to Arizona
to bring up her children in the 1970s, Walley co-founded two children's theater companies, Pied Piper Productions and the Sedona Children's Theatre in Sedona.
She also loaned her voice to the character Nico Robin in Ala-Ka-Robin the Great. According to Walley, she said it was her mother that wanted her to be involved in the film. Prior to The Brothers and the Sisters Movie, she voiced Ikki Tenryou (one of the Japanooga Packs) in The Medabots
movie: Ikki: The Big Wish Movie.
Walley succumbed to esophageal cancer, on 10 May 2001 in Sedona, Arizona. She was survived by two of her three sons: Anthony Brooks Ashley, a noted director, editor, and producer in Hollywood; and Justin Ashley Reynolds, an internet entrepreneur in Phoenix
, Arizona
(these are her blood children, her third son was adopted).
|+ Film and Television
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
|1960
|Naked City
|Heather Weston
|Episode: "To Walk in Silence"
|-
|1960
|Route 66
|Helen Page
|Episode: "Ten Drops of Water"
|-
|1961
|Gidget Goes Hawaiian
|Gidget (Frances Lawrence)
|
|-
|1962
|Bon Voyage!
|Amy Willard
|
|-
|1963
|Summer Magic
|Julia Carey
|
|-
|1964
|Burke's Law
|Gwenny Trent
|Episode: "Who Killed Andy Zygmunt?"
|-
|1964
|
|Anne
|Episode: "This Train Don't Stop Till It Gets There"
|-
|1964
|
|Debbie
|
|-
|1964
|Wagon Train
|Nancy Styles
|Episode: "The Nancy Styles Story"
|-
|1965
|Beach Blanket Bingo
|Bonnie Graham
|
|-
|1965
|Ski Party
|Linda Hughes
|
|-
|1965
|Sergeant Dead Head
|Airman Lucy Turner
|
|-
|1965
|Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
|Craig's Cafeteria Date
|
|-
|1966
|
|Lili Morton
|
|-
|1966
|Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
|Tina Tracy
|Episode: "Lies, Lies, Lies"
|-
|1966
|Spinout
|Les
|
|-
|1966
|
|Caterine
|
|-
|1967
|It's a Bikini World
|Delilah Dawes
|
|-
|1967-1969
|
|Suzie Hubbard Buell
|56 episodes
|-
|1970
|
|Corey Ann Skeet
|Episode: "With Love, Bullets and Valentines"
|-
|1971
|Drag Racer
|Chris
|
|-
|1972
|Love, American Style
|Nina
|Episode: "Love and the Anxious Mama"
|-
|1973
|
|
|
|-
|1974
|Benji
|Linda
|
|-
|1978
|
|Gina Bartelli
|Episode: "Mystery on the Avalanch Express"
|-
|1986
|Simon & Simon
|Gigi Dolores
|Episode: "The Last Big Break"
|-
|1989
|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
|Lahwhinie (voice)
|Episode: "Gadget Goes Hawaiian"
|-
|1990
|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
|Buffy Ratskiwatski / Foxglove (voice)
|Episode: "Out of Scale"
Episode: "Good Times, Bat Times"
|-
|1999
|Baywatch
|Ethel
|Episode: "Baywatch Grand Prix"
|-}
Biographical Information
Deborah Walley was born in Bridgeport, ConnecticutBridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
, to Ice Capades
Ice Capades
The Ice Capades was a traveling entertainment show featuring theatrical performances involving ice skating. Shows often featured former Olympicand National Champion figure skaters who had retired from amateur competition....
skating stars and choreographers Nathan and Edith Walley. She attended Central High School in Bridgeport. At fourteen she was playing summer-stock theatre. She studied acting at New York City's
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with facilities located in Manhattan, New York City – at 120 Madison Avenue, in a landmark building designed by noted architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club – and in Hollywood, California...
. She began working on stage in the city and made her Hollywood film debut in 1961's Gidget Goes Hawaiian
Gidget Goes Hawaiian
Gidget Goes Hawaiian is a 1961 musical romantic comedy film starring Deborah Walley and James Darren. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film is a sequel to the 1959 Sandra Dee "beach movie" vehicle Gidget....
, a role for which she is most remembered. From then until 1974 she appeared in fifteen feature length films, including several of the "Beach Party" films
Beach Party film
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio...
produced by American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
.
From 1964–1966, Walley was married to actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
John Ashley
John Ashley (actor)
John Ashley was an actor who appeared in many films, most notably the American International Pictures' "Beach Party" films...
, a costar of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Straightaway
Straightaway
Straightaway is a 26-week half-hour drama series which ran on ABC television during the 1961–1962 season –the story of two young men who operate a garage and engage in auto racing. John Ashley and Brian Kelly played race car designers Clipper Hamilton and Scott Ross, respectively. Scott...
series about auto racing
Auto racing
Auto racing is a motorsport involving the racing of cars for competition. It is one of the world's most watched televised sports.-The beginning of racing:...
from 1961–1962. He preceded her in death by two years.
On television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, she portrayed Suzie Hubbard Buell in the comedy series The Mothers-in-Law
The Mothers-in-Law
The Mothers-in-Law is an American sitcom starring Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard as two matriarchs who were friends and next-door neighbors whose children's elopement rendered them in-laws. The show aired on NBC from September 1967 to April 1969; it was produced by Desi Arnaz after the dissolutions...
. Comedienne Eve Arden
Eve Arden
Eve Arden was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in...
played her mother, Eve Hubbard, while singer-comedienne Kaye Ballard
Kaye Ballard
Kaye Ballard is an American musical theatre and television actress, comedienne, and singer.-Life and career:Ballard was born as Catherine Gloria Balotta in Cleveland, Ohio, to an Italian American family, the daughter of Lena and Vincent James Balotta.Ballard established herself as a musical...
played her mother-in-law, Kaye Buell. Originally, actress Kay Cole (A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line
A Chorus Line is a 1975 musical about Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. The book was authored by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, lyrics were written by Edward Kleban, and music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch....
) had played Suzie in the original pilot, but Walley later replaced her, and played her through the series' two seasons on the air.
After moving to Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
to bring up her children in the 1970s, Walley co-founded two children's theater companies, Pied Piper Productions and the Sedona Children's Theatre in Sedona.
She also loaned her voice to the character Nico Robin in Ala-Ka-Robin the Great. According to Walley, she said it was her mother that wanted her to be involved in the film. Prior to The Brothers and the Sisters Movie, she voiced Ikki Tenryou (one of the Japanooga Packs) in The Medabots
Medabots
Medabots, known in Japan as , is a role-playing video game franchise developed by Natsume and published by Imagineer in Japan in 1997. The video game franchise was later adapted into a Japanese anime television series produced by Bee Train. Spanning 52 episodes, the series originally aired on TV...
movie: Ikki: The Big Wish Movie.
Walley succumbed to esophageal cancer, on 10 May 2001 in Sedona, Arizona. She was survived by two of her three sons: Anthony Brooks Ashley, a noted director, editor, and producer in Hollywood; and Justin Ashley Reynolds, an internet entrepreneur in Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
(these are her blood children, her third son was adopted).
Filmography
{| class="wikitable sortable"|+ Film and Television
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
|1960
|Naked City
Naked City (TV series)
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format....
|Heather Weston
|Episode: "To Walk in Silence"
|-
|1960
|Route 66
|Helen Page
|Episode: "Ten Drops of Water"
|-
|1961
|Gidget Goes Hawaiian
Gidget Goes Hawaiian
Gidget Goes Hawaiian is a 1961 musical romantic comedy film starring Deborah Walley and James Darren. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film is a sequel to the 1959 Sandra Dee "beach movie" vehicle Gidget....
|Gidget (Frances Lawrence)
|
|-
|1962
|Bon Voyage!
Bon Voyage! (1962 film)
Bon Voyage! is a 1962 Walt Disney film directed by James Neilson and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company. Following their practice of the time, it was also issued as a comic book...
|Amy Willard
|
|-
|1963
|Summer Magic
Summer Magic
Summer Magic is a 1963 Walt Disney Productions feature film starring Hayley Mills, Burl Ives, and Dorothy McGuire in a story about a Boston widow and her children taking up residence in a small town in Maine. The film was based on the book "Mother Carey's Chickens" by Kate Douglas Wiggin and was...
|Julia Carey
|
|-
|1964
|Burke's Law
Burke's Law
Burke's Law is a detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud...
|Gwenny Trent
|Episode: "Who Killed Andy Zygmunt?"
|-
|1964
|
|Anne
|Episode: "This Train Don't Stop Till It Gets There"
|-
|1964
|
|Debbie
|
|-
|1964
|Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
|Nancy Styles
|Episode: "The Nancy Styles Story"
|-
|1965
|Beach Blanket Bingo
Beach Blanket Bingo
Beach Blanket Bingo is an American International Pictures beach party film, released in 1965 and was directed by William Asher. It is the fifth film in the beach party film series...
|Bonnie Graham
|
|-
|1965
|Ski Party
Ski Party
Ski Party is a B-movie, directed by Alan Rafkin, and released in 1965 by American International Pictures. Ski Party is part of the 1960s Beach Party film genre, with a change of setting from the beach to the slopes - although the final scene places everyone back at the beach...
|Linda Hughes
|
|-
|1965
|Sergeant Dead Head
|Airman Lucy Turner
|
|-
|1965
|Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine is a 1965 American International Pictures film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Vincent Price, Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Susan Hart and Deborah Walley...
|Craig's Cafeteria Date
|
|-
|1966
|
|Lili Morton
|
|-
|1966
|Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.The show renders the title as Gomer Pyle - USMC. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot was aired as the finale of the fourth season of The Andy...
|Tina Tracy
|Episode: "Lies, Lies, Lies"
|-
|1966
|Spinout
Spinout
Spinout is a 1966 musical film and comedy starring Elvis Presley as the lead singer of a band and part-time race car driver. The movie was #57 on the year end list of the top-grossing films of 1966.-Plot:...
|Les
|
|-
|1966
|
|Caterine
|
|-
|1967
|It's a Bikini World
It's a Bikini World
It's a Bikini World is an American musical comedy film released in 1967 starring Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley and Bobby "Boris" Pickett of "Monster Mash" fame. The film features cameos by the music groups The Gentrys, The Animals, Pat & Lolly Vegas, The Castaways and R&B girl group The Toys...
|Delilah Dawes
|
|-
|1967-1969
|
|Suzie Hubbard Buell
|56 episodes
|-
|1970
|
|Corey Ann Skeet
|Episode: "With Love, Bullets and Valentines"
|-
|1971
|Drag Racer
|Chris
|
|-
|1972
|Love, American Style
Love, American Style
Love, American Style is an hour-long TV anthology produced by Paramount Television and originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974...
|Nina
|Episode: "Love and the Anxious Mama"
|-
|1973
|
|
|
|-
|1974
|Benji
Benji (film)
Benji is the first film in a series of nine about the golden mixed breed dog named Benji. It was written and directed by Joe Camp and was released in 1974. It received one Academy Award nomination for the Best Original Song.-Plot:...
|Linda
|
|-
|1978
|
|Gina Bartelli
|Episode: "Mystery on the Avalanch Express"
|-
|1986
|Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon is an American detective television series starring Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker.-History:The original 1978 pilot called Pirate's Key was set in Florida...
|Gigi Dolores
|Episode: "The Last Big Break"
|-
|1989
|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Created by Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove, it featured the established Disney characters Chip 'n' Dale in a new setting. The series premiered on the Disney Channel on March 4, 1989,...
|Lahwhinie (voice)
|Episode: "Gadget Goes Hawaiian"
|-
|1990
|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Created by Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove, it featured the established Disney characters Chip 'n' Dale in a new setting. The series premiered on the Disney Channel on March 4, 1989,...
|Buffy Ratskiwatski / Foxglove (voice)
|Episode: "Out of Scale"
Episode: "Good Times, Bat Times"
|-
|1999
|Baywatch
Baywatch
Baywatch is an American action drama series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, starring David Hasselhoff. The show ran in its original title and format from 1989 to 1999, sans the 1990-1991 season, of which it was not in production...
|Ethel
|Episode: "Baywatch Grand Prix"
|-}