Early life and career

Born in New Orleans, Domergue was adopted by Adabelle Wemet when she was six weeks old (she found out later in life that she was adopted and that she was actually of Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 and English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 ancestry). Adabelle married Leo Domergue in 1926, when Faith was 18 months old. The family moved to California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 in 1928 where Domergue attended Beverly Hills Catholic School and St. Monica's Convent School. While still in high school, she was signed to Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 where she made her first onscreen appearance in Blues in the Night

Blues in the Night (1941 film)

Blues in the Night is a 1941 American musical drama film released by Warner Brothers, directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Priscilla Lane, Richard Whorf, Betty Field, Lloyd Nolan, Elia Kazan, and Jack Carson...

(1941).

After graduating in 1942, Domergue continued to pursue a career in acting but after sustaining injuries in a near-fatal car accident, her plans were put on hold. While recuperating from the accident, she attended a party aboard Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...

's yacht. Hughes was taken by her; he bought out her contract with Warner Bros. and signed her to a three-picture contract with RKO

RKO Pictures

RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...

. After an unsuccessful, long-delayed premiere in the film Vendetta

Vendetta (1950 film)

Vendetta is a 1950 film based on the 1840 novella Colomba by Prosper Mérimée, about a young Corsican girl who pushes her brother to kill to avenge their father's murder....

(1950), Domergue left Hughes. She later freelanced in a number of films, including film noir Where Danger Lives

Where Danger Lives

Where Danger Lives is a 1950 film noir thriller directed by John Farrow. The film stars Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue , and Claude Rains. At the time, Domergue was the latest of Howard Hughes' protegees.-Plot:...

(as a femme fatale

Femme fatale

A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...

 opposite Robert Mitchum

Robert Mitchum

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...

), westerns (Santa Fe Passage

Santa Fe Passage

Santa Fe Passage is a United States-produced Western movie directed by William Witney, released in 1955. It stars John Payne as Kirby Randolph and Faith Domergue as Aurelie St. Clair....

) and in 1955, three sci-fi/monster films (It Came from Beneath the Sea

It Came from Beneath the Sea

It Came from Beneath the Sea is an American science fiction film produced by Sam Katzman and Charles Schneer for Columbia Pictures, from a script by George Worthing Yates designed to showcase the special model-animated effects of Ray Harryhausen. It was directed by Robert Gordon and stars Kenneth...

, This Island Earth

This Island Earth (film)

This Island Earth is a 1955 American science fiction film directed by Joseph M. Newman. It is based on the novel of the same name by Raymond F. Jones. The film stars Jeff Morrow as the alien Exeter, Faith Domergue as Dr. Ruth Adams, and Rex Reason as Dr. Cal Meacham. The film was one of the first...

and Cult of the Cobra

Cult of the Cobra

Cult of the Cobra is a horror film, released by Universal Pictures and starring Faith Domergue, Richard Long, Jack Kelly, William Reynolds and David Janssen. In it, the discoverers of a secret cult of women who can transform into cobras begin to die one by one...

).

She later made films in the United Kingdom and Italy, and a last sci-fi foray in the Russian film Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet, in 1965. In the late 1950s and 1960s she made many appearances on popular television series, including Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza

Bonanza

Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...

, Perry Mason

Perry Mason

Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...

, and The Rifleman

The Rifleman

The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...

. By the late 1960s, Domergue had lost interest in acting as a career, and her last acting appearances were mainly in low-budget 'B' horror movies. She began traveling to Rome, Italy in 1952, and lived there for extended periods of time. She moved there permanently in 1968, and remained an expatriate in Rome, Geneva, Switzerland, and Marbella, Spain until the death of her Roman husband, Paolo in 1991. She then moved to Santa Barbara until her death in 1999.

Personal life and death

In 1941, Domergue began an on-off relationship with Howard Hughes. After she discovered that Hughes was also seeing Ava Gardner

Ava Gardner

Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...

, Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...

, and Lana Turner

Lana Turner

Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...

, the couple broke up in 1943. She later wrote a book about her relationship with Hughes entitled My Life with Howard Hughes (1972).

In 1946, Domergue married bandleader Teddy Stauffer

Teddy Stauffer

Ernst Heinrich "Teddy" Stauffer was a Swiss bandleader, musician, actor, nightclub owner, and restaurateur. He was dubbed Germany's "swing-king" of the 1930s.-Early life and career:...

. The marriage lasted six months, ending in 1947. That same year, she married director Hugo Fregonese

Hugo Fregonese

Hugo Fregonese was an Argentine film director who worked both in Hollywood and in Argentina....

 with whom she had two children, Diana Maria and John Anthony. The couple divorced in 1958. In 1966, she married Paolo Cossa, with whom she remained until his death in 1992.

On April 4, 1999, Domergue died from cancer, aged 74.

In the 2004 Howard Hughes biopic film The Aviator, Domergue was played by Kelli Garner

Kelli Garner

Kelli Brianne Garner is an American actress. Her credits include Man of the House, The Aviator, Bully and Thumbsucker. She appeared in two Green Day music videos "Jesus of Suburbia" and the unreleased ""...

.

Filmography

Film credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1941	Blues in the Night	Jitterbug	Uncredited
1946	Young Widow Young Widow Young Widow is a 1946 drama film directed by Edwin L. Marin, starring Jane Russell and Louis Hayward. It focuses on Joan Kenwood, a young journalist who can't get over her husband's death in World War II...	Gerry Taylor	Alternative title: The Naughty Widow
1949	Hardly a Criminal Hardly a Criminal Apenas un delincuente is a 1949 Argentine crime drama directed by Hugo Fregonese and written by Raimundo Calcagno and Israel Chas de Cruz. Starring Tito Alonso.-Cast:*Tito Alonso*Homero Cárpena*Guillermo Casali...
1950	Where Danger Lives	Margo Lannington
1950	Vendetta	Colomba della Rabia
1952		Opal Lacy	Alternative title: Claim Jumpers
1953		Joan Britton
1954	This Is My Love	Evelyn Myer
1955	Santa Fe Passage Santa Fe Passage Santa Fe Passage is a United States-produced Western movie directed by William Witney, released in 1955. It stars John Payne as Kirby Randolph and Faith Domergue as Aurelie St. Clair....	Aurelie St. Clair
1955	Cult of the Cobra Cult of the Cobra Cult of the Cobra is a horror film, released by Universal Pictures and starring Faith Domergue, Richard Long, Jack Kelly, William Reynolds and David Janssen. In it, the discoverers of a secret cult of women who can transform into cobras begin to die one by one...	Lisa Moya
1955	This Island Earth	Dr. Ruth Adams
1955	It Came from Beneath the Sea It Came from Beneath the Sea It Came from Beneath the Sea is an American science fiction film produced by Sam Katzman and Charles Schneer for Columbia Pictures, from a script by George Worthing Yates designed to showcase the special model-animated effects of Ray Harryhausen. It was directed by Robert Gordon and stars Kenneth...	Professor Lesley Joyce	Alternative title: Monster from Beneath the Sea
1956	Timeslip	Jill Rabowski	Alternative title: The Atomic Man
1956	Soho Incident	Bella Francesi	Alternative title: Spin a Dark Web
1957		Anna	Alternative title: Il Cielo brucia
1957	Man in the Shadow Man in the Shadow Man in the Shadow is a 1957 crime film starring Jeff Chandler, Orson Welles, Colleen Miller, Ben Alexander, and John Larch.-Plot summary:...	Barbara Peters	Alternative title: Violent Stranger
1958	Escort West	Martha Drury
1963	California	Carlotta Torres
1965	Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet
1967	Track of Thunder	Mrs. Goodwin
1969	Besieged	Lorenzo's mother	Alternative title: L'Amore breve
1969	One on Top of the Other	Martha	Alternative titles: Una sull'altra, Perversion Story
1970		Signora Del Isolla
1971	Blood Legacy	Veronica Dean	Alternative title: Legacy of Blood
1971		Mrs. Valdes	Alternative title: L'Uomo dagli occhi di ghiaccio
1974	So Evil, My Sister	Millie	Alternative titles: Psycho Sisters The Siblings
1974		Gayle Dorian

Television credits

Year(s)	Title	Role	Notes
1953		Laurie Rogers	1 episode
1953–1954	Lux Video Theatre Lux Video Theatre Lux Video Theatre, is a weekly television anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays....		2 episodes
1954	Fireside Theater Fireside Theater Fireside Theater is an American anthology drama series that ran from on NBC from 1949 to 1958, and was the first successful filmed series on American television. Stories were low budget and often based on public domain stories or written by freelance writers such as Rod Serling. While it was panned...		2 episodes
1954	Ford Theatre Ford Theatre Ford Theatre was a radio and television anthology series broadcast in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. At various times the television series appeared on all three major television networks, while the radio version was broadcast on two separate networks and on two separate coasts...		1 episode
1954–1958	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars Schlitz Playhouse of Stars Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...		2 episodes
1955	Celebrity Playhouse		1 episode
1956		Renee Morrell	1 episode
1957	Overseas Press Club - Exclusive!	Helen Zotos	1 episode
1959	Sugarfoot Sugarfoot Sugarfoot is the title of a TV western that aired from 1957 to 1961. The series featured Will Hutchins as fledgling frontier lawyer Tom Brewster and Jack Elam as sidekick Toothy Thompson...	Isabel Starkey	1 episode
1959	State Trooper State Trooper (TV series) State Trooper is a half-hour television crime drama set in the 1950s American West, starring Rod Cameron as Rod Blake, an officer of the Nevada State Troopers. The series aired 104 episodes in syndication from September 25, 1956, to June 25, 1959...		2 episodes
1959	Bourbon Street Beat Bourbon Street Beat Bourbon Street Beat is a private detective series which aired on the ABC network from 1959-1960 and featured Andrew Duggan as Cal Calhoun, Richard Long as Rex Randolph, Van Williams as Kenny Madison, and Arlene Howell as Melody Lee Mercer, the secretary at the New Orleans detective agency in which...	Susan Wood	1 episode
1959	Cheyenne Cheyenne (TV series) Cheyenne is a western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season...	Maria	1 episode
1959–1961	Hawaiian Eye Hawaiian Eye Hawaiian Eye is an American television series that ran from October 1959 to September 1963 on the American Broadcasting Company television network.-Premise:...		2 episodes
1960	Colt .45 Colt .45 (TV series) Colt .45 is an American Western television series shown on ABC between 1957 and 1960. The half-hour show derives from the 1950 Warner Brothers film of the same name starring Randolph Scott and formed part of the William T...	Suzanne Tremaine	1 episode
1960	Bronco Bronco (TV series) Bronco is a Western series on ABC from 1958 through 1962. It was shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The program starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, a former Confederate officer who wandered the Old West, meeting such well-known individuals as Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James,...	Catalina	1 episode
1960	Michael Shayne Michael Shayne Michael Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday. It was the title of a series of 12 films starring Lloyd Nolan, a radio series under a variety of names, between 1944 and 1953, and later in 1960-1961, a 32 episode NBC television series...	Kara	1 episode
1961	77 Sunset Strip 77 Sunset Strip 77 Sunset Strip is an hour-length American television private detective series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roger Smith, and Edd Byrnes....	Gretchen Jervis	1 episode
1961		Kate Elder	1 episode
1961	Lock-Up Lock-Up (TV series) Lock-Up is an American legal drama series that premiered in syndication in September 1959 and concluded in June 1961. The half-hour episodes had little time for character development or subplots and presented a compact story without embellishment....	Marianne	1 episode
1961–1963	Perry Mason Perry Mason (TV series) Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...		2 episodes
1961–1964	Bonanza Bonanza Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...		2 episodes
1962–1963	Have Gun - Will Travel		2 episodes
1966	Combat!	Madame Fouchet	1 episode
1968	Garrison's Gorillas Garrison's Gorillas Garrison's Gorillas was an ABC TV series broadcast from 1967 to 1968; a total of 26 hour-long episodes were produced. It was inspired by the 1967 film The Dirty Dozen, which featured a similar scenario of training Allied prisoners for World War II military missions.The Garrison's Gorillas pilot...	Carla	1 episode

External links