Biography

After meeting Marya on the set of Dirty Dingus McGee, Frank Sinatra had his people track down Marya after she gave him a fake phone number. Frank and Marya subsequently saw each other personally for several months.

In Stay Away Joe, Elvis repeatedly "messed up" takes so that he could kiss Marya again and again.

Living in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (2014).

Shortly after coming to Hollywood, choreographer David Winters told her about an audition for "Stay Away Joe". At the audition, the casting director asked her what her sign was. Marya, knowing nothing about astrology, replied, "Dollars" and got the part.

Her mother wanted Marya to become a doctor, but upon realizing her daughter would go into acting, she set Marya up with plastic surgeon Richard Coburn and announced their marriage without Marya's knowledge. However, since her mother was pleased, Marya consented to the marriage. Dr. Coburn did not want his wife working and she had not for several years when in 1986, she was offered a role in One Life to Live (1968). Dr. Coburn said his wife did not need the money and refused, with the role going to BarBara Luna instead. The same thing happened when a part in Dallas (1978) was offered. Marya learned to sing and producer Herb Bernstein put her in a show at the Park 10 in New York City. She sold out four shows and was invited to sing on New Year's Eve and also at a venue in The Catskills, but again her husband had the last word. Finally Marya had enough and she separated from Coburn in 1991. However, in September 1997, The New York Daily News reported that Marya and Dr. Coburn had separated in 1991 but had lived ever since in the same six-story luxury townhouse on East 78th Street. Marya resided on the top two floors and her husband on the second and third floors, with Dr. Coburn seeing patients in a street-level office and performing operations on the fourth floor.