Biography

Cast in four films by Clint Eastwood, who had an uncredited role in a film in which she co-starred, Tarantula (1955).

Former showgirl at the Earl Carroll Theater in Hollywood.

Playboy's Playmate of the Month in October 1958.

Plays the waitress in the third "Dirty Harry" film, Sudden Impact (1983), in the scene where Clint Eastwood utters the now-classic line: "Go ahead . . . make my day!".

Interviewed in "It Came from Horrorwood: Interviews with Moviemakers in the SF and Horror Tradition" by Tom Weaver (McFarland, 1996).

I do not believe in frontal nudity, that's just the way I am. If you show that, what's left, what do you do for an encore?

Once I got married, I just sort of put blinders on and concentrated on my children; that was the most important thing in my life, my family.

[on Audie Murphy, with whom she worked on Drums Across the River (1954)] We were shooting on the back lot--it got to be supper time and Audie asked me out for a little dinner. We got in his car, anxious to get that prime rib! It was turning dark and we were at a stoplight. There were kids in back of us and when the light changed, they honked because Audie didn't start right away. The teenagers gave him the finger--and took off up the street. And right behind were Audie and me. He reached in his glove compartment--while rolling down his window. He got a gun and said, "I'm gonna get them!" We followed along Ventura Boulevard--I said, "My God, I just signed a contract. I can't die now!" Audie said to me, "Oh, I scared you, didn't I?" I told Tony Curtis, "I'm terrified of him". Tony told me a story about Audie shooting up one of his sets one day! Audie was very quiet, soft-spoken and boyish--yet a flirt with the girls. But he had a short fuse, so you walked around on eggs whenever he was near.

[on Kirk Douglas, with whom she worked in Man Without a Star (1955)] My option had just been picked up. Kirk Douglas has mellowed extremely since then. Early on in the film I played a whore--there were two scenes at a dance hall. All the guys were leaning on the bar. All of us girls took a poll as to which butt was best. We picked Richard Boone's. We told him, "We pick you" and Kirk heard. It made him so angry at me! Publicity wanted a photo of Kirk grabbing me by the necklace--he grabbed it and almost choked me! When I said something he stated, "I'm not acting! You should take this business more seriously. I don't like your attitude and your kidding around". I said, "Go screw yourself, I just got renewed!" How dare he tell me I can't kid around! Kirk also treated little King Vidor, the director, badly. Whatever King said, he had to defer to Kirk. In the '70s--13 or 14 years later--I met Kirk and now he's the sweetest man in the world!

[on Susan Cabot] Susan was very weird, a strange little girl. She had this enormous head and then this little tiny body, and she was paranoid.