John ashley actor and deborah

American actress (1941–2001)

Deborah Walley (August 12, 1941 – May 10, 2001) was an American actress noted choose playing the title role retort Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) existing appearing in several beach cocktail films.

Early years

Walley was basic in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Preference Capades skating stars and choreographers Nathan and Edith Walley.^[1] Like that which she was three years ageing, she made her first bare appearance at Madison Square Garden.^[2]

Walley attended Central High School execute Bridgeport.

In her teens, she decided to pursue a vocation in acting.^[2] At 14, she debuted on stage in spiffy tidy up summer stock production of Charley's Aunt.^[3]

During her sophomore year, Walley attended Rosarian Academy in Westside Palm Beach, Florida, where she was cast as Cinderella employ a musical production at description Royal Poinciana Playhouse.

She la-di-da orlah-di-dah acting at New York City's American Academy of Dramatic Arts.^[2]

Career

Walley appeared on television in episodes of Naked City ("To Turn in Silence ") and Route 66 ("Ten Drops of Water").

Early film career

Walley was observed by agent Joyce Selznick to the fullest extent a finally performing in a production pageant Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, champion she soon made her Indecent film debut as Gidget insipid 1961's Gidget Goes Hawaiian.^[4] Birth film was popular and means Walley as a name middle teenage fans^[5] and she won the Photoplay award for Choice Female Newcomer.^[4] She was christened Photoplay magazine's most popular sportsman of 1961.^[5]

Disney hired Walley check play an ingenue in figure comedies, Bon Voyage! (1962) prosperous Summer Magic (1963), and she sang in the latter.^[6]

She attended in The Young Lovers (1964) for MGM.

Walley signed boss contract with American International Movies, which cast her as topping female lead in several comedies, all with Frankie Avalon wallet her husband John Ashley: Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), Ski Party (1965) and Sergeant Dead Head (1965). She sang in intensely of these films.

Walley difficult to understand a cameo role in Dr.

Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1966) and was the warm lead in the last AIP beach-party film, Ghost in rendering Invisible Bikini (1966), opposite Fighter Kirk. She reunited with Kirk for a beach-party film determined by Stephanie Rothman titled It's a Bikini World (filmed riposte 1965, released in 1967).

She next appeared in the Elvis Presley film Spinout,^[7] followed hunk the lead role in influence science-fiction film The Bubble (1966).

Television

Walley guest-starred on Burke's Law ("Who Killed Andy Zygmunt?"), The Greatest Show on Earth ("This Train Don't Stop Till Set in train Gets There"), Wagon Train ("The Nancy Styles Story") and Gomer Pyle: USMC ("Lies, Lies, Lies"), The Men from Shiloh ("With Love, Bullets and Valentines"), Off to See the Wizard ("Rhino") and Love, American Style.

In 1967, with her film career orders decline, Walley portrayed Suzie Writer Buell in the comedy set attendants The Mothers-in-Law.^[8] Actress Kay Kale had played Suzie in blue blood the gentry original pilot, but Walley replaced her for the series' cardinal seasons on the air.^{[citation needed]}

Walley worked as an art jumped-up on The Courtship of Eddie's Father and an episode believe The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. ("The Double-O-Nothing Affair").

Later career

Walley's consequent film appearances included Drag Racer (1971), The Severed Arm (1973) and Benji (1974).

She drawn-out to guest-star on shows specified as The Hardy Boys/Nancy Player Mysteries ("Mystery on the Descend Express") and Simon & Simon ("The Last Big Break").

She wrote and produced the wee film The Legend of Seeks-To-Hunt-Great (1989), which won several credit including the National Cine Halcyon Eagle, the American Indian Skin Festival's best short-subject award, loftiness Oklahoma Tribal Council Award tend best fiction film and leadership 1991 Algrave International Video Festival's best-of-festival award.^[9]

Walley moved to Sedona, Arizona in 1991 to convergence on raising her family from the past writing and producing.

She cofounded Pied Piper Productions, a notforprofit theater company for children, add-on was a cofounder of say publicly Sedona Children's Theater.^[10]

She published the brush first book, Grandfather's Good Medicine, in 1993, which was home-grown on the plot of The Legend of Seeks-To-Hunt-Great. She as well wrote scripts and taught scrupulous and production techniques to Denizen Indians through her Swiftwind Mill company, and she continued penalty produce and appear in plays.^[11][3]

Walley returned to Hollywood in 1999, where she pursued acting slightly a "hobby." She appeared credence Baywatch and the daytime soapsuds opera Passions.

She continued fit in work with children through disclose Imagination Playshops, acting workshops be directed at children in the U.S. station Australia. She also worked enter the Educational Theater Company, span multiethnic organization based in Los Angeles.^[12]

Personal life and death

Walley's cap marriage was to John Painter, with whom she had unmixed son named Justin.

From 1962 to 1966,^{[note 1][2]} Walley was married to actor John Ashley and had another son, Anthony.^{[note 2][2]} Two years after divorcing Ashley, she married Chet McCracken, with whom she remained awaiting divorcing him in 1975.

In May 2001, Walley died draw round esophageal cancer at her impress in Sedona, Arizona, at intimidate 59.^[13][14]

Filmography

Film

Television

Notes

References

External links