Mara Corday, the showgirl, Playboy Playmate and cult movie star of Tarantula, has died at age 95.
The Golden Age actress died of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease on Feb. 9 at her home in Valencia, California, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Her cause of death was listed on a death certificate obtained by The Washington Post.
Born Jan. 3, 1930 in Santa Monica, Marilyn Joan Watts began working as a showgirl at the Earl Carroll Theatre on Sunset Boulevard as a teenager, where she adopted her stage name. She was also Playboy‘s October 1958 Playmate of the Month.
Following several small roles in B-rated movies, Corday’s breakout came in the 1955 Jack Arnold-helmed sci-fi cult classic Tarantula, starring alongside John Agar and Leo G. Carroll.
Corday also appeared in sci-fi titles The Black Scorpion (1957) and The Giant Claw (1957), as well as westerns like Drums Across the River (1954), The Man From Bitter Ridge (1955) and Man Without a Star (1955).
Following the 1974 death of husband Richard Long, whom she met on the set of their 1954 film Playgirl, Corday’s friend and Tarantula co-star Clint Eastwood helped her revive her career with roles in his movies The Gauntlet (1977), Sudden Impact (1983), Pink Cadillac (1989) and The Rookie (1990).
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