Name Liz Renay Role Author | ||
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Full Name Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins Died January 22, 2007, Las Vegas-Paradise, NV Metropolitan Statistical Area Spouse Gerald E. Heidebrink (m. 1976–1983) Books My Face for the World to See, Staying Young, My First 2,000 Men Movies Desperate Living, The Thrill Killers, Mark of the Astro Zombies, Blackenstein, Deadwood '76 Similar People John Waters, Ted V Mikels, Ray Dennis Steckler, Arch Hall - Sr, Stephen C Apostolof | ||
Children Brenda Renay, John McLain | ||
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Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins (April 14, 1926 – January 22, 2007), known as Liz Renay, was an American author and actress who appeared in John Waters' film Desperate Living (1977).
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Early life
She was born Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins on April 14, 1926 in Chandler, Arizona to William Andrew Dobbins (1898-1986) and his wife, Ada May (nee Phillips) (1904-1982), who were described as being "evangelical parents." The United States Federal Census from 1940 listed the Dobbins family living in Mesa, Arizona. Renay was recorded as Pearl, age 13. Her father, William, was a 41-year-old lettuce trimmer for a produce shipper. Renay had the following siblings: Emily, who was four years older; William E., who was six years younger; Jack, nine years younger; and Dorothy May, ten years younger.
In 1949, Renay was named "Miss Stardust of Arizona" and in the contest won "$500 cash, a trip to New York, and a modeling contract in the 1949 contest."
Her childhood was filled of dreams of becoming a star. The production crew for The Sound of Fury came to Phoenix to film and wanted townspeople. A 24-year-old Renay, then known as Pearl McLain, was a twice-divorced unemployed waitress raising two young children. She was one of 500 extras and during her two days of filming, "she kept maneuvering herself into positions where someone important would notice and offer her a movie career."
Career
She was known more as a performer with ties to celebrities, usually actors, rather than as an actor herself. Nevertheless, she did play the lead role in John Waters' film Desperate Living and also appeared on an episode of Adam-12 as a burlesque dancer who calls the police about a peeping tom outside her home (Season 5, November 1972, show entitled "Harry Nobody"). On stage, she and her daughter, Brenda, toured with a striptease act. The act ended when her daughter Brenda committed suicide on her 39th birthday in 1982.
Renay was mobster Mickey Cohen's girlfriend. Renay was convicted of perjury in 1959 and served 27 months at Terminal Island.
In a tell all book about her many relationships with men both famous and not so famous entitled My First 2,000 Men, she claimed flings with Joe DiMaggio, Regis Philbin, and Cary Grant, among many other male celebrities. Renay's other books include My Face for the World to See and Staying Young (Lyle Stuart, 1982). My Face for the World to See was reissued in 2002, headlined "A Cult Classic," with a foreword by John Waters. Waters integrated the title into the dialogue of his film Female Trouble (1974), prior to working on his film Desperate Living with Renay.
Renay died at age 80 on January 22, 2007, in her adopted hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, from cardiac arrest and gastric bleeding.
Personal life
Liz was married a total of seven times:
