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Faith Domergue
Born	Faith Marie Domergue June 16, 1924(1924-06-16) New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	April 4, 1999 (aged 74) Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1941–1974
Spouse(s)	Teddy Stauffer (1946–1947) divorced Hugo Fregonese (1947–1958) divorced Paolo Cossa (1966–1996) his death

Faith Domergue (June 16, 1924 – April 4, 1999) was an American television and film actress.

Early life and career

Born in New Orleans, Domergue was adopted by Adabelle Wemet when she was six weeks old (she found out later in life that she was adopted and that she was actually of Irish and English ancestry). Adabelle married Leo Domergue in 1926, when Faith was 18 months old. The family moved to California in 1928 where Domergue attended Beverly Hills Catholic School and St. Monica's Convent School. While still in high school, she was signed to Warner Bros. where she made her first onscreen appearance in Blues in the Night (1941).^[1]

After graduating in 1942, Domergue continued to pursue a career in acting but after sustaining injuries in a near-fatal car accident, her plans were put on hold. While recuperating from the accident, she attended a party aboard Howard Hughes' yacht. Hughes was taken by Domergue and bought out her contract with Warner Bros., and signed her to a three picture contract with RKO.^[2] After an unsuccessful, long-delayed premiere in the film Vendetta (1950), Domergue left Hughes. She later freelanced in a number of films, including film noir Where Danger Lives (as a femme fatale opposite Robert Mitchum), westerns (Santa Fe Passage) and in 1955, three sci-fi/monster films (It Came from Beneath the Sea, This Island Earth and Cult of the Cobra).^[3]

She later made films in England and Italy, and a last sci-fi foray in the Russian film Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet, in 1965. In the late 1950s and 1960s she made many appearances on popular television series, including Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, Perry Mason, and The Rifleman. By the late 1960s, Domergue had lost interest in acting as a career, and her last acting appearances were mainly in low-budget 'B' horror movies. She began traveling to Rome, Italy in 1952, and lived there for extended periods of time. She moved there permanently in 1968, and remained an expatriot in Rome, Geneva, Switzerland, and Marbella, Spain until the death of her Roman husband, Paolo in 1991. She then moved to Santa Barbara until her death in 1999.

Personal life and death

In 1941, Domergue began an on-off relationship with Howard Hughes. After discovering that Hughes was also seeing Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner, the couple broke up in 1943. She later wrote a book about her relationship with Hughes entitled My Life with Howard Hughes (1972).^[4]

In 1946, Domergue married bandleader Teddy Stauffer. The marriage lasted six months, ending in 1947. That same year, she married director Hugo Fregonese with whom she had two children, Diana Maria and John Anthony. The couple divorced in 1958. In 1966, she married Paolo Cossa, with whom she remained until his death in 1992.^[5]

On April 4, 1999, Domergue died from cancer, aged 74.^[6]

In the 2004 Howard Hughes biopic film The Aviator, Domergue was played by Kelli Garner.^[7]

Filmography

References

External links

• Faith Domergue at the Internet Movie Database
• Faith Domergue at the TCM Movie Database
• Faith Domergue at Find a Grave