Myrna Fahey

Biography

Myrna Fahey (March 12, 1933 – May 6, 1973) was an American actress known for her role as Maria Crespo in Walt Disney's Zorro and as Madeline Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher. She appeared in episodes of 37 television series from the 1950s into the 1970s, including Bonanza, Wagon Train, The Time Tunnel, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, Laramie, Gunsmoke, The Adventures of Superman, Kraft Suspense Theatre, Daniel Boone, Perry Mason, and Batman.

== Early years == Myrna Elisabeth Fahey was born in Carmel, Maine, near Bangor, the youngest of three children for Francis Edward Fahey and Olivia Newcomb. She attended Carmel Grammar School until age six, along with her older brothers. By early 1940 the family had moved to Southwest Harbor, where her father took a job at the Manset Boat Yard. As a youngster, Myrna was active in the Girl Scouts, swimming, and acrobatics, and took dancing lessons. Fahey did her secondary education at Pemetic High School in Southwest Harbor, where she performed in musicals, plays, and took part in public speaking events. Despite her short stature, she was athletic, outscoring all other girls in her school to win a state-level Girls Athletic Association award. Fahey took part in her school's wilderness exploring club, was a cheerleader for four years, and captain of the girls' undefeated varsity basketball team.

== Drama school and beauty pageants == Fahey graduated from high school in June 1951 and worked briefly at a retail job in Bangor. The following October, she enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse Unable to find acting work after her drama school stint, Fahey returned to Maine in late spring 1952. Having been chosen Miss Mount Desert Island 1950 and Miss Poultry Queen of Hancock County 1951 while in high school, she decided to enter the Miss Maine pageant. At the state fair in August 1952, representing Bangor, Fahey came in first runner-up to winner Norma Lee Collins. Fahey immediately entered another beauty pageant the following month, winning the Miss Maine Cosmetology 1952 title.

== Start in television ==

Fahey's placement in the Miss Maine contests brought her to the attention of Hollywood scouts. Encouraged by their overtures, she returned to California and found work at local television station KHJ in Los Angeles. Fahey served as one of the fashion model hostesses on Queen for a Day and did photo shoots and general publicity events for the station's advertisers and other programs. Her first real acting job was for a television anthology series, Cavalcade of America, appearing on episode "Margin for Victory". Fahey continued doing occasional work on KHJ through 1954. She also did fashion modeling for the Broadway department store. Fahey's first real break came in March 1955, when Warner Brothers gave her a small, uncredited part in what was then called A Handful of Clouds, but was later released as I Died a Thousand Times. She did well enough in her first film that the studio also used her for its premiere television program, Warner Brothers Presents. This show had three rotating series; Myrna Fahey had a feature role in the first episode of King's Row starring Jack Kelly and Robert Horton.

== Interlude == However, the Warners job finished during Summer 1955, so Myrna Fahey committed to an extended publicity campaign for the title of Miss Rheingold. This commercial beauty contest lasted from August through October 1955. It featured six "finalists", all aspiring actresses, whom the general public could vote for at various venues around the country. Although she didn't win, Fahey received a lot of national publicity from personal appearances and newspaper photos. Publicity of a different sort came from syndicated columnist Harrison Carroll, who reported in December 1955 that she was at the Cocoanut Grove night club with Frank Sinatra associate Nick Sevano. In January 1956, Fahey was selected to be a "Baby Star", a short-lived attempt to revive the old WAMPAS annual tradition. It fizzled, and so did Myrna's career for the rest of the year. She had no performing work, and was relegated to doing "hostess" bits for public events.

== Breakthrough == With the beginning of 1957 Myrna had a steady stream of film and television work, though her roles in the former were still small and uncredited. She moved from Burbank to a large apartment in Beverly Hills that she shared with her mother, and registered as a Republican. Matinee Theater, an anthology series that presented a new hour-long movie every afternoon, was Fahey's mainstay for television work at this time. She did many of these live original productions during 1957, though the titles of some are no longer known. Myrna Fahey also did a lot of work for Disney Studios in the fall of 1957 that would not be released or broadcast until the following year. Starting about this time some columnists compared Myrna Fahey's looks with those of Elizabeth Taylor, though Myrna had bright green eyes quite unlike Taylor's distinctive violet. At the end of 1957, Myrna Fahey had her first professional stage role, with a principal part in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Holiday for Lovers, later made into a 1959 film. Reviewer Franklin Argyle said "Myrna Fahey (Betsy Dean) is a fine actress confined to a lightweight part".

== Film and television work == Fahey complained in a 1960 interview that she was being typecast in "good girl" roles because of what directors called her "moral overtones," even though she wanted to play darker and more complicated characters. She had worked in many Westerns in the late 1950s, usually in the role of the sheriff's daughter, including an appearance on Gunsmoke in 1958 (an episode entitled: "Innocent Broad"). Fahey also appeared in a supporting role in "Duel at Sundown", a notable episode of Maverick with James Garner, featuring Clint Eastwood as a trigger-happy villain. In another appearance in ‘‘Maverick’’ she starred as Dee Cooper, the owner of a cattle ranch, in conflict with Maverick's herd of sheep. She starred in two episodes of Wagon Train, "The Jane Hawkins Story" (1960) and "The Melanie Craig Story" (1964), and an episode of Straightaway, "Troubleshooter," in 1961. Fahey's image branched out in the 1960s, helped by House of Usher and a role on the Boris Karloff TV series Thriller that same year titled "Girl with a Secret". Even her Western parts became "darker." After a rough love scene in the 1960 episode of Bonanza "Breed of Violence", in which Fahey cut her lip, the cast presented her with an award for "Best Slapper in a Filmed Series".