Liz Renay, née Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins (April 14, 1926 – January 22, 2007) was an American author and actress who appeared in John Waters' film Desperate Living (1977).She was born Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins on April 14, 1926 in Chandler, Arizona to "evangelical parents."Renay was mobster Mickey Cohen's girlfriend. Renay was convicted of perjury and served 27 months at Terminal Island.Known more as a performer with ties to celebrities, usually actors, rather than as an actor herself, 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 tragically, her daughter Brenda committed suicide on her 39th birthday in 1982.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.
Desperate Living, The Thrill Killers, Blackenstein, Lady Godiva Rides, Mark of the Astro Zombies, Deadwood '76, Dimension in Fear, Lady Streetfighter, The Corpse Grinders II, The Hard Road, Peeper, The Nasty Rabbit, Day of the Nightmare, A Date With Death, Virgin Cowboy
Star Sign
Aries
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Fact
1
Appeared as a contestant on the Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life (1950), but the episode was never aired due to her involvement with L.A. mobster Mickey Cohen, then under criminal investigation.
2
Her talent and obsession for self-promotion continued almost until the end of her life. She first came to notice in 1950 when her antics on a film set in Phoenix earned her a five-page picture spread in Life magazine.
3
Raised in Arizona by strict evangelical Christian parents, she ran away from home at age 13 and hitchhiked to Las Vegas. She re-entered a Marilyn Monroe lookalike contest and won.
4
Married a total of seven times, her daughter Brenda Renay killed herself in 1982 on her 39th birthday. Also had a son John.
5
Died of gastric bleeding in a Las Vegas hospital.
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A pretty Las Vegas showgirl with some promise in Hollywood, her involvement with L.A. racketeer Mickey Cohen--who financed her career--in 1957 led to her serving a two-year stint in prison for perjury in his income-tax-evasion trial, which pretty much destroyed any aspirations she had of a legit acting career.