Faith Domergue

Faith Marie Domergue (/doʊˈmɛərɡ/;^[1] June 16, 1924, or 1925 – April 4, 1999) was an American film and television actress. Discovered at age 16 by media and aircraft mogul Howard Hughes, she was signed to a contract with Hughes's RKO Radio Pictures and cast as the lead in the studio's thriller Vendetta, which had a troubled four-year production before finally being released in 1950.

Domergue appeared in science fiction and horror pictures, such as Cult of the Cobra, This Island Earth, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and The Atomic Man, all released in 1955, earning her a reputation as an early "scream queen". Domergue's later career consisted of B movies, television guest roles, and European productions.

Early life

Domergue was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 16, 1924 or 1925 (sources differ).^[i] She was adopted by Adabelle Quimet when six weeks old.^[2] When Faith was 18 months old, Adabelle married Leo Domergue.^[3]

The family moved to California in 1928, where Domergue attended Beverly Hills Catholic School and St. Monica's Convent School. While a sophomore at University High School, she signed a contract with Warner Bros.,^[4] and made her first on-screen appearance with an uncredited walk-on role in Blues in the Night (1941).^[5] The same year, she appeared on the cover of Photoplay as Faith Dorn; the name change, she later claimed, was "because Jack Warner was too stupid to pronounce Domergue".^[6]

Career

1943–1950: Early work; Howard Hughes

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.^[3] While recuperating from the accident, she attended a party aboard Howard Hughes' yacht.^[7] Enamored with her, Hughes bought out her contract with Warner Bros.,^[6] signed her to a three-picture deal with RKO,^[8] and cast her in the thriller Vendetta (1950). The film had a long and troubled production history, with reshoots and several changes of director, further exacerbated by Hughes's health problems following a near-fatal plane crash he endured in July 1946.^[6] The production extended over four years and cost $3.5 million.^[9]

By the time of Vendetta's premiere in 1950, Domergue had left Los Angeles for Palm Springs, and was pregnant with her second child.^[10] After the film's release, Domergue separated from Hughes, disappointed with the way the film and her career had been handled: "I was told he spent five million dollars publicizing me", she said, "but [the] film was[n’t properly] released. It was all wasted."^[10] The critical reception was also dismissive. The New York Times panned the film as "a garrulous, slow, and obvious period piece, weighed down by a profusion of exotic accents, undistinguished dialogue, and unconvincing play acting... set against a background of the wild, Corsican countryside, which does give the picture an atmosphere of suspenseful authenticity".^[11] The review damned Domergue's performance with faint praise: "Faith Domergue, the heralded newcomer, is less than a fiery heroine. But despite the flamboyant lines that are her lot, the attractive Miss Domergue does occasionally contribute genuine emotional acting to the proceedings."^[11]

Following Vendetta, Domergue freelanced in the film noir Where Danger Lives (1950), playing a femme fatale opposite Robert Mitchum and Claude Rains. Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times, criticized Domergue's performance for "manifest[ing] nothing more than a comparatively sultry appearance and an ability to recite simple lines".^[12]

1951–1959: Universal and science-fiction films

After having lived briefly in England with her husband, Domergue returned to the United States in 1953, when she signed a contract with Universal Pictures.^[13] Her final credit for RKO was the drama This Is My Love (1954), which was shot after the release of her first film with Universal, The Duel at Silver Creek (1952), in which she appeared opposite Audie Murphy.^[14]

In 1955, Domergue appeared in another Western, Santa Fe Passage, playing an ammunition retailer opposite John Payne and George Keymas.^[15] Domergue then appeared in a series of science-fiction, monster, and horror films. The first of these was Cult of the Cobra (Universal Pictures 1955), in which six American Air Force officers discover a cult of snake worshippers.^[16] This was followed with a role in Columbia Pictures's It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), a science-fiction, monster film that was a major commercial success, grossing $1.7 million at the box office.^[17] The following year, Domergue starred in This Island Earth (also 1955), Universal's first color science-fiction film.^[18] The film received moderate critical praise for its performances, writing, and inventive special effects.^[18] Domergue's tenure in these pictures earned her a reputation as an early scream queen.^[19]

Domergue appeared in a string of European productions: the British science-fiction film The Atomic Man (1955), directed by Ken Hughes; British noir films Soho Incident (1956)^[20] and Man in the Shadow (1957),^[21] released in the United States as Violent Stranger; and the Italian production, The Sky Burns (1958).

1960–1974: Late career and retirement

In the late 1950s and 1960s, she made many appearances on television series,^[22] including Sugarfoot, two episodes of Hawaiian Eye, two episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel, two episodes of Bonanza, The Rifleman, and two episodes of Perry Mason. In her first Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Guilty Clients" (1961), she played murderer Conception O'Higgins, and in "The Case of the Greek Goddess" (1963), she played murder victim Cleo Grammas.

By the late 1960s, Domergue was appearing mainly in low-budget "B" horror movies and European productions. Domergue's last foray in science fiction was Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965), an American version of a Russian film, mainly backed by Russian producers and populated with Russian actors.^[23] She began traveling to Italy in 1952, living in Rome for extended periods. She relocated to Europe permanently in 1968, moving from Rome to Geneva, Switzerland, and Marbella, Spain, until the death of her Italian husband, Paolo, in 1991. In the late 1960s, she appeared in several Italian giallo films, including Lucio Fulci's One on Top of the Other (1969), and Alberto De Martino's The Man with Icy Eyes (1971).^[24] Her final film credit was for The House of Seven Corpses (1974), an independent horror film shot in Salt Lake City.^[25]

Personal life

In 1942, Domergue began an intermittent relationship with Howard Hughes. After she discovered that Hughes was also seeing Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner, the couple broke up in 1943. She later described those experiences in her 1972 book My Life with Howard Hughes.^[26][27]

On January 28, 1946, Domergue married bandleader Teddy Stauffer at the San Diego Superior Courthouse. On October 8, 1947, hours after divorcing Stauffer in Ciudad Juárez, she married director Hugo Fregonese there.^[26] The couple separated twice before Domergue was granted an uncontested divorce on June 24, 1958.^[28] Domergue and Fregonese had two children: Their first child, Diana Maria, was born on January 1, 1949, in Buenos Aires, and their second child, John Anthony, was born on August 22, 1951, in Los Angeles. John, who later became an urban planner, died on his mother's birthday in 2018 at his Portland, Oregon home.^[29]

In 1966, she married director Paolo Cossa, with whom she remained until his death in 1992.^[2] Despite the divorces, Domergue remained a practicing Roman Catholic.^[25]

Death

Domergue spent her later years in retirement in Palo Alto, California.^[30] She died on April 4, 1999, in Santa Barbara of cancer.^[31]

In popular culture

In the 2004 Howard Hughes biopic film The Aviator, Domergue was played by Kelli Garner.^[32]

Filmography

Film

Television

Notes

1. ^ Sources of Domergue's birth year vary; those that list 1924 include: *"Obituaries: Faith Domergue; Film Star Contracted by Howard Hughes". Los Angeles Times. April 17, 1999. *Raw, Laurence (2012). Character Actors in Horror and Science Fiction Films, 1930-1960. McFarland & Company. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-786-44474-8. Sources that list 1925 include: *"Faith Domergue". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 19, 2016. *Vallance, Tom (May 11, 1999). "Obituary: Faith Domergue". The Independent *Willis, John A. & Blum, Daniel C. (1990). Screen World. Vol. 41. Crown Publishers. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-517-57841-4.

References

1. ^ "Say How: D". National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
2. ^ Vallance, Tom (May 11, 1999). "Obituary: Faith Domergue". The Independent. Archived February 9, 2026 at the Wayback Machine.
3. ^ Parla & Mitchell 2000, p. 59.
4. ^ Weaver 2010, p. 29.
5. ^ Parla & Mitchell 2000, p. 60.
6. ^ Weaver 2010, p. 31.
7. ^ Charyn 1996, pp. 217–18.
8. ^ Parla & Mitchell 2000, pp. 59–60.
9. ^ "Faith Domergue: She Follows Harlow and Russell". Life. July 17, 1950. pp. 79–81.
10. ^ Weaver 2010, p. 32.
11. ^ "Movie Review -- At the Globe". The New York Times. December 26, 1950. Archived from the original on October 2, 2016.
12. ^ Crowther, Bosley (January 1, 1951). "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'The Milkman,' at the Mayfair Shows Jimmy Durante and Donald O'Connor in Leads". The New York Times
13. ^ Weaver 2010, p. 33.
14. ^ Fitzgerald, Mike. "Faith Domergue". Western Clippings. Archived from the original on April 12, 2013.
15. ^ "Santa Fe Passage (1955)". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on October 19, 2015.
16. ^ "Cult of the Cobra (1955)". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on July 26, 2016.
17. ^ 'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1955' (January 25, 1956). Variety Weekly.
18. ^ H. H. T. (June 11, 1955). "'This Island Earth' Explored From Space". The New York Times. Archived August 31, 2025 at the Wayback Machine.
19. ^ Bergan, Ronald (May 17, 1999). "Faith Domergue". The Guardian. Archived February 21, 2025 at the Wayback Machine.
20. ^ "Soho Incident (1956)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016.
21. ^ "Man in the Shadow (1957)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
22. ^ Westfahl, Gary (1999–2016). "Domergue, Faith". Gary Westfahl's Bio-Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Film. Archived from the original on August 13, 2004. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
23. ^ Weaver 2010, p. 40.
24. ^ Weaver 2010, p. 43.
25. ^ Weaver 2010, p. 41.
26. ^ "The Private Life and Times of Faith Domergue". Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
27. ^ Yogerst, Chris (November 20, 2018). "The Women Who Knew Howard Hughes". Los Angeles Review of Books. Archived February 9, 2026 at the Wayback Machine.
28. ^ Maltin, Leonard. "Overview for Faith Domergue". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012.
29. ^ "John Anthony Fregonese, 1951-2018". The Oregonian. Archived February 9, 2026 at the Wayback Machine.
30. ^ Carter 2003.
31. ^ Galloway, Doug (April 16, 1999). "Faith Domergue". Variety. Archived from the original on May 5, 2009.
32. ^ "Eye candy – Kelli Garner". IOL. January 5, 2005. Archived February 9, 2026 at the Wayback Machine.
33. ^ Weaver 2010, p. 42.
34. ^ "Faith Domergue Filmography". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived September 26, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 9, 2026.

Sources

• Carter, Steven (2003). I Was Howard Hughes. London, England: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-582-34375-4.
• Charyn, Jerome (1996). Movieland: Hollywood and the Great American Dream Culture. New York City, New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-814-71550-5.
• Parla, Paul & Mitchell, Charles P. (2000). Screen Sirens Scream!: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Science Fiction, Horror, Film Noir, and Mystery Movies, 1930s to 1960s. Jefferson, North Caroolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0701-8.
• Weaver, Tom (2010). I Was a Monster Movie Maker: Conversations with 22 SF and Horror Filmmakers. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-786-46444-9.

External links

• Faith Domergue at IMDb