Mara Corday, Iconic Playboy Playmate & Clint Eastwood Co-Star, Dies at 95

Mara Corday, a pinup girl of the '50s whose exotic looks and widely photographed figure made her a beauty icon of a bygone era, has died at 95.

The Washington Post obtained a death certificate confirming that Corday, as Marilyn Long, died February 9 in Santa Clarita, California.

Corday was born Marilyn Watts on January 3, 1930, in Santa Monica.

Of her professional name, she later said, "I was an usherette at the Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles and there was an attraction there called the Lecuona Cuban Boys. I fell in love with bongo player. He called me Marita, which he said meant little Mara. I liked the name and kept it. As for the Corday, I picked that up when I looked through a magazine and came across a perfume ad."

Seeking a career in movies as a teenager, she worked as a showgirl in Hollywood, and making ends meet posing for cheesecake magazines. Dancing and acting at the Earl Carroll Revue while underage, she honed her skills to the point she earned a contract with Universal, leading to roles in B pictures that included "Two Tickets to Broadway" (1951), "Son of Ali Baba" (1952), and "Tarzan and the She-Devil" (1953).

While shooting the 1954 film "Playgirl," she met her future husband, actor Richard Long, who was later famous for the TV series "The Big Valley" and "Nanny and the Professor."

In 1955, Corday landed a juicier part in "Tarantula," a hit sci-fi feature. It was on this set that she met Clint Eastwood, a friend who would later play a huge part in her late career.

She went on to appear in several other sci-fi films ("The Black Scorpion" and "The Giant Claw" in 1957) and in many westerns, including "Man Without a Star" (1955).

She recurred on the TV series "Combat Sergeant" (1956), but her widest exposure came as a Playboy Playmate in the magazine's October 1958 issue.

After the 1958 noir film "Girls on the Loose" and appearances on TV series including "Peter Gunn" (1959) and "Surfside 6" (1961), Corday retired from acting and modeling to raise her three children with Long.

Long died of heart failure at 47 in 1974.

After being widowed, Corday acted several times again, thanks to offers from Eastwood, appearing in his films "The Gauntlet" (1977), "Sudden Impact" (1983), "Pink Cadillac" (1989), and "The Rookie" (1990).

In a key "Sudden Impact" scene, Corday plays waitress Loretta at the Acorn Cafe who pours an incredible amount of sugar in Dirty Harry's coffee to alert him that the place is in the midst of a hold-up. After Harry kills the rest of the gunmen, it is Corday's character who is held captive by the last surviving bad guy. As the villain decides whether to try to keep fighting, Harry, his gun trained on him, utters the immortal line, "Go ahead — make my day."

Coincidentally, Corday died less than a month after her "Sudden Impact" co-star James McEachin, whose death also went initially unreported.

Corday was preceded in death in 2008 by her son Carey Long. She is survived by her daughter, Valerie Long, who recently spoke on the "Rarefied Heir" podcast, and her son, Gregory Long.