Debra Paget

Debra Paget (born Debralee Griffin; August 19, 1933) is a retired American actress and entertainer. She is perhaps best known for her performances in Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments and in Elvis Presley's film debut, Love Me Tender (1956), as well as for her snake dance scene in The Indian Tomb (1959).

Early life Paget was born in Denver, Colorado, one of five children of Margaret Allen (née Gibson), a former actress (one source says "ex-burlesque queen" ), and Frank Henry Griffin, a painter. The family moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s, to be near the film industry. Paget was enrolled in the Hollywood Professional School when she was 11.

Paget had her first professional job at age 8,

Paget had a substantial supporting role in Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), starring Victor Mature, the sequel to the earlier The Robe (1953), starring Richard Burton, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature. Like the first film, it was a commercial success. She was Dale Robertson's love interest in The Gambler from Natchez (1954) and played another Native American in the next year's White Feather (1955), playing the sister of Jeffrey Hunter's character, and lover of Robert Wagner's character.

Fox loaned Paget and Hunter to Allied Artists to appear in Seven Angry Men (1955). At MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), when Anne Bancroft was injured during filming The Last Hunt (1956), that studio borrowed Paget to substitute and play her role, another Native American character.

The Ten Commandments

Paramount Pictures borrowed her from 20th Century Fox for the part of Lilia, the water girl, in Cecil B. DeMille's biblical epic The Ten Commandments (1956), her most successful film. She had to wear brown contact lenses to hide her blue eyes; she said that "If it hadn't been for the lenses I wouldn't have gotten the part". She also said that the lenses were "awful to work in because the klieg lights heat[ed] them up".

The film was a huge success, as was Paget's Fox western, Love Me Tender (1956) alongside Elvis Presley. Paget and Richard Egan were billed above Presley, but it was the explosion of the newly discovered rock 'n roll singer's popularity and charisma that made the film so successful.

The River's Edge (1957) was the last film she made for Fox.

Post-Fox After that, Paget's career began to decline. She went to Paramount Pictures to play Cornel Wilde's love interest in Omar Khayyam (1957). She was the juvenile lead in From the Earth to the Moon (1958), based on the Jules Verne’s 1865 science fiction novel.

A talented dancer and singer, Paget also had a successful occasional nightclub act at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Paget appeared in Cleopatra's Daughter (1960) and Rome 1585 (1961), both filmed in Italy.

Return to Hollywood and television roles She returned to the US to make Why Must I Die? (1960) for American International Pictures and Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961) for Columbia Pictures. Her final two films were for producer/director Roger Corman at American International Pictures: Tales of Terror (1963) and The Haunted Palace (1963).

She did television work throughout her career. In 1959, Paget appeared as Lela Russell with Russell Johnson in the episode "The Unwilling" of the NBC Western television series Riverboat (1959-1961), starring Darren McGavin. In the first episode of the third season (1959) of NBC's Wagon Train, she played a Mexican revolutionary.

In 1960, she appeared as Laura Ashley in the episode "Incident of the Garden of Eden" on CBS's Western series, Rawhide. That same year, she played the only surviving witness to a stagecoach robbery in another CBS Western, Johnny Ringo, starring Don Durant. In 1962, she returned to Rawhide to play the part of Azuela in the episode "Hostage Child" along with James Coburn.

Her last performance in this medium came in a December 1965 episode of the ABC detective drama Burke's Law, starring Gene Barry.

She retired from entertainment roles that year after marrying a wealthy oil executive, by whom she later had one son, her only child.

Personal life

During production of Love Me Tender (1956), Elvis Presley became smitten with Paget, who in 1997 said that he had proposed marriage. At the time the media reported that she was once romantically linked with Howard Hughes, but nothing came of this infatuation. A 1956 article quoted Paget's comments about Hughes: I was in love with Howard for two years, and I don't care who knows it... I was never alone with him in the whole two years. Mother was always with us... I haven't seen Howard for a long time now, because I'm a one-man woman, and I've got to have a one-woman man... But I'll always remember Howard with fondness. but she obtained a divorce on April 11, 1958.

On March 27, 1960, she married director Budd Boetticher in Tijuana, Mexico. They separated after 22 days, and their divorce became official in 1961.

Paget left the entertainment industry in 1964 after marrying Louis Ling-Chieh Kung (孔令傑) on April 19, 1962. Kung, a descendant of Confucius, was a Chinese-American oil industry executive. His parents were banker and politician H. H. Kung and businesswoman Soong Ai-ling. His maternal aunts were Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek and First Lady of the Republic of China, and political figure Soong Ching-ling. Paget and Kung had one son, Gregory Teh-chi Kung. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1980.

Filmography

Feature films Year Title Role 1948 Cry of the City Teena Riconti 1949 Mother Is a Freshman Linda It Happens Every Spring Alice House of Strangers Maria Domenico 1950 Broken Arrow Sonseeahray Fourteen Hours Ruth 1951 Bird of Paradise Kalua Anne of the Indies Molly LaRochelle 1952 Belles on Their Toes Martha Gilbreth Les Misérables Cosette Stars and Stripes Forever Lily Becker 1954 Prince Valiant Ilene Princess of the Nile Princess Shalimar/Taura Demetrius and the Gladiators Lucia The Gambler from Natchez Melanie Barbee 1955 White Feather Appearing Day Seven Angry Men Elizabeth Clark 1956 The Last Hunt Indian girl The Ten Commandments Lilia Love Me Tender Cathy Reno 1957 The River's Edge Margaret Cameron Omar Khayyam Sharain From the Earth to the Moon Virginia Nicholl 1959 The Tiger of Eschnapur Seetha The Indian Tomb Seetha 1960 Cleopatra's Daughter Shila Why Must I Die? Dottie Manson 1961 Most Dangerous Man Alive (shot in 1958) Linda Marlow Rome 1585 Esmeralda 1962 Tales of Terror (segment: "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar") Helene Valdemar 1963 The Haunted Palace Ann Ward

Radio plays broadcast

Family Theater November 29, 1950 - "The Clown" – Debra Paget, Stephen Dunn January 23, 1952 - "The Thinking Machine" – Donald O'Connor, Debra Paget February 11, 1953 - "The Indispensable Man" – Lisa Gaye, Robert Stack, Debra Paget December 9, 1953 - "The Legend of High Chin Bob" – Debra Paget, Walter Brennan July 27, 1955 - "Fairy Tale" – Debra Paget, Jack Haley November 7, 1956 - "Integrity" – Debra Paget, Cesar Romero

Lux Radio Theatre January 22, 1951 - "Broken Arrow" – Burt Lancaster, Debra Paget September 22, 1952 -"I'll Never Forget You" – Tyrone Power, Debra Paget, Michael Pate December 22, 1952 - "Les Misérables" – Ronald Colman, Debra Paget, Robert Newton April 20, 1953 - "Deadline USA" – Dan Dailey, Debra Paget, William Conrad

Stars over Hollywood February 21, 1953 - "The Wonderful Miss Prinn" – Debra Paget