Yvette Duguay

Yvette Duguay (born Audrey L. Pearlman; June 24, 1932- October 14, 1986) was an American actress. She began acting at the age of six months and continued her career well into adulthood, proving to be one of the few child stars of the time to maintain a successful career. Though Duguay’s family originated in Marseilles, France as wine merchants, she was recorded to have been born in Paterson, New Jersey. Her family decided to move out to Hollywood when Duguay was only the age of two, where she would live out the rest of her life.

Career

Duguay has a filmography that spans forty years. She started her career when she was only six months old, modeling for baby talcum powder. She made her Broadway debut at age seven in a play starring Walter Huston. Duguay began spelling her name Dugay around the age of twelve, about the time that she landed the role of a young Maria Montez in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944). She earned the role for she was a child actor that was typecast as being able to play exotic looking characters from an early age. Universal-International signed with Duguay in July 1951, when she was only nineteen years old, earning her a weekly salary of $1,250. She portrayed a Native American squaw, Starfire, in her most recognizable performance in the film Cattle Queen of Monatna (1954). Though Cattle Queen of Montana was one of her most recognizable films, Duguay also portrayed a Native American character, Minnehaha, in another Western genre film, Hiawatha (1952), which she starred opposite of Vince Edwards. Some other credits include The People Against O'Hara (1951), The Cimarron Kid (1952), Francis Covers the Big Town (1953), and The Domino Kid (1957). Her last role was playing the Lone Woman in 1960 on a television series titled Cheyenne.

Personal life

Duguay married her first husband Hal Paiss with whom she had three children, son William C. Paiss, daughter Madeline J. Paiss, and son Matthew D. Paiss. She divorced Paiss in Los Angeles in June 1966. She remarried to John F. Shirley in Los Angeles June . 24, 1967 and divorced him in October 1972. She married her third Husband Robert C. Anderson on August 27, 1983. She died in Los Angeles on October 14, 1986.

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