In
addition to having many names, Lisa became known as the "Starlet
of many faces". She says of her acting career
that it was distinguished in two ways. First, that she probably portrayed
more diverse ethnic roles than any other actress on record and, second,
that she probably acted in more really silly movies than any other actress
on record.
Starting
with the Peruvian/Hollywood epic, "Daughter
of the Sun God", which has got to be one of the worst
films ever produced anywhere on the planet, Lisa went on to star, or be
featured, in endless Westerns, Polynesian adventures, and Hollywood romances.
Among these were the science fiction thriller, "World
Without End" (So bad, it's almost "good" and
has become a sort of cult classic of the "50's Films" genre)
and "She Gods of Shark Reef",
one of Roger Corman's earliest claims to fame. Some of the more memorable
experiences included working with Robert Loggia in Walt Disney's, "The
Nine Lives of Elfego Baca", and with Clayton Moore in
his last film, "The Lone Ranger and the
Lost City of Gold". It was all great fun!
Early
in her career, Lisa was chosen to play Barbara Stanwyck's maid in "Escape
to Burma", filmed at the old RKO Studios, which brought
her to the attention of Howard Hughes. Her agent excitedly informed her
that Hughes wanted to sign her to a "Personal
Contract". This was both thrilling and scary. What did a "personal"
contract mean? She didn't know. She wasn't sure she wanted to find out.
At her initial meeting with Mr. Hughes, she dressed as demurely as she
could manage and went on, at great length, to tell him of her love of
Grand Opera, Sufi poetry, and Russian literature. She never heard from
him again.
During
her years of film and TV work, Lisa portrayed a bevy of Polynesian, Native
American, and Mexican maidens; Burmese, French, Italian and Spanish ingénue's;
an East Indian Maharini; Pancho Villa's sweetheart; a futuristic survivor
of nuclear devastation, the Persian love of Omar Khayyam and other fantastic
beings. (For truly, she thinks of that time as one great fantasy) She
almost lost her life braving rushing river rapids and crossing rickety
wooden/rope bridges high in the Peruvian Andes; diving off jagged cliffs
onto crashing waves in Hawaii, fighting live sharks; (swimming underwater,
a knife between her teeth, through masses of tangled kelp, to rescue three
drowning sailors off the shores of a mysterious island somewhere in the
middle of the ocean) being thrown overboard, bound hand and foot, into
shark infested waters as a sacrifice to the insatiable "She
Gods!"; falling off jumping horses and being almost stomped
to death by one; encounters with Boa Constrictors, Jaguars and lots of
mean, dangerous men, including horrible beastly mutates from another time;
handling killer hawks and being carried under the arms by two Apache warriors
as they galloped their horses on either side of her to bring her to her
father, the Chief. ("Keep your feet up!"
yelled the Director, "so you won't get scratched
by the cactus!") (Photos)
Yet
all these, and many other incredible escapades, were not enough to hold
her back from moving on to other challenges and adventures not captured
on the silver/Technicolor screen. (About the Artists)
