Bottom

Real Name: Debralee Griffin
Born: August 19, 1933 in Denver, Colorado.
Husbands: David Sheets (1958 - 1958)
Budd Boetticher (1960 - 1961)
Louis Kung (1962 - 1971)

An acting career was always in the cards for Debra Paget (nee Debralee Griffin) and her siblings, coming from a show biz family and being the offspring of a "stage mother" anxious to get her kids into the movies. Paget's sister Teala Loring got her movie breaks in the 1940s, Lisa Gaye was a film and TV star in the '50s and '60s, and even brother Frank (acting as Ruell Shayne) landed some film jobs. Paget got a 20th Century-Fox contract at age 14 and her first role in the film noir "Cry of the City" (1948), her first of nearly 20 movies at the studios, mostly Westerns, swashbucklers and period musicals. Every inch (all five-foot-two of her) the Hollywood star.

Trivia

Elvis first met Debra while appearing on "The Milton Berle Show" on June 5, 1956. They both took part in a skit in which Debra is described to Elvis by Milton Berle as a sophisticated, refined Hollywood type ("not in your league; stick to Heartbreak Hotel and stay away from the Waldorf.") Debra Paget then comes out on stage, and of course, proceeds to scream & swoon over Elvis.

She began work on Elvis' first film, Love Me Tender, on August 23, playing the part of Cathy Reno, Elvis' wife in the film. The film opened in New York on November 15. For the first and last time, Elvis did not receive top billing. Both Debra and Richard Egan were billed ahead of Elvis. Debra retired from films in 1962 after marrying millionaire Louis Kung, but not before completing The Haunted Palace, with Vincent Price. In the 1990's

She took her screen name from Lord and Lady Paget of England, UK.
Sister of Teala Loring, Lisa Gaye and Ruell Shayne.She made her stage debut with Charles Coburn in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Sister OF of actresses Lisa Gaye and Judith Gibson (a.k.a.Teala Loring) and actor franc Griffin/Ruell Shayne, Maggie Griffin, had been A burlesque strippers in ago youth. Debra retired from the screen after marrying a Chinese millionaire in 1962.

 

Filmography

• Madhouse (1974) (archive footage) .... Filmclips from 'The Haunted Palace'
... aka Deathday (1974)
... aka Madhouse of Dr. Fear, The (1974)
... aka Revenge of Dr. Death, The (1974)
• Haunted Palace, The (1963) .... Ann Ward
... aka Edgar Allan Poe's The Haunted Palace (1963) (USA: promotional title)
... aka Haunted Village, The (1963)
• Tales of Terror (1962) .... Helene Valdemar (segment "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar")
... aka Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Terror (1962) (USA)
... aka Poe's Tales of Terror (1962)
• Masnadieri, I (1962)
... aka Mercenaries, The (1962) (USA: video title)
... aka Rome 1585 (1964) (USA: TV title)
• Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961) .... Linda Marlow
Sepolcro dei re, Il (1960) .... Shila
... aka Cleopatra's Daughter (1963) (USA)
... aka Vallée des pharaons, La (1960) (France)
• Why Must I Die? (1960) .... Dottie Manson
... aka 13 Steps to Death (1960)
... aka Thirteen Steps to Death (1960)
• Journey to the Lost City (1959) .... Seta
... aka Tiger of Bengal (1959/I) (UK)
• Indische Grabmal, Das (1959) .... Seetha
... aka Indian Tomb, The (1959)
... aka Sepolcro indiano, Il (1959) (Italy)
... aka Tombeau hindou, Le (1959) (France)
• Tiger von Eschnapur, Der (1959) .... Seetha
... aka Tiger of Bengal (1959/II) (UK)
... aka Tiger of Eschnapur, The (1959) (International: informal literal title English title)
... aka Tigre di Eschnapur, La (1959) (Italy)
... aka Tigre du Bengale, Le (1959)
• From the Earth to the Moon (1958) .... Virginia Nicholl
• Omar Khayyam (1957) .... Sharain
... aka Life, Loves and Adventures of Omar Khayyam, The (1957)
... aka Loves of Omar Khayyam, The (1957) (USA)
• River's Edge, The (1957) .... Margaret Cameron (unmarried Margaret Fowler)
• Love Me Tender (1956) .... Cathy Reno • Ten Commandments, The (1956) .... Lilia
• Last Hunt, The (1956) .... Indian girl
• Seven Angry Men (1955) .... Elizabeth Clark
... aka God's Angry Man (1955) (USA: alternative title)
• White Feather (1955) .... Appearing Day
• Gambler from Natchez, The (1954) .... Melanie Barbee
• Princess of the Nile (1954) .... Princess Shalimar/Taura
• Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) .... Lucia
• Prince Valiant (1954) .... Ilene
• Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) .... Lily Becker
... aka Marching Along (1952) (UK)
• Miserables, Les (1952) .... Cosette
• Belles on Their Toes (1952) .... Martha Gilbreth
• Anne of the Indies (1951) .... Molly LaRochelle
• Bird of Paradise (1951) .... Kalua
• Fourteen Hours (1951) .... Ruth
• Broken Arrow (1950) .... Sonseeahray ('Morningstar')
• It Happens Every Spring (1949) (uncredited) .... Alice, Debby's College Friend
• House of Strangers (1949) .... Maria Domenico
• Mother Is a Freshman (1949) (uncredited) .... Linda
... aka Mother Knows Best (1949) (UK)
• Cry of the City (1948) .... Teena Riconti

Notable TV Guest Appearances

• Burke's Law- (1963) playing "Helen Harper" in episode: "Who Killed Wimbledon Hastings?" (episode # 2.20) 3 February 1965
• Burke's Law"-(1963) playing "Juliet" in episode: "Who Killed Eleanora Davis?" (episode # 1.13) 20 December 1963
• Rawhide- (1959) playing "Estuella Briscoe" in episode: "The Hostage Child" (episode # 4.22) 9 March 1962
• Rawhide- (1959) playing "Laura Ashley" in episode: "Incident in the Garden of Eden" (episode # 2.31) 17 June 1960
• Johnny Ringo- (1959) playing "Agnes St. John" in episode: "East Is East" (episode # 1.14) 7 January 1960
• Riverboat- (1959) playing "Lela Candida" in episode: "The Unwilling" (episode # 1.5) 11 October 1959
• Wagon Train- (1957) playing "Angela DeVarga" in episode: "The Stagecoach Story" (episode # 3.1) 30 September 1959
• Cimarron City- (1958) in episode: "The Beauty and the Sorrow" (episode # 1.18) 7 February 1959
• Wagon Train- (1957) playing "Marie Dupree" in episode: "The Marie Dupree Story" (episode # 1.25) 19 March 1958
• Climax!- (1954) in episode: "The Man Who Lost His Head" (episode # 2.36) 26 July 1956 20th Century-Fox Hour, The" (1955) playing "Mary Conners" in episode: "Gun in His Hand" (episode # 1.14) 4 April 1956
• Milton Berle Show- (1948) 1956

Top