Sunday, May 16, 2010

Deborah Walley


Deborah Walley, parents were, Ice Capades skating stars and choreographers Nathan and Edith Walley. At fourteen she was playing summer-stock theatre. She studied acting at New York City's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She made her first Hollywood film in 1961's Gidget Goes Hawaiian, a role for which she is best remembered. From then until 1974 she performed in fifteen feature length films, including several of the "Beach Party" films.

From 1964–1966, Walley was married to actor John Ashley, a costar of ABC's Straightaway series about auto racing from 1961–1962.

On television, she was known as Suzie Hubbard Buell in the comedy The Mothers-in-Law; Eve Arden played her mother, while Kaye Ballard played her mother-in-law.


Filmography:
Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961)
Bon Voyage! (1962)
Summer Magic (1963)
The Young Lovers (1964)
Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)
Ski Party (1965)
Sergeant Dead Head (1965)
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965)
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)

Spinout (1966)
The Bubble (1966)
It's a Bikini World (1967) The video below is from the movie.


Drag Racer (1971)
The Severed Arm (1973)
Benji (1974)
Rescue Rangers (1989) (voice)
Germbusters 3: The Infection (2010) (voice)
Story Time with Gibbon and Luke (2010) (voice)


She has three sons, who include John Brooks Ashley, a noted director, editor, and producer in Hollywood.

Deborah, Moved to Sedona, Arizona to bring up her children in the 1970s. Deborah, co-founded two children's theater companies, Pied Piper Productions and the Sedona Children's Theatre in Sedona.

8 comments:

  1. Dawn, Deborah is a past from my past.and I'm having 60's flashbacks withn that Castaways clip. LOL

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  2. Dawn, I always liked Deborah (though she's no Annette!). My favorite of her performances was in SKI PARTY. John Ashley was a BEACH PARTY series regular, too. He and Deborah play a dating couple in BEACH BLANKET BINGO.

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  3. Rick, After seeing the movie, Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961). I'm in the mood to watch all the "Beach Party", movies. :)

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  4. Dawn, I think Deborah Walley is just the cutest thing! Now you have me in the mood to watch some beach party movies too! It always kills me to see Annette on the beach with other girls in bikinis and she is dressed in a turtleneck or something similarly pure!

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  5. Beck, I know... I wonder why?

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  6. Becks and Dawn, The story goes that Annette promised Walt Disney that she would not wear bikinis on screen.

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