LIZ RENAY, 80 Actress, artist, stripper
Liz Renay, a stripper and cult movie actress whose real life included roles as a gangster's moll, prison inmate, author and artist, died Jan. 22 in Las Vegas from cardiopulmonary arrest and gastric bleeding.
She first gained attention as a fashion model and Marilyn Monroe look-alike in the 1950s. She developed a cult following for her role as Muffy St. Jacques in director John Waters' 1977 movie Desperate Living.
She appeared in at least two dozen other movies ranging from Date With Death in 1959 and The Thrill Killers in 1964, to adult films like Interlude of Lust in 1981.
She painted canvasses during a 27-month stint in federal prison in the early 1960s for perjuring herself during the federal tax evasion trial of her then-boyfriend, Hollywood mobster Mickey Cohen. In her 1992 book, My First 2,000 Men, she claimed flings with a wide range of celebrities.
Born Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins in Chandler, Ariz., she was married seven times, divorced five times and widowed twice.