Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins, known as Liz Renay, was an American author and actress who appeared in John Waters' film Desperate Living.
Early life
She was born Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins on April 14, 1926 in Chandler, Arizona to William Andrew Dobbins and his wife Ada May , who were described as being "evangelical parents." The United States Federal Census from 1940 listed the Dobbins family living in Mesa, Arizona. Renay was recorded as Pearl, age 13. Her father, William, was a 41-year-old lettuce trimmer for a produce shipper. Renay had the following siblings: Emily, who was four years older; William E., who was six years younger; Jack, nine years younger; and Dorothy May, 10 years younger. In 1949, Renay was named Miss Stardust of Arizona and in the contest won "$500 cash, a trip to New York, and a modeling contract in the 1949 contest." Her childhood was filled of dreams of becoming a star. The production crew for The Sound of Fury came to Phoenix to film and wanted townspeople. A 24-year-old Renay, then known as Pearl McLain, was a twice-divorced, unemployed waitress raising two young children. She was one of 500 extras and during her two days of filming, "she kept maneuvering herself into positions where someone important would notice and offer her a movie career."
Career
She was known more as a performer with ties to celebrities, usually actors, rather than as an actor herself. Nevertheless, she did play the lead role in John Waters' film Desperate Living and appeared on an episode of Adam-12 as a burlesque dancer who calls the police about a peeping tom outside her home. On stage, she and her daughter, Brenda, toured with a striptease act. The act ended when her daughter Brenda committed suicide on her 39th birthday in 1982. Renay was mobster Mickey Cohen's girlfriend. Renay was convicted of perjury in 1959 and served 27 months at Terminal Island. In a tell-all book about her many relationships with men both famous and not so famous titled My First 2,000 Men, she claimed flings with Joe DiMaggio, Regis Philbin, Glenn Ford and Cary Grant. Renay's other books include My Face for the World to See and Staying Young. My Face for the World to See was reissued in 2002, headlined "A Cult Classic," with a foreword by John Waters. Waters integrated the title into the dialogue of his film Female Trouble before working on his film Desperate Living with Renay. Renay died at age 80 on January 22, 2007 in her adopted hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada from cardiac arrest and gastric bleeding.
Personal life
Liz was married a total of seven times:
Ricky Romano, whom she married when she was about 15 years old. From this marriage, a daughter Brenda Whylene, an actress who went by the stage name Brenda Renay, was born. Ricky and Renay were divorced in 1943.
Paul McLain, and from this marriage, one son, Johnny Allen McLain Sr. was born. They later divorced.
William Forrest, an actor, in 1956. The marriage, however, proved to be bigamous as Forrest had not divorced his former wife until 1959. Forrest died August 10, 1960, "while making a movie in Tokyo."
Read Morgan, an actor, whom she married on November 25, 1963, in Nevada. They appeared together in the film Deadwood '76.
Thomas W. Freeman, whom she married on May 23, 1966. In a 1972 Los Angeles Times article, Freeman was described as "a millionaire entrepreneur who provides her with almost everything she wants — including a separate $175-a-month apartment for her two dogs. He also gives her her freedom." It adds: "Freeman is on the road almost constantly. He and Liz see each other only on weekends — if then — and Miss Renay says it is an ideal relationship, 'more like a romance than a marriage.' They have been married six years now — longer than her first five marriages combined — and Miss Renay readily admits this marriage, too, would have been over long ago were it not for their unusual arrangement." They were divorced in April 1973.
Gerald E. Heidebrink, whom she married on November 3, 1976, in Nevada. The marriage ended in divorce on April 12, 1983, also in Nevada.
