Yvette Dugay (born Audrey Lee Pearlman; June 24, 1932 – October 14, 1986)[1] was an American actress. She was often credited as Yvette Duguay.
Early years
The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Pearlman,[2] she began acting at the age of six months, and continued her career well into adulthood, proving to be one of the few child stars of the time to maintain a successful career.[citation needed]
Director Arthur Lubin once described Dugay as "a rare actress with a bottomless well of emotion."[2] Her filmography spans 40 years. Her career began when she was only six months old, modeling for baby talcum powder.[5] She made her Broadway debut at age seven in a play starring Walter Huston. Duguay began spelling her name Dugay around the age of 12, about the time that she landed the role of a young Maria Montez in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944). She was typecast as being able to play exotic-looking characters from an early age.
Universal Pictures signed Duguay in July, 1951 when at age nineteen,[5] earning her a weekly salary of $1,250.[citation needed][note 4][6] She portrayed a Native American woman, Starfire, in the Western film Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) that starred Barbara Stanwyck and future President of the United States Ronald Reagan. Cattle Queen turned out to be one of her most recognizable roles, but Duguay also portrayed a Native American character, Minnehaha, in another film, Hiawatha (1952), in which she starred opposite Vince Edwards.
She also played a Native American woman in an episode of Bronco (1959), a Warner Bros. television series starring Ty Hardin. Her last role was playing the Lone Woman in 1960 on the series Cheyenne.
Notes
^Dugay's page on the Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen website says that she was "born in Marseilles, France" and "brought to Paterson, New Jersey, during infancy".
^Similarly, an International News Service article, published in 1951, says, "Yvette was born in Marseilles, France. Her parents ... brought their child to Paterson,
N.J., when she was a baby."
^An article in theWisconsin Jewish Chronicle says, "Yvette's parents brought her to Hollywood at the ripe old age of eight ...",
^A newspaper article published on July 3, 1951, says that Dugay's salary was "$250 weekly".
References
^"Yvette Dugay". Films of the Golden Age (98): 79–80. Fall 2019.
