Faith Domergue (June 16, 1924 – April 4, 1999) was a stunningly beautiful American actress who, after being discovered at 16 by the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, became an iconic “scream queen” and a top star of 1950s science-fiction B-movies.
Domergue was famously discovered as a teenager by Howard Hughes, who signed her to a contract and personally groomed her for stardom. After years of delays, she made her most significant early appearances in gritty film noirs like Where Danger Lives (1950) and Vendetta (1950), a troubled production that epitomized her tumultuous relationship with Hughes.
She achieved her greatest and most enduring fame in the world of science fiction, starring in two 1955 cult classics: as the brilliant scientist Dr. Ruth Adams in This Island Earth and as a scientist battling a giant octopus in It Came from Beneath the Sea. She continued to work in the horror genre for years, with a notable late-career role as the aging actress Gayle Dorian in The House of Seven Corpses (1974), cementing her legacy as a genre icon.
