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Faith Marie Domergue (; June 16, 1924, or 1925 – April 4, 1999) was an American film and television actress. Discovered at age 16 by media and aircraft Business magnate Howard Hughes, she was signed to a contract with Hughes's RKO Pictures and cast as the lead in the studio's thriller Vendetta, which had a troubled four-year production before finally being released in 1950.
Domergue appeared in science-fiction and horror pictures, such as Cult of the Cobra, This Island Earth, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and The Atomic Man, all released in 1955, earning her a reputation as an early "scream queen". Domergue's later career consisted of , television guest roles, and European productions.
The family moved to California in 1928, where Domergue attended Beverly Hills Catholic School and St. Monica's Convent School. While a sophomore at University High School, she signed a contract with Warner Bros., and made her first on-screen appearance with an uncredited walk-on role in Blues in the Night (1941). The same year, she appeared on the cover of Photoplay as Faith Dorn; the name change, she later claimed, was "because Jack Warner was too stupid to pronounce Domergue".
By the time of Vendettas premiere in 1950, Domergue had left Los Angeles for Palm Springs, and was pregnant with her second child. After the film's release, Domergue separated from Hughes, disappointed with the way the film and her career had been handled: "I was told he spent five million dollars publicizing me", she said, "but the film wasn’t released. It was all wasted." The critical reception was also dismissive. The New York Times panned the film as "a garrulous, slow, and obvious period piece, weighed down by a profusion of exotic accents, undistinguished dialogue, and unconvincing play acting... set against a background of the wild, Corsican countryside, which does give the picture an atmosphere of suspenseful authenticity". The review damned Domergue's performance with faint praise: "Faith Domergue, the heralded newcomer, is less than a fiery heroine. But despite the flamboyant lines that are her lot, the attractive Miss Domergue does occasionally contribute genuine emotional acting to the proceedings."
Following Vendetta, Domergue freelanced in the film noir Where Danger Lives (1950), playing a femme fatale opposite Robert Mitchum and Claude Rains. Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times, criticized Domergue's performance for "manifesting nothing more than a comparatively sultry appearance and an ability to recite simple lines".
In 1955, Domergue appeared in another Western, Santa Fe Passage, playing an ammunition retailer opposite John Payne and George Keymas. Domergue then appeared in a series of science-fiction, monster movie, and . The first of these was Cult of the Cobra (Universal Pictures 1955), in which six American Air Force officers discover a cult of snake worshippers. This was followed with a role in Columbia Pictures's It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), a science-fiction, monster film that was a major commercial success, grossing $1.7 million at the box office.'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1955' (January 25, 1956). Variety Weekly. The following year, Domergue starred in This Island Earth (also 1955), Universal's first color science-fiction film. The film received moderate critical praise for its performances, writing, and inventive special effects. Domergue's tenure in these pictures earned her a reputation as an early scream queen.
Domergue appeared in a string of European productions: the British science-fiction film The Atomic Man (1955), directed by Ken Hughes; British noir films Soho Incident (1956) and Man in the Shadow (1957), released in the United States as Violent Stranger ; and the Italian production, The Sky Burns (1958).
By the late 1960s, Domergue was appearing mainly in low-budget "B" horror movies and European productions. Domergue's last foray in science fiction was Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965), an American version of a Russian film, mainly backed by Russian producers and populated with Russian actors. She began traveling to Italy in 1952, living in Rome for extended periods. She relocated to Europe permanently in 1968, moving from Rome to Geneva, Switzerland, and Marbella, Spain, until the death of her Italian husband, Paolo, in 1991. In the late 1960s, she appeared in several Italian giallo films, including Lucio Fulci's One on Top of the Other (1969), and Alberto De Martino's The Man with Icy Eyes (1971). Her final film credit was for The House of Seven Corpses (1974), an independent horror film shot in Salt Lake City.
On January 28, 1946, Domergue married bandleader Teddy Stauffer at the San Diego Superior Courthouse. On October 8, 1947, hours after divorcing Stauffer in Ciudad Juárez, she married director Hugo Fregonese there. Their first child, Diana Maria, was born on January 1, 1949, in Buenos Aires. Their second child, John Anthony, was born on August 22, 1951, in Los Angeles. John, who became an urban planner, died on what would have been his mother's 94th birthday. "John Anthony Fregonese, 1951-2018 obits.oregonlive.com retrieved June 16, 2021 The couple separated twice before Domergue was granted an uncontested divorce on June 24, 1958. "Faith Domergue" glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen retrieved June 16, 2021
In 1966, she married director Paolo Cossa, with whom she remained until his death in 1992. Despite the divorces, Domergue remained a practicing Catholic Church.
| 1941 | Blues in the Night | Jitterbug | Uncredited |
| 1946 | Young Widow | Gerry Taylor | Alternative title: The Naughty Widow |
| 1949 | Hardly a Criminal | ||
| 1950 | Where Danger Lives | Margo Lannington | |
| Vendetta | Colomba della Rabia | ||
| 1952 | Opal Lacy | Alternative title: Claim Jumpers | |
| 1953 | Joan Britton | ||
| 1954 | This Is My Love | Evelyn Myer | |
| 1955 | Santa Fe Passage | Aurelie St. Clair | |
| Cult of the Cobra | Lisa Moya | ||
| This Island Earth | Dr. Ruth Adams | ||
| It Came from Beneath the Sea | Professor Lesley Joyce | Alternative title: Monster from Beneath the Sea | |
| Timeslip | Jill Rabowski | Alternative title: The Atomic Man | |
| 1956 | Soho Incident | Bella Francesi | Alternative title: Spin a Dark Web |
| 1957 | Man in the Shadow | Barbara Peters | Alternative title: Violent Stranger |
| 1958 | The Sky Burns | Anna | Alternative title: Il Cielo brucia |
| 1959 | Escort West | Martha Drury | |
| 1963 | California | Carlotta Torres | |
| 1965 | Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet | Dr. Marsha Evans | Additional material only, dubbed version of the Soviet film Planeta Bur (1962) |
| 1967 | Track of Thunder | Mrs. Goodwin | |
| 1969 | Besieged | Lorenzo's mother | Alternative title: |
| One on Top of the Other | Martha | Alternative titles: Una sull'altra, Perversion Story | |
| 1970 | Signora Del Isolla | ||
| 1971 | Blood Legacy | Veronica Dean | Alternative title: Legacy of Blood |
| 1971 | The Man with Icy Eyes | Mrs. Valdes | Alternative title: L'Uomo dagli occhi di ghiaccio |
| 1974 | So Evil, My Sister | Millie | Alternative titles: Psycho Sisters The Siblings |
| The House of Seven Corpses | Gayle Dorian |
| 1953 | Laurie Rogers | 1 episode | |
| 1953–1954 | Lux Video Theatre | 2 episodes | |
| 1954 | Fireside Theatre | 2 episodes | |
| 1954 | Ford Theatre | 1 episode | |
| 1954–1958 | Schlitz Playhouse of Stars | 2 episodes | |
| 1955 | Celebrity Playhouse | 1 episode | |
| 1956 | Renee Morrell | 1 episode | |
| 1957 | Overseas Press Club - Exclusive! | Helen Zotos | 1 episode |
| 1959 | Sugarfoot | Isabel Starkey | 1 episode |
| 1959 | State Trooper | 2 episodes | |
| 1959 | Bourbon Street Beat | Susan Wood | 1 episode |
| 1959 | Cheyenne | Maria | 1 episode |
| 1959–1961 | Hawaiian Eye | 2 episodes | |
| 1960 | Colt .45 | Suzanne Tremaine | 1 episode |
| 1960 | Bronco | Catalina | 1 episode |
| 1960 | Michael Shayne | Kara | 1 episode |
| 1961 | 77 Sunset Strip | Gretchen Jervis | 1 episode |
| 1961 | Kate Elder | 1 episode | |
| 1961 | Lock-Up | Marianne | 1 episode |
| 1961–1963 | Perry Mason | 2 episodes | |
| 1961–1964 | Bonanza | 2 episodes | |
| 1962–1963 | Have Gun – Will Travel | 2 episodes | |
| 1966 | Combat! | Madame Fouchet | 1 episode |
| 1968 | Garrison's Gorillas | Carla | 1 episode |
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