Lisa Gaye obit

Lisa Gaye, Actress and Dancer in 'Rock Around the Clock,' Dies at 81

She was not on the list.

The sister of 'Love Me Tender' star Debra Paget, she also stood out in 'Shake Rattle & Rock!'

Lisa Gaye, the auburn-haired actress and dancer who starred in the 1956 musical films Rock Around the Clock and Shake Rattle & Rock!, died Thursday in Houston, her family announced. She was 81.

Survivors include her sister Debra Paget, who starred in such films as Broken Arrow, Love Me Tender and The Ten Commandments, and brother Frank Griffin, a Hollywood makeup artist who earlier acted under the screen name Reull Shayne. Another sister, actress Teala Loring, died in 2007.

In the box-office sensation Rock Around the Clock, featuring Bill Haley and the Comets, The Platters and others, Gaye was memorable dancing with Earl Barton (also the film's choreographer) in front of a clapping crowd of teens in the show-stopping number "Rock-A-Beatin Boogie."

In Shake Rattle & Rock! Gaye played the love interest of a disc jockey (Mike Connors) in the story about adults who want to ban rock 'n' roll because they think it leads to juvenile delinquency.

Also in the 1950s, Gaye had a recurring role as French model Collette DuBois on The Bob Cummings Show and was one of three women chasing rich guys on the TV version of How to Marry a Millionaire, also starring Barbara Eden.

The green-eyed Gaye guest-starred quite often on TV, appearing on such shows as Death Valley Days, Whirlybirds, Sea Hunt, Have Gun — Will Travel, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Get Smart, I Dream of Jeannie, Wagon Train, Perry Mason, Wild Wild West, The Flying Nun and, in her last onscreen appearance in 1970, Mod Squad.

Leslie Gaye Griffin was born March 6, 1935, in Denver. Her mother was an actress, and her family moved to Los Angeles after her sister Teala was signed to a contract by Paramount. Later, Debra was scooped up by 20th Century Fox. (Her mother gave each of her children a stage name.)

At the recommendation of Debra, she was screen-tested at Universal International and signed there in 1953. The studio changed her name to Lisa Gaye, and in 1954, she showed up as a bobbysoxer in The Glenn Miller Story, as a harem girl in Rhonda Fleming's Yankee Pasha and as Audie Murphy's fiancee in Drums Across the River.

Gaye also appeared opposite Dean Martin in Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), and in Night of Evil (1961), she portrayed a raped student who goes on to win a beauty pageant but ends up on skid row.

Survivors also include her daughter Janell.

Selected filmography
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - Bobbysoxer (uncredited)
Yankee Pasha (1954) - Harem Girl (uncredited)
Drums Across the River (1954) - Jennie
Magnificent Obsession (1954) - Switchboard Girl (uncredited)
Ain't Misbehavin' (1955) - Chorine (uncredited)
Rock Around the Clock (1956) - Lisa Johns
Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956) - June Fitzdingle
Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957) - Ana Martelli
Sweethearts (1957)
Night of Evil (1962) - Dixie Ann Dikes
La cara del terror (1962) - Norma Borden
Castle of Evil (1966) - Carrol Harris
The Violent Ones (1967) - Dolores

Other television credits

Annie Oakley (1956) - Vera Barker
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1956) - Carol Rogers / Felicia Norris / Mary Brewster
The Adventures of Jim Bowie (1956-1957) - Maria Miro / Jeanne Brasseaur
Have Gun – Will Travel (1957-1958) - Nancy Warren / Helen Abajinian
The Walter Winchell File (1958) - Doris Carter
Tombstone Territory (1958-1959) - Nancy Cooley / Miss Lizette
How to Marry a Millionaire (1958-1959) - Gwen Kirby
Perry Mason (1958-1966) - Laraine Keely / Pamela Blair / Joyce Hadley / Alyssa Laban / Rita Magovern / Lola Bronson / Juror
Sea Hunt (1959) - Ann Barry / June Leeds / Philana / Louise Wiley / Blaze Green
Bat Masterson (1959-1961) - Elena / Susan Carver / Lori Dowling / Lori La Rue
Men Into Space (1960) - Joyce Lynn
Wanted: Dead or Alive (1960) - Susan Marno
Cheyenne (1960) - Francie Scott / Jenny Beaumont
Rawhide (1960) - Odette Laurier
Death Valley Days (1960-1969) - Lisa Tracy / Lottie Deno / Mystic Maude / Rosie Winters / Gypsy / Faith Turner / Lena / Tacilia - Healing Woman / Delores / Raquel / Yvonne Benet
77 Sunset Strip, The Desert Spa Caper (09/29/1961) - Janet Hubbell
Maverick (1961) - Soledad Lozaro
Wagon Train (1961) - Alma Mendez
Tales of Wells Fargo (1961) - Sunset / Michelle Bovarde
Laramie (1962) - Winona
The Wild Wild West (1966-1967) - Lana Benson / Lorelei
The Time Tunnel (1967) - Ahza
Get Smart (1967) - Miss Smith
I Dream of Jeannie (1968) - Daisy Lou
The Flying Nun (1969) - Rosita / Elena
The Mod Squad (1970) - Yolanda (final appearance)