Myrna Fahey (March 12, 1933 – May 6, 1973) was an American actress best known for playing Madeline Usher in Roger Corman’s House of Usher (1960) and Maria Crespo in Walt Disney’s Zorro. She died on May 6, 1973, at age 40, from cancer. The specific type was never publicly disclosed. Before her acting career gained momentum, she built a glamour-girl profile through beauty pageants and publicity photo shoots — which explains why searches for “Myrna Fahey pinup” lead to her name. This article covers her full biography, career, and the verified facts around her death.
Who Was Myrna Fahey?
Myrna Elisabeth Fahey was the youngest of three children born to Francis Edward Fahey, a boat builder, and Olivia Newcomb, in Carmel, Maine. Her parents named her after Golden Age Hollywood star Myrna Loy — a detail that foreshadowed a career she would spend years working to build.
Early Life in Maine
The family relocated to Southwest Harbor, Maine, when her father took a job at the Manset Boat Yard. Even as a teenager, Fahey stood out for her drive. She captained her high school’s undefeated varsity basketball team, cheered for four years, earned a state-level Girls Athletic Association award, and performed in school musicals and plays throughout her time at Pemetic High School in Southwest Harbor.
She graduated in June 1951 and enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse School of Drama in California that October. When acting work did not materialise immediately, she returned to Maine in spring 1952 to regroup.
From Pageants to Hollywood
Back in Maine, Fahey entered the Miss Maine pageant at the Bangor State Fair in August 1952. She finished as first runner-up to Norma Lee Collins — not the winner, as several sources incorrectly report. Shortly after, she entered a separate contest and won the Miss Maine Cosmetology 1952 title.
Those pageant appearances attracted Hollywood scouts. In turn, Fahey returned to California, found work at Los Angeles television station KHJ, and began building the industry connections she needed.
Myrna Fahey’s Pinup and Glamour Career
Myrna Fahey never worked as a formal pinup model — she did not pose for pinup artists like Gil Elvgren, and she did not appear in dedicated pinup publications. However, her mid-1950s glamour work explains why the pinup association exists. She operated in the same visual era, did professional publicity photo shoots, and entered a nationally publicised beauty contest that generated newspaper photos across the country.
What She Actually Did
After her Miss Maine success, Fahey joined KHJ as a fashion model hostess on Queen for a Day. She completed promotional photo shoots for the station’s advertisers and did fashion modelling for the Broadway department store in Los Angeles.
Her biggest visibility push came in 1955, when she entered the Miss Rheingold contest. That competition featured six aspiring actress “finalists” whom the public voted for at venues across America, from August through October. She did not win, but the campaign gave her nationwide newspaper exposure and a string of professional photos that circulated widely. Because those images looked and felt like classic 1950s glamour photography, fans today naturally file them under the “pinup” category.
Why the Pinup Association Sticks
Several Hollywood columnists also began comparing Fahey’s look to Elizabeth Taylor’s around 1957. Her bright green eyes and fair colouring gave her a striking on-camera presence that photographers captured well. That combination — pageant background, promotional photo shoots, and a Taylor-adjacent aesthetic — explains the pinup connection clearly. However, it is worth being accurate: she was a working actress who did publicity work, not a pinup model by trade.
Acting Career Highlights
Fahey’s film debut came in 1955 with a small uncredited role in I Died a Thousand Times at Warner Bros. From there, she built a steady television career through guest appearances on nearly every major series of the era.
Television Work and Typecasting
By 1957, Fahey had a consistent stream of television roles. She appeared as Maria Crespo across multiple Zorro episodes, became a returning face on 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye, and guest starred on Bonanza, Maverick, Gunsmoke, The Adventures of Superman, and Perry Mason — the latter across four separate episodes in different roles.
Her most sustained part came on the sitcom Father of the Bride (1961–62), a television adaptation of the Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor film. Fahey, who physically resembled Taylor, landed the lead role and appeared across 34 episodes.
That resemblance, however, frustrated her. In a 1960 interview, Fahey complained openly that directors kept casting her in “good girl” roles because of what they called her “moral overtones.” She actively wanted darker, more complicated characters — and for most of the 1950s, the industry refused to give them to her.
House of Usher (1960) — Her Defining Role
Her most celebrated performance is as Madeline Usher in Roger Corman’s House of Usher (1960), opposite Vincent Price. The film, based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, cast Fahey as a woman her villainous brother buries alive. The role demanded physical and emotional range her previous work had never required. Critics noticed the shift. One reviewer from an earlier stage production had described her as “a fine actress confined to a lightweight part” — and House of Usher finally gave her the weight she had been asking for.
Batman (1966) and Cult Status
In 1966, Fahey played the villainess Blaze — accomplice to the criminal False Face — in two Batman episodes: “True or False-Face” and “Holy Rat Race.” That campy, stylised role later gave her a genuine cult following among classic television fans. She also appeared in The Time Tunnel in 1967, playing Rahab in the episode “The Walls of Jericho.”
By 1973, her credits covered 37 television series and several film roles across roughly two decades of work.
Myrna Fahey’s Personal Life
Fahey became a serious skier after settling in California. She invested in stocks and, notably, negotiated at least one contract that required her dressing room to include a working stock ticker. Those details reflect someone far more financially engaged and self-directed than the passive “good girl” roles she kept getting cast in.
Joe DiMaggio and the Death Threats
In 1963 and 1964, Fahey dated baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. The relationship quickly attracted danger. She received death threats, and the FBI traced them to a patient at Agnews Developmental Center, a mental hospital in San Jose, California. That patient, apparently, could not accept DiMaggio moving on after Marilyn Monroe’s death in August 1962. As a result of the threats, the relationship ended.
Beyond DiMaggio, Fahey was also linked romantically with actor George Hamilton and others. She never married.
Myrna Fahey’s Cause of Death
Myrna Fahey died from cancer on May 6, 1973, at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California. She was 40 years old. She had battled the disease for an extended period, and her illness significantly affected her final years of work.
What Type of Cancer Did Myrna Fahey Have?
The specific cancer type was never publicly disclosed. All verified sources — including NNDB, Find a Grave, Wikipedia, and IMDB — list her cause of death as “cancer, unspecified.” No contemporary newspaper reports and no official medical statements named the particular diagnosis.
Anyone claiming a specific cancer type for Myrna Fahey is speculating. The honest, evidence-based answer is that the type remains unknown.
How Did Myrna Fahey Die? The Final Years
Fahey stepped back from acting during her illness. Her final screen credit came from a small role in the 1973 TV movie The Great American Beauty Contest — and that role existed only because producers created it specifically for her. Their reason: she needed to maintain her industry health insurance benefits while undergoing treatment. Ironically, the role cast her as a beauty pageant chaperone.
She died shortly after that appearance, on May 6, 1973. Her family buried her at Mount Pleasant Catholic Cemetery in Bangor, Maine — the state where she grew up and where her career first began to take shape.
Legacy
Fahey’s cult following rests on a few specific pillars. House of Usher keeps her name alive in classic horror and Poe adaptation discussions. Her Batman role connects her to that show’s enduring pop-culture footprint. And her short life — a career that started with real promise and ended before she ever got the complex roles she wanted — gives her story a particular weight that resonates with fans of classic Hollywood.
She worked alongside Vincent Price, James Garner, Clint Eastwood, Adam West, and Burt Ward. She studied under Sanford Meisner at the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York. By any honest measure, that represents a serious professional body of work.
That the industry never fully used her talent — partly through typecasting, partly through illness — makes her one of those mid-century figures worth knowing beyond a filmography list.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Myrna Fahey die from?
Cancer claimed Myrna Fahey’s life on May 6, 1973, in Santa Monica, California. She had battled the illness for an extended period before passing away at 40 years old. However, available records never publicly named the specific cancer type, so the exact diagnosis remains unconfirmed.
What type of cancer did Myrna Fahey have?
Public records and contemporary sources do not identify the specific cancer type Fahey had. What sources consistently confirm is that she fought the disease for a long time before it ended her life. Because no official medical disclosure ever emerged, researchers today still classify her cause of death simply as unspecified cancer.
How did Myrna Fahey die?
Fahey died from cancer after a prolonged illness that affected her final years of work. Her last screen role, in the 1973 TV movie The Great American Beauty Contest, came about because producers created the part specifically so she could keep her industry health insurance during treatment. As a result, that performance stands as her final credit.
Was Myrna Fahey a pinup model?
Fahey never worked as a formal pinup model in the classic sense. However, she absolutely built a strong glamour-girl image through beauty contests, publicity photo shoots, and early television promotional work. For example, her 1955 Miss Rheingold campaign generated nationwide newspaper photos, and her resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor made her a popular subject for professional shoots throughout the late 1950s.
When and where was Myrna Fahey born?
Myrna Elisabeth Fahey was born on March 12, 1933, in Carmel, Maine, near Bangor. She grew up as the youngest of three children, and her father, Francis Edward Fahey, worked as a boat builder. Later, her family relocated to Southwest Harbor, Maine, where she attended Pemetic High School and first discovered performing.
Did Myrna Fahey win Miss Maine?
Fahey did not win the top Miss Maine title. Instead, she finished as first runner-up at the 1952 state fair, where Norma Lee Collins took the crown. However, she entered a separate competition shortly after and won the Miss Maine Cosmetology 1952 title. That pageant success attracted Hollywood scouts and set her career in motion.
What was Myrna Fahey’s most famous role?
Most fans and critics point to her performance as Madeline Usher in Roger Corman’s House of Usher (1960), opposite Vincent Price, as her definitive role. The part finally gave her the dramatic complexity she had spent years seeking. Additionally, her recurring role as Maria Crespo in Walt Disney’s Zorro gave her broad television visibility throughout the late 1950s.
Why is Myrna Fahey a cult figure today?
Fahey earned her cult status primarily through her role as the villainess Blaze in two 1966 Batman episodes — “True or False-Face” and “Holy Rat Race.” Beyond that, sci-fi and classic horror fans also celebrate her work in The Time Tunnel and House of Usher. Because she died young and left a small but distinctive body of work, collectors and classic television enthusiasts keep her memory alive.
Who named Myrna Fahey after Myrna Loy?
Her parents named her after the Golden Age Hollywood star Myrna Loy. That choice reflects how deeply classic cinema already shaped American culture in the early 1930s, even in small-town Maine. Ironically, Fahey went on to build her own screen career — though hers ended far too soon.
Did Myrna Fahey date Joe DiMaggio?
Yes — Fahey and Joe DiMaggio dated in 1963 and 1964. The relationship, however, ended abruptly because the FBI traced death threats against her to a patient at Agnews Developmental Center in San Jose, California. That individual apparently could not accept DiMaggio moving on after Marilyn Monroe’s death in 1962. As a result, Fahey ended the relationship for her own safety.
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