Carol Wayne

Carol Marie Wayne (September 6, 1942 – January 13, 1985) was an American television and film actress. She made numerous appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as the Matinee Lady in the Art Fern's Tea Time Movie sketches.

Carol Wayne
Born
Carol Marie Wayne

(1942-09-06)September 6, 1942
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedJanuary 13, 1985(1985-01-13) (aged 42)
Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico
Cause of deathDrowning
OccupationActress
Years active1966–1985
Spouse(s)
Loreto Cera
​
(
m. 1965; div. 1967)

​
(
m. 1969; div. 1974)

​
(
m. 1975; div. 1980)
Children1
RelativesNina Wayne (sister)

Early life

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Wayne began her show business career as a teenage figure skater in the Ice Capades along with her younger sister, Nina Wayne.[1] The Wayne Sisters later became showgirls of the Folies Bergère at the Tropicana Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Carol followed Nina to Hollywood in the mid-1960s and the sisters began appearing in TV shows of the era.

Career

Wayne did television guest shots on I Spy (as the title character in the episode "Trouble With Temple"), Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie (as dim-witted starlet "Bootsie Nightingale"), Love American Style, Emergency! and The Fall Guy, and appeared in many sketches on The Red Skelton Show.

Wayne said she was "discovered" at a Hollywood party and auditioned for The Tonight Show after appearances as a Las Vegas chorine.[2][3]

She gained her greatest fame for appearances (1967–1984) on The Tonight Show[4] including 100-plus appearances (1971–1984) as the buxom Matinée Lady on The Tonight Show in Johnny Carson's popular Art Fern's Tea Time Movie sketches, which were filled with sexual double entendres. After her death, Carson kept the Art Fern character off the air for most of the next year. He eventually hired Danuta Wesley and later Teresa Ganzel to be his new Matinée Lady.

Wayne made appearances on several game shows including Mantrap and Hollywood Squares. She was a regular panelist on Celebrity Sweepstakes. She landed roles in several films, including Gunn, The Party (both directed by Blake Edwards), Scavenger Hunt, Savannah Smiles and Surf II. Her final onscreen appearance came in the 1984 drama Heartbreakers.

In February 1984, Wayne appeared nude in a pictorial for Playboy magazine.[2] That same year she filed for bankruptcy.[5][6][7]

Personal life

Wayne was married three times. She married her first husband Loreto “Larry” Cera on May 1, 1965; they divorced in June 1967. In 1969, Wayne married her second husband, rock-music photographer Barry Feinstein, with whom she had a son, Alex Feinstein (b. 1970).[3][8] The couple divorced in 1974. A year later, in 1975, she married her third and final husband, television and film producer Burt Sugarman, who served as producer on Celebrity Sweepstakes.[9] They divorced in 1980.[10]

Wayne told Johnny Carson in an April 30, 1974, interview that she enjoyed gardening and growing bonsai trees.

Death

In January 1985, Wayne and a companion, Edward Durston[11][6][12] were vacationing at the Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico. After they had an argument, Wayne reportedly took a walk on the beach. Three days later a local fisherman found Wayne's body in the shallow bay. An autopsy performed in Mexico revealed no signs of alcohol or other drugs in her body. Her death was ruled "accidental".[13][7]

Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes
1967 Gunn Ernestine
1968 The Party June Warren
1979 Scavenger Hunt Nurse
1980 Gypsy Angels Waitress
1982 Savannah Smiles Doreen
1984 Surf II Mrs. O'Finlay Alternative title: Surf II: The End of the Trilogy
1984 Heartbreakers Candy
1984 E. Nick: A Legend in His Own Mind Regine
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1966 The Man from U.N.C.L.E Ginger LaVeer Episode: "The Super-Colossal Affair"
1966 The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. Shelia Episode: "The Faustus Affair"
1967 I Spy Temple Episode: "The Trouble with Temple"
1967 Occasional Wife Miss Orange Grove Episode: "The New Secretary"
1967 I Dream of Jeannie Bootsie Nightingale Episode: "Here Comes Bootsie Nightingale"
1969 Bewitched Bunny Episode: "A Bunny for Tabitha"
1970 The Red Skelton Show NBC Soundstage Tour Guide
Chambermaid		 Episodes: "The Magic Act"
"The Private Detective"
1970–1972 Love, American Style Various 6 episodes
1971 Sarge Receptionist Episode: "Psst! Wanna Buy a Dirty Picture?"
1971 The Bold Ones: The Lawyers Christie Mullins Episode: "The Letter of the Law"
1971–1984 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Art Fern's Tea-Time Movie Lady[14] Multiple episodes
1972 Mannix Bobbi Episode: "A Puzzle for One"
1972 Every Man Needs One Nancy Television movie
1973 The Girl with Something Extra Mimi Episode: "John & Sally & Fred & Linda"
1974 Medical Center Blanche Episode: "Adults Only"
1974 Emergency! Renee, Miss October Episode: "The Screenwriter"
1974-1976 Celebrity Sweepstakes Herself (regular panelist)[15][16] Television game show
1979 Heaven on Earth Television movie
1981 The Big Black Pill Allegra Farrenpour Television movie
1981 The Fall Guy Rose Episodes: "The Meek Shall Inherit Rhonda"
"The Japanese Connection"
gollark: Yes, what?
gollark: It finally works *without* random BSODs in the background or other broken bits!
gollark: So it turns out that PotatOS has accidentally been shipping the wrong ECC library for several years.
gollark: I assume it's failed somehow to decode the public key, but I have no idea how or why.
gollark: It doesn't like it and I have no idea why.

References
  1. "Carol Wayne". Rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  2. "Playboy Magazine February 1984 vol.31, no.2". Vintageplayboymags.co.uk. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  3. "Carol Wayne, Sexy Blonde on Carson Show, Drowns". Los Angeles Times. January 14, 1985. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  4. List of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson episodes (1969)#February
  5. Austin, John (November 1, 1993). "hollywood's greatest mysteries". SP Books. Retrieved July 16, 2018 – via Google Books.
  6. Austin, John (July 16, 1994). Hollywood's Babylon Women. SP Books. p. 93. Retrieved July 16, 2018 – via Internet Archive. Wayne.
  7. "Carol Wayne / Mysterious Death of Carol Wayne". Tvparty.com. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  8. "Carol Wayne". Nndb.com. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  9. Beale, Lauren (August 2, 2011). "Mary Hart, Burt Sugarman buy unit at Ritz-Carlton Residences". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  10. "Carol Wayne, TV Comedienne, Dies". Los Angeles Times. January 15, 1985. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  11. Austin, John (July 16, 1991). "More of Hollywood's Unsolved Mysteries". SP Books. Retrieved July 16, 2018 – via Google Books.
  12. Fleming, E. J. (October 2, 2015). "Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites: Seventeen Driving Tours with Directions and the Full Story, 2d ed". McFarland. Retrieved July 16, 2018 – via Google Books.
  13. Austin, John (1991). More of Hollywood's Unsolved Mysteries. SP Books. p. 98. ISBN 0-944007-73-2.
  14. Panama Red (December 20, 2013). "Carol Wayne on the Tonight Show wearing a Knotted Shirt". YouTube. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  15. The Museum of Classic Chicago Television (www.FuzzyMemories.TV) (January 31, 2015). "WAVE Channel 3 - Celebrity Sweepstakes (Opening, 1975)". YouTube. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  16. "Celebrity Sweepstakes--Alan Sues demonstrates comical irony". YouTube. January 1, 2010. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
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