Sultry, brunette Faith Domergue was born in New Orleans, part Creole, but primarily of Irish and English extraction. She was adopted when she was six weeks old. In 1927, her adoptive parents took her to live in California, where she was educated at Catholic schools in Santa Monica. She had her first flirt with the acting profession, while still at school, on stage at the Bliss Hayden Theatre. Just after her graduation, she suffered a disfiguring injury during a car accident when she was thrown into a windshield, and spent eighteen months undergoing intensive plastic surgery. By 1941, she was back in circulation. "Discovered" by a Warner Brothers talent scout, she was signed to a contract and her name streamlined a la Hollywood to "Faith Dorn". Sometime at the end of May that year, young Faith found herself at a studio party (it was not unheard of for under-age ingenues to be thrown together with rich or influential men) given on board the Southern Cross, a yacht owned by billionaire Howard Hughes . Hughes, twenty-one years her senior, became quickly infatuated with the teenager and bought out her contract from Warner Brothers for $50,000, then signing her at RKO, instead. He also mollified Faith's adoptive parents by buying them a house and paid for Faith to take lessons to perfect her diction and acting. The romantic affair continued on-and-off until mid-1943, and was eventually scuttled by Hughes's various indiscretions with stars Lana Turner , Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth . In 1945, Faith reclaimed her original name, Domergue (insisting it be pronounced "Dah-mure") and, by the following year, made her screen debut in Young Widow (1946), a film starring another Hughes find, Jane Russell . Hughes then spent the, for the time, extravagant amount of $3.2 million dollars on Vendetta (1950), the picture which was to catapult Faith to stardom. Three directors went to work on the project, only to be fired in quick succession: Max Ophüls , Preston Sturges and Stuart Heisler . Faith's lack of theatrical training also proved to be a detriment. The picture was eventually completed by Mel Ferrer , but not released until 1950. When it finally arrived in cinemas, it, like the Spruce Goose, failed to take off. An earlier effort, the film noir Where Danger Lives (1950), was also released at this time. It starred Domergue, in the role of a homicidal femme fatale, opposite Robert Mitchum , as the lover she manipulates into taking the blame for her murdering millionaire hubby Claude Rains . In spite of another huge publicity campaign, with Faith featured on the cover of Look and articles in numerous other publications, this film also performed indifferently at the box office and caused Hughes to lose interest in his erstwhile protege. During the next few years, Faith began to free-lance at other studios, appearing in westerns: The Duel at Silver Creek (1952), with Audie Murphy ; The Great Sioux Uprising (1953), with Jeff Chandler ; and Santa Fe Passage (1955) with John Payne at Republic. In 1955, she starred in the first of a trio of sci-fi/horror outings for which she is chiefly remembered. In This Island Earth (1955), shot in Technicolour at Universal, she played a scientist kidnapped by aliens and, with her colleagues, pressed into service defending their world against interplanetary attack. Helped by a clever script and make-up artist Bud Westmore 's $24,000 creation of a bug-eyed mutant monster, the film was a huge success and has become a cult favourite. Faith essayed yet another scientist engaged in destroying Ray Harryhausen 's giant octopus (six-tentacled, because of the miniscule budget) in It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955). In Cult of the Cobra (1955), Faith replaced Mari Blanchard in the role of the high-priestess of a cobra-worshipping cult, who assumes the shape of a serpent in order to kill six GI's who have witnessed a secret ceremony. Following her separation from the Argentinian writer/director Hugo Fregonese , Faith made three films in England, most notably as queen of the London underworld in Vernon Sewell 's Soho Incident (1956) (aka "Spin a Dark Web"). During the 1960's, she concentrated on television and appeared in diverse shows from "Bonanza" (1959) to "Combat!" (1962), from "Perry Mason" (1957) to "Bronco" (1958). After making several films in Italy, she revisited the horror genre in the cheap and cheerful The House of Seven Corpses (1974), as the emotive star of a horror movie, who awakens the deceased after reading from the "Tibetan Book of the Dead". Faith Domergue never quite made it as a major star, unlike Jane Russell . She did, however, acquire something of a cult following because of her involvement in the seminal This Island Earth (1955), as well as her other science fiction films from this period. Ironically, Faith later confessed that she never much cared for the genre.

At one time, she was touted as the next Jane Russell .In the early 1930s, her family moved to California, where she took piano and singing lessons.She was signed to a movie contract by Warner Bros. while still in high school. Howard Hughes met her at a party on board his yacht when she was 15 and bought her contract.She spoke French, Spanish and Italian well.She worked in movies and television, but regretted never having done any theater.Her last name was properly pronounced "Dah-mure," but was often mispronounced "Dommer-gue."Is portrayed by Kelli Garner in The Aviator (2004)Children with Hugo Fregonese : Diana Maria (b. 1 January 1949) and John Anthony (b. 22 August 1951). John is co-principal of urban planning firm Fregonese-Calthorpe Associates in Portland, Oregon.Adopted at 6 weeks old. Her parents never told her she was adopted.From late 1930s-early 1940s, lived across the street from Helen Talbot and her family, on S. Carmelina Avenue in Brentwood, California. They were also in the same class at University High School in West Los Angeles, California.