Cult actress/phenomenon
Regina Carrol was born Regina Gelfan in
Boston on May 2nd 1943. At the
age f 15 her stage mother died, leaving
Regina basically on her own. She became a
dancer in Las Vegas Because of her
agility on the dance floor she was given
a role in The Beat
Generation (1959) with
Steve Cochran and saucy Mamie Van Doren.
The voluptuous blonde quickly landed
other small parts in such films as From
the Terrace with Paul
Newman and Joanne Woodward and The
Glass Bottom Boat with
Doris Day. On TV she landed tiny roles on
Route 66,
The Adventures of Ozzie and
Harriet, and The
Dinah Shore Show. During
this period she also made Viva Las
Vegas
and dated Elvis.
However, her real career
began when she met exploitation director
(and frequent producer) Al Adamson during
auditions for Satans
Sadists (1969). Adamson
fell head over heels in love with the
actress and the feeling appeared
to be mutual. Satans
Sadists was their first
film together and is considered by many
to be the Citizen Kane of
biker flicks. In the
Independent-International film she
costarred with Russ Tamblyn as Anchor,
leader of the gang. She was biker squeeze
Gina and has her most notable scene when
she tries to seduce her man with an
erotic table dance. It was in this movie
too that she started the tradition of
having her father (Barney Gelfan) cast in
bit parts.
Two years later she starred
in Adamsons Dracula
vs. Frankenstein with Lon
Chaney Jr. and J. Carrol Naish (both in
their final screen performances). Regina
plays showgirl Judith Fontaine out to
find her missing sister you
guessed it
Joan Fontaine -- who
Chaney offed with an axe early into the
film. In this outing Ms. Carrol even
lip-synchs a sappy love song called
No More Mail Until Tomorrow.
Rounding out the campy cast is Anthony
Eisley, Jim Davis, and the man himself,
Forrest J. Ackerman as Dr. Beaumont.
In 1972 Al Adamson and
Regina Carrol finally wed after two years
of living together. Their film
collaboration made that same year was the
critically panned Blood of
Ghastly Horror. In this a
serial killer (a Vietnam Vet who the
government has implanted with a homicidal
chip) must be stopped! Regina stars as
Susan Vanard alongside Tommy Kirk, John
Carradine, Kent Taylor, and Roy Morton.
In 1974 the happy couple made Blazing
Stewardesses starring
Regina Carrol, Marilyn Joi, and Connie
Hoffman as the title fly girl
characters. In it the sky sweeties want
some time off and head to a ranch out
west for some R&R only to discover
that this ranch is right next door to a
whorehouse run by Madame Honey (Yvonne
DeCarlo!! Who also sings!!). This
drive-in perennial (often at the tail end
of a triple bill) featured Bob
Livingston, Don Red Barry,
and Geoffrey Land.
Her final movie appearance
was in Als 1982 film Carnival
Magic about an intelligent
circus chimp. Regina Carrol had several
interests and projects aside from acting
and dancing. She also had her own local
TV chat show in Las Vegas
called (yup!) The Regina
Carrol Show in which she
discussed a variety of topics with guest
celebrities. She even wrote an
entertainment column for The Las Vegas
Panorama.
After her cancer diagnosis
Regina refused to appear on film, though
she did several performances of her
one-woman stage show homage to dancer
Isadora Duncan in Palm Springs . She lost
her long and painful battle with cancer
on November 4th, 1992 in St.
George Utah. Husband Al was devastated
with her passing. The one of a kind
screen sensation Regina Carrol was only
49 years old. |