by Stephen Vagg
Deborah Walley was a bright, energetic, pretty, likeable girl next door who came to fame as a back-up Sandra Dee. Unlike Dee, she never quite reached the top rank of movie stars, but she had a decent career and her presence livened up numerous movies that were TV staples.
Walley was born in 1941, the daughter of two Ice Capades skating stars and choreographers, which is just darn cute. Perhaps not unsurprisingly she got into acting early (though she was keener to do it on firm land than the ice), and was soon appearing regularly on television in shows such as Route 66.
She became a film star with almost absurd rapidity. Columbia Pictures had a big hit with Gidget (1959), starring Sandra Dee as a teenager who gets involved in surfing and falls for Moondoggie (James Darren). The studio wanted to make a sequel, but Dee could not get permission from her bosses at Universal, so the studio searched for a replacement. Joyce Selznick, who’d also discovered names like James Darren, Michael Callan and Tony Curtis, found Walley, who was cast in the lead for Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961). She’s perfect as Gidget – as good as Dee: bright, perky, all that, being fought over by Darren and Callan; and the film, quite fun, was a solid hit.
Disney came calling and cast Walley as an ingenue in two family comedies, playing roles that seem to have been originally intended for Janet Munro: Bon Voyage! (1962) where she’s an ideal all-American girl who gets manhandled by Michael Callan, and Summer Magic (1963), being a bitch to Hayley Mills. Both films were very popular, but as with Gidget Goes Hawaiian its success seems to have been attributed to factors other than Walley.
Columbia wanted her to be in Gidget Goes to Rome but Walley was pregnant – to actor John Ashley – and unable to play the part, so Cindy Carol stepped in, proving that replacing Sandra Dee wasn’t as easy as it looked (James Darren seems bored and resentful and the film is depressing with Moondoggie and Gidget winding up together because they can’t get anyone else).
MGM hired Walley for The Young Lovers (1964), a teen melodrama directed by Sam Goldwyn Jnr co-starring Peter Fonda, Sharon Hugueny (one time Mrs Robert Evans) and Nick Adams (he of a colourful private life), but few people saw it. She continued to guest star on television.
Walley then accepted a multi-picture contract with American International Pictures, who had worked for many years with Walley’s actor-singer husband, John Ashley. As someone with a beach party/Disney heritage, Walley fitted right in to AIP’s style and she was used by the studio as a sort of back up Annette Funicello, i.e. playing nice, straight girls who flirted with the main boy and kept a cool head while mayhem happened around them – though her characters were never as marriage obsessed as Funicello’s.
In Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), she was the second female lead, after Annette, claiming Frankie Avalon assaulted her and doing scenes with Ashley. In Ski Party (1965), she and Yvonne Craig couldn’t recognise Avalon and Dwayne Hickman in drag. In Sergeant Deadhead (1965), she was very sweet being romanced by Avalon and his double, one of the best things in a poor movie. In Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1967), she was the lead opposite Tommy Kirk. She also had a cameo in Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965).
Walley was always engaging and likeable, even if she rarely had much to do than be “the girl”, though she occasionally sang.
Walley was one of three females in Spinout (1966) with Elvis Presley, none of whom wind up with him, making it very unsatisfactory. During filming, she and Elvis had a fling which contributed to her marriage with Ashley ending. Walley was the female lead in It’s a Bikini World (1967) from director Stephanie Rothman, opposite Kirk, for Roger Corman – a movie with some incredible music, imaginative photography, likeable leads but not enough story. She was in a 3-D film from Arch Oboler, The Bubble (1966).
By the late sixties, Walley’s film offers were drying up – as they had for Avalon, Funicello, Kirk and other actors associated with beach party movies. Like them, Walley was considered part of an earlier, squarer time and could never make the leap to New Hollywood. She kept busy on TV, where Old Hollywood continued to flourish, and had a regular part on a sitcom for two years, called The Mother in Law.
Walley appeared in independent films such as Drag Racer (1971) and The Severed Arm (1973), hitting it big with Benji (1974). That was a commercial phenomenon and Walley was as charming as ever, but the movie didn’t really revive her career.
Perhaps her attention was elsewhere – Walley wound up having a thriving career in theatre, specifically children’s theatre, establishing several companies and writing plays. Walley moved to Arizona in the 1990s, although continued to make the odd guest appearance and died much too young, of cancer, in 2001.
Deborah Walley never quite became the star it seemed she might on her first film, but she was always cheerful, always gave her all and it’s impossible not to look back on her fondly.
