Mara Corday, Icon of 1950s Sci-Fi and Pinup Culture, Passes Away at 95

During the 1950s, Mara Corday gained recognition as a nightclub performer and popular pinup model, starring in three notable science-fiction thriller films. One of her standout roles was in "Tarantula" (1955), where she portrayed a character fleeing from a colossal 100-foot spider that had escaped a laboratory.

Reflecting on the film, Corday described the giant arachnid as a troubled creature, remarking, "The whole world is after him. He’s a pretty unhappy spider, I can tell you." She also shared that she played a female scientist alongside actors Leo Carroll and John Agar, who held prominent roles in the movie.

While science fiction films of the era often focused on alien invasions, space travel, and nuclear fears, Corday’s roles frequently centered on stories featuring enormous, menacing creatures wreaking havoc.

In 1957, she portrayed a mathematician in "The Giant Claw," a film about a gigantic bird initially mistaken for a UFO that causes widespread destruction and panic. That same year, she appeared as a rancher in "The Black Scorpion," which depicted enormous scorpions emerging from a volcanic eruption in Mexico, threatening the local landscape.