- Born
- Died
- Birth namePearl Elizabeth Dobbins
- Nickname
- Lizzie
- Liz Renay's extraordinary life could almost be a movie script. Raised by fanatically religious parents, she ran away from home to win a Marilyn Monroe lookalike contest, and become a showgirl during World War II. She eventually became a "moll" to Los Angeles gangster Mickey Cohen, and when he was arrested she refused to co-operate with the authorities and was sentenced to three years in Terminal Island prison, where she wrote her autobiography. On release she became a stripper and self-publicist, performing the first mother-and-daughter strip and the first grandmother to streak down Hollywood Boulevard.- IMDb mini biography by: A. Nonymous
- SpousesGerald Heidebrink(November 3, 1976 - April 12, 1983) (filed for divorce)Thomas Freeman(May 23, 1966 - ?) (divorced)Read Morgan(November 25, 1963 - 1965) (divorced)Paul Wayne McLain(1944 - ?) (divorced, 1 child)Ricky Romano(1941 - 1943) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenJohnny Allen McLain
- ParentsAda May Dobbins nee PhillipsWilliam Andrew Dobbins
- RelativesEvelyn Louise Dobbins(Sibling)
- Raised in Arizona by strict evangelical Christian parents, she ran away from home at age 13 and hitchhiked to Las Vegas. She re-entered a Marilyn Monroe lookalike contest and won.
- Her talent and obsession for self-promotion continued almost until the end of her life. She first came to notice in 1950 when her antics on a film set in Phoenix earned her a five-page picture spread in Life magazine.
- A pretty Las Vegas showgirl with some promise in Hollywood, her involvement with L.A. racketeer Mickey Cohen--who financed her career--in 1957 led to her serving a two-year stint in prison for perjury in his income-tax-evasion trial, which pretty much destroyed any aspirations she had of a legit acting career.
- Appeared as a contestant on the Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life (1950), but the episode was never aired due to her involvement with L.A. mobster Mickey Cohen, then under criminal investigation.
- Married a total of seven times, her daughter Brenda Renay killed herself in 1982 on her 39th birthday. Also had a son John.
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