Liz Renay was born Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins. She was raised by fanatical religious parents, which lead to her run away from home to win a Marilyn Monroe lookalike contest. Became a showgirl during the war. Became mobster, Mickey Cohen's girlfriend. When her mobster boyfriend was arrested she refused to co-operate with the coppers 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. John Waters integrated the title of Renay's book My Face for the World to See into the dialogue of his film Female Trouble (1974), prior to beginning the film he did with Renay. In her book she claimed to have flings with Joe DiMaggio, Regis Philbin and Cary Grant. She and her daughter, Brenda, toured with a striptease act. The act ended when Brenda committed suicide on her 39th birthday in 1982. Renay died at age 80 on January 22, 2007 in her adopted hometown of Las Vegas, NV. She was survived by a son, John McLain, from her second marriage. She was married a total of seven times.
