Friday, November 20, 2009

"Gal" Friday! Irish McCalla





A month of blonds continues in the Catacombs, with this weeks "Gal" Friday and "Classic Cutie" pick.

As an actor, Irish McCalla appeared in only a handful of films, but she was immortalized during the 1950's with her 26 episode run as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (based on the Fiction House comic book series created by Will Eisner & Jerry Iger), which aired between 1956-57. In the iconic role of Sheena, McCalla performed many of her own stunts, until the day she grabbed an unsecured line and slammed into a tree, breaking her arm. Following the cancellation of Sheena, she appeared in five films and also guest starred in a few roles on other television series.

Irish McCalla had a more prolific modeling career and in fact was one of the Vargas Girls, regularly posing for pinup artist, Alberto Vargas. She went on to become an artist herself, eventually producing more than 1000 paintings. Irish passed away in 2002 at the age of 73, from complications of a stroke and brain tumor.

3 comments:

Mykal Banta said...

Chuck: Ah, the wonderful Irish! I have always thought her the most exotic blond that ever lived. Thanks for the nice bio on this great screen beauty (and terrific person into the bargain). -- Mykal

THE APOCOLYTE said...

She was smokin'! Is there any DVD's with her playing Sheena? I'd buy 'em. I always thought even though she played Sheena, she looks more like Atlas's Lorna character - maybe they used her generous figure as a model for Lorna.

Chuck Wells said...

Yes, APOCOLYTE, the series is available in two volumes on DVD. Easily found online for cheap.

I can't believe that she didn't get more film work, and I hope you guys noticed the "peek-a-boo" effect in that color photo up top.

Yummy!