Mary Castle was born as Mary Ann Noblett to Erby G. Noblett, Sr. and Myrtle A. Noblett in Pampa, Texas. The Nobletts moved to Fort Worth, Texas, then Phillips, subsequently a ghost town in Hutchinson County, Texas, prior to relocating to Long Beach, California.
Castle gave birth to an out-of-wedlock daughter in Los Angeles in 1946.
At nineteen, Castle was a model for a bathing suit company. A studio scout became interested in her after seeing her photograph in a magazine. In August 1950, she was dubbed the "lady who looks more like Hayworth than Hayworth does."
Her first contract was said to have been granted solely on the basis that the red-haired Castle indeed resembled Hayworth. Harry Cohn, boss of Columbia Pictures, was said to have envisioned Castle as a replacement for Hayworth, who had married Prince Aly Khan and was rearing a family.
Castle's first credited role was as Flo in the 1950 film The Tougher They Come. Columbia plotted Castle's career as it had for Rita Hayworth when she had first signed with Columbia: frequent exposure and seasoning in the studio's low-budget films.
Most of Castle's early Columbias were Westerns: Prairie Roundup, Texans Never Cry (with Gene Autry), and When the Redskins Rode. With an obvious resemblance to Hayworth, she was seen as the object of soldiers' dreams in Columbia's 1952 war film Eight Iron Men.
Her appearance in Criminal Lawyer didn't free Castle from the Western mold; In 1953, she appeared in the Western features The Lawless Breed and Gunsmoke. The most frequently revived Mary Castle feature is probably her least prestigious: she played a gold-digging femme fatale opposite Huntz Hall and The Bowery Boys in the low-budget comedy Crashing Las Vegas (1956). She was only 24 when it was filmed, but looked years older; a new blonde hairstyle didn't disguise her now-hardened features from alcohol abuse.
Castle's last television appearance was as an unnamed saloon girl in the 1962 episode "Collie's Free" of James Arness's long-running CBS western Gunsmoke.
Castle was involved romantically with several men, including actor Richard Long. She ultimately had three short-lived marriages. From 1957 to 1958 she was married to William France Minchen, who used the stage name William Grant. From 1960 to 1961 Castle was married from to Wayne Cote. Castle and her third husband, Erwin A. Frezza, were married from 1971 to 1972.
Castle spent her later years in Lodi, California. She died of lung cancer at the age of 67 in Palm Springs, California.
Castle gave birth to an out-of-wedlock daughter in Los Angeles in 1946.
At nineteen, Castle was a model for a bathing suit company. A studio scout became interested in her after seeing her photograph in a magazine. In August 1950, she was dubbed the "lady who looks more like Hayworth than Hayworth does."
Her first contract was said to have been granted solely on the basis that the red-haired Castle indeed resembled Hayworth. Harry Cohn, boss of Columbia Pictures, was said to have envisioned Castle as a replacement for Hayworth, who had married Prince Aly Khan and was rearing a family.
Castle's first credited role was as Flo in the 1950 film The Tougher They Come. Columbia plotted Castle's career as it had for Rita Hayworth when she had first signed with Columbia: frequent exposure and seasoning in the studio's low-budget films.
Most of Castle's early Columbias were Westerns: Prairie Roundup, Texans Never Cry (with Gene Autry), and When the Redskins Rode. With an obvious resemblance to Hayworth, she was seen as the object of soldiers' dreams in Columbia's 1952 war film Eight Iron Men.
Her appearance in Criminal Lawyer didn't free Castle from the Western mold; In 1953, she appeared in the Western features The Lawless Breed and Gunsmoke. The most frequently revived Mary Castle feature is probably her least prestigious: she played a gold-digging femme fatale opposite Huntz Hall and The Bowery Boys in the low-budget comedy Crashing Las Vegas (1956). She was only 24 when it was filmed, but looked years older; a new blonde hairstyle didn't disguise her now-hardened features from alcohol abuse.
Castle's last television appearance was as an unnamed saloon girl in the 1962 episode "Collie's Free" of James Arness's long-running CBS western Gunsmoke.
Castle was involved romantically with several men, including actor Richard Long. She ultimately had three short-lived marriages. From 1957 to 1958 she was married to William France Minchen, who used the stage name William Grant. From 1960 to 1961 Castle was married from to Wayne Cote. Castle and her third husband, Erwin A. Frezza, were married from 1971 to 1972.
Castle spent her later years in Lodi, California. She died of lung cancer at the age of 67 in Palm Springs, California.
Mary Castle was born as Mary Ann Noblett to Erby G. Noblett, Sr. and Myrtle A. Noblett in Pampa, Texas. The Nobletts moved to Fort Worth, Texas, then Phillips, subsequently a ghost town in Hutchinson County, Texas, prior to relocating to Long Beach, California.
Castle gave birth to an out-of-wedlock daughter in Los Angeles in 1946.
At nineteen, Castle was a model for a bathing suit company. A studio scout became interested in her after seeing her photograph in a magazine. In August 1950, she was dubbed the "lady who looks more like Hayworth than Hayworth does."
Her first contract was said to have been granted solely on the basis that the red-haired Castle indeed resembled Hayworth. Harry Cohn, boss of Columbia Pictures, was said to have envisioned Castle as a replacement for Hayworth, who had married Prince Aly Khan and was rearing a family.
Castle's first credited role was as Flo in the 1950 film The Tougher They Come. Columbia plotted Castle's career as it had for Rita Hayworth when she had first signed with Columbia: frequent exposure and seasoning in the studio's low-budget films.
Most of Castle's early Columbias were Westerns: Prairie Roundup, Texans Never Cry (with Gene Autry), and When the Redskins Rode. With an obvious resemblance to Hayworth, she was seen as the object of soldiers' dreams in Columbia's 1952 war film Eight Iron Men.
Her appearance in Criminal Lawyer didn't free Castle from the Western mold; In 1953, she appeared in the Western features The Lawless Breed and Gunsmoke. The most frequently revived Mary Castle feature is probably her least prestigious: she played a gold-digging femme fatale opposite Huntz Hall and The Bowery Boys in the low-budget comedy Crashing Las Vegas (1956). She was only 24 when it was filmed, but looked years older; a new blonde hairstyle didn't disguise her now-hardened features from alcohol abuse.
Castle's last television appearance was as an unnamed saloon girl in the 1962 episode "Collie's Free" of James Arness's long-running CBS western Gunsmoke.
Castle was involved romantically with several men, including actor Richard Long. She ultimately had three short-lived marriages. From 1957 to 1958 she was married to William France Minchen, who used the stage name William Grant. From 1960 to 1961 Castle was married from to Wayne Cote. Castle and her third husband, Erwin A. Frezza, were married from 1971 to 1972.
Castle spent her later years in Lodi, California. She died of lung cancer at the age of 67 in Palm Springs, California.
Castle gave birth to an out-of-wedlock daughter in Los Angeles in 1946.
At nineteen, Castle was a model for a bathing suit company. A studio scout became interested in her after seeing her photograph in a magazine. In August 1950, she was dubbed the "lady who looks more like Hayworth than Hayworth does."
Her first contract was said to have been granted solely on the basis that the red-haired Castle indeed resembled Hayworth. Harry Cohn, boss of Columbia Pictures, was said to have envisioned Castle as a replacement for Hayworth, who had married Prince Aly Khan and was rearing a family.
Castle's first credited role was as Flo in the 1950 film The Tougher They Come. Columbia plotted Castle's career as it had for Rita Hayworth when she had first signed with Columbia: frequent exposure and seasoning in the studio's low-budget films.
Most of Castle's early Columbias were Westerns: Prairie Roundup, Texans Never Cry (with Gene Autry), and When the Redskins Rode. With an obvious resemblance to Hayworth, she was seen as the object of soldiers' dreams in Columbia's 1952 war film Eight Iron Men.
Her appearance in Criminal Lawyer didn't free Castle from the Western mold; In 1953, she appeared in the Western features The Lawless Breed and Gunsmoke. The most frequently revived Mary Castle feature is probably her least prestigious: she played a gold-digging femme fatale opposite Huntz Hall and The Bowery Boys in the low-budget comedy Crashing Las Vegas (1956). She was only 24 when it was filmed, but looked years older; a new blonde hairstyle didn't disguise her now-hardened features from alcohol abuse.
Castle's last television appearance was as an unnamed saloon girl in the 1962 episode "Collie's Free" of James Arness's long-running CBS western Gunsmoke.
Castle was involved romantically with several men, including actor Richard Long. She ultimately had three short-lived marriages. From 1957 to 1958 she was married to William France Minchen, who used the stage name William Grant. From 1960 to 1961 Castle was married from to Wayne Cote. Castle and her third husband, Erwin A. Frezza, were married from 1971 to 1972.
Castle spent her later years in Lodi, California. She died of lung cancer at the age of 67 in Palm Springs, California.
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