Kathleen Hughes: “Danger from space” star has died

She made her cry in the sci-fi classic “Danger from space” from 1953. Now Kathleen Hughes (1928-2025) died at the age of 96. As her close friend John Jigen Griffin-Atil announced, the actress died on May 19.

Kathleen Hughes only worked as a contract actress at FOX, then at Universal. For the film “For Men Only” (1952) she had colored her dark hair blonde. Her look resembled that of Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962). She also played in the adventure film “Die Goldene Klinge” (1953) and in “Three Evil Sisters” (1956). However, her fearsome scream was particularly striking in “danger from space”, with which she went into the Hollywood annals as “scream queen”.

After playing Ann Blyth’s girlfriend in “Sally and the Holy Anne” (1952), Hughes agreed to help with testing the 3D cameras that were to be used for the sci-fi strip from Universal. The film was inspired by a story by Ray Bradbury and had Richard Carlson and Barbara Rush in the leading roles. “They asked me if I would like to just run something on a small catwalk in a swimsuit, maybe because I [damals] It was pretty three -dimensional, “she recalled in an interview in 2012.” So I enjoyed doing it. “

Hughes really wanted to play in the film staged by Jack Arnold, but she was told that the line -up was already forgiven. She got the script and found a role “with a good scene” that she liked. After she had “annoyed and annoyed” for about a month, she was finally allowed to play the girlfriend of the alien played by Russell Johnson.

Later, Hughes was among the actors who were photographed for advertising photos to promote the film. She was told: “Throw your hands up and cry!”, As she told in 2017. The photo developed a life of its own, was used for advertisements and greeting cards.

Hughes was born as Elizabeth “Betty” by Gerkan on November 14, 1928 in Los Angeles. Her uncle was F. Hugh Herbert, a screenwriter and stage author who created the figure of teenager Corliss Archer, who was played in 1945 in the Columbia Pictures comedy “Kiss and Tell” by Shirley Temple. He always told her that she was too big for an actress at 1.75 meters. “He said that all main actors were small. I think one of the reasons why I remained true to acting was to prove the opposite.”

The actress was married to the screenwriter and producer Stanley Rubin for 59 years with whom she got four children. Rubin died in March 2014 – also at the age of 96.