Carol Wayne (September 6, 1942 – January 13, 1985) was an American television and film actress. She was best known for her many appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as the Matinée Lady.

Spouse(s)

Loreto (Larry) Cera (?-?)
Barry Feinstein (m. 1969–74)
Burt Sugarman (m. 1975–80)

Relatives Nina Wayne (sister)

Early life

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Wayne began her show business career as a teenage figure skater in the Ice Capadesalong with her younger sister Nina Wayne. The Wayne Sisters later became showgirls of the Folies Bergère at theTropicana Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Carol followed Nina to Hollywood in the mid-1960s and the sisters began appearing in TV shows of the era.

Career

While Wayne did television guest shots on I Spy (as the title character in the episode "Trouble With Temple"),Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie (as dim-witted starlet "Bootsie Nightingale"), Love American Style, Emergency!and The Fall Guy, she also appeared in many sketches on The Red Skelton Show. She gained her greatest fame for 100-plus appearances (1971–1982) as the buxom Matinée Lady on The Tonight Show in Johnny Carson's popular Art Fern's Tea Time Movie sketches. After her death, Carson kept the Art Fern character off the air for most of the next year. He eventually hired Danuta Wesley and later Teresa Ganzel to be his new Matinée Lady.

Wayne made appearances on several game shows including Mantrap and Hollywood Squares. She was a regular panelist on Celebrity Sweepstakes. She landed roles in several films, including Gunn, The Party (both directed by Blake Edwards), Scavenger Hunt, Savannah Smiles and Surf II. Her final onscreen appearance came in the1984 drama Heartbreakers.

In 1984, Wayne appeared in a nude pictorial for Playboy magazine. That same year, she filed for bankruptcy.

Personal life

Wayne was married three times. Her first husband was Loreto (Larry) Cera, her second husband was rock and roll photographer Barry Feinstein (the father of her only son, Alex), and her third husband was television and film producer Burt Sugarman, who served as producer on Celebrity Sweepstakes. Wayne told Johnny Carson in a 1974 interview that she enjoyed gardening and growing bonsai trees.

Death

In January 1985, Wayne and her companion Edward "Ed" Durston were vacationing at the Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico. After an argument with Durston, Wayne reportedly left to take a walk on the beach. Three days later a local fisherman found Wayne's body in the shallow bay.

Authorities later discovered Durston had checked out of the resort the day the couple argued. He had left Wayne's luggage at the airport. An autopsy performed in Mexico revealed no signs of drugs or alcohol in Wayne's body. Her death was eventually ruled as "accidental".

Durston was linked earlier to another high-profile and controversial death: On October 4, 1969, Diane Linkletter, the youngest child of American TV media personality Art Linkletter, jumped out of a window of her sixth floor apartment at the Shoreham Towers in West Hollywood, California. Durston was present in Linkletter's apartment the morning of her death.[4][5] Durston was never an official suspect in either case.