Debra Page was born in Denver, Colorado on August 19, 1933. Her original name was Dabralee Griffin; however, she changed it when she became a movie star.
Debra’s parents came to Los Angeles in the 1930s so that the whole family could be closer to the development of the film business in Hollywood. Tala Loring and Lisa Gaye, two of Debra’s sisters, also had successful film and television careers.
Debra, who has always desired to be a dancer, describes herself as a post-depression baby. She was born amid a terrible and protracted economic downturn. Her family was poor, but Debra regarded her parents with the highest esteem.
Debra said in an interview that as she looked back, their house was filled with so much affection.
At age 11, Debra enrolled in the Hollywood Professional School at her mother’s urging.
The gifted young lady never questioned herself, gaining her first professional position at the age of eight. She subsequently appeared in a play of The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare.
Her film career started at age 14, and she had her big break in 1950 when she was featured in Broken Arrow. Debra Paget co-starred opposite James Stewart as the Native American maiden Sonseeahray (“Morningstar”).
Debra’s “exotic” appearance garnered her countless jobs in adventure plays, and she quickly gained a reputation for being the only actress who had never been kissed.
The National Association of Hosiery Manufactures surveyed 15,000 industry professionals in the 1950s and determined that she had the most beautiful legs in the world. The very religious Debra won by a large majority.
Debra received an exclusive deal with 20th Century Fox when she was 14 years old. Nevertheless, her most successful film was The Ten Commandments, for which Paramount Pictures lent her.
Debra portrayed Lilia, the water maiden, in Cecil B. DeMille’s colossal biblical spectacle. Debra, who had blue eyes, was forced to wear brown contact lenses, which caused her much difficulty.
The film, which won seven Academy Awards, profoundly altered her life.
Debra Paget was an established 22-year-old Hollywood actress when she arrived on the set of Love Me Tender. She was perhaps the most attractive actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood at the time and that certainly says something.
Elvis Presley and she first met on June 5, 1956, when both performed on The Milton Berle Show. Elvis startled America’s conservatives by gyrating his renowned or notorious pelvis during his now-iconic performance of Hound Dog.
She stated that she typically doesn’t have an opinion of a guy until she has met him. She honestly anticipated her first encounter with Elvis Presley with mixed feelings. She’d heard and read a great deal about this new young singing prodigy from Tennessee, and it was all negative.
When meeting Debra for the first time, the young vocalist astonished her in several ways. Being a born-again Christian, you would assume that Debra loathed The King. But, the exact opposite was true.
When Mr. Berle introduced the 21-year-old rising star to Debra, he firmly grabbed her hand and said: “I’m glad to meet you, Miss Paget.”
Elvis then vigorously shook her mom’s hand, excused himself, and returned a few minutes later with a chair for her.
Debra recalled that they were just together for a few hours, but sometimes one can discover more about a person in a short period of time than in weeks of consistent interaction. She felt she did. Elvis left an early impression on Debra as a lovely, friendly, and kind young guy.
A few months later, Debra acted with Elvis in his debut film, Love Me Tender. It was reported that the musician got smitten with his co-star. He visited Debra’s parents’ home because he thought she was the most gorgeous girl he’d ever seen.
Debra added that, from the day he arrived in their home, her parents have considered Elvis a part of the Paget family, a sentiment she believes he shared.
In the opinion of the young actress, Debra and Elvis’s relationship was more family-oriented than a whirlwind romance.
Elvis, though, seems to have disagreed.
After the movie, he did ask her to marry him, but her parents opposed the marriage. She cared for Elvis, but as a child who did not violate her parents, it did not occur, Debra said.
Debra ultimately rejected Elvis because she had already fallen for Howard Hughes, a renowned film producer and millionaire.
Debra eventually wed the actor and musician David Street, but she never stopped speaking highly of Elvis. And Elvis didn’t forget Debra either; many believe she was the inspiration for his obsession with the “Debra Paget look.” It was stated that when Priscilla Beaulieu discovered about Debra, she altered her hairstyle and makeup.
Debra has been out of the entertainment world since 1964 and is 89 years old. Regrettably, there is little information regarding her current life; Debra appears to live a peaceful and private life away from the public eye.
Elvis’s proposal to Debra in the late 1950s was not the first time he desired to marry a co-star, which is interesting. After filming Blue Hawaii with Joan Blackman in 1961, he wanted to marry her, despite his relationship with Priscilla.
Joan Blackman, who resembled Priscilla, has revealed what really transpired during the production of Blue Hawaii.
When they first saw each other (in 1957), there was an electric charge in the air. In 1977, she said that there was simply that particular feeling between them, sometimes so warm and lovely that one could almost reach out and touch it.
Joan Blackman said in the astonishing interview that Elvis “truly wanted” her as his wife and repeatedly requested her to star in his films, but she refused each time.
