Candice Rialson, 1951-2006

It's been a bad summer. First Stinky Sonobuoni, then Syd Barrett and Arthur Lee, and now the news that Candice Rialson's been dead for over four months and no one in Hollywood seemed to notice.

Code Red DVD posted on their blog today the sad discovery which they made trying to track her down for their upcoming release of Pets. The former drive-in movie queen passed away on March 31, 2006. No obituaries have appeared, no tributes given. Her entry at the Internet Movie Database still sits unchanged (it has since been updated).

Candice was born on December 18, 1951 in Santa Monica and in many ways she grew up to be the ultimate California girl - blonde, buxom, and a always a radiant ball of sunshine. She starred in some of the most fondly remembered drive-in pictures of the 70's, including the Roger Corman/New World films Candy Stripe Nurses, Summer School Teachers, and Hollywood Boulevard, as well as Mama's Dirty Girls, Chatterbox, Moonshine County Express and the previously mentioned Pets, a truly demented piece of 70's grindhouse cinema and one of the kinkiest films ever committed to celluloid (read about it here at Sleazoid Express). Quentin Tarantino has said that Bridget Fonda's character in Jackie Brown was modeled after her. Her last film credit was a small part in 1979's Winter Kills, and her whereabouts have been a mystery for years.

Goodnight Candice, you are loved and remembered by many more than you ever knew.