Liz Renay | Stripper and actress, 80

Liz Renay, 80, a stripper and cult-movie actress whose real life included roles as a gangster's moll, an inmate, an author, an artist, and a Hollywood Boulevard streaker, died last Monday in Las Vegas from cardiopulmonary arrest and gastric bleeding, the Clark County Coroner's Office said.

Ms. Renay first gained attention as a model and Marilyn Monroe look-alike in the 1950s. She developed a cult following for her role as Muffy St. Jacques in director John Waters' 1977 movie, Desperate Living.

She appeared in at least two dozen other movies, including Date With Death (1959), The Thrill Killers (1964), adult films like Interlude of Lust (1981), and the feature flick Mark of the Astro-Zombies (2002).

In the early 1960s, she served 27 months in federal prison for perjury in the tax-evasion trial of her then-boyfriend, Hollywood mobster Mickey Cohen.

In her 1992 book, My First 2,000 Men, Renay claimed flings with a wide range of actors and celebrities. She also wrote cookbooks and beauty books, including My Face for the World to See in 1971. As a stripper, she toured and performed with her daughter, Brenda, who died on her 39th birthday in 1982.

Renay streaked down Hollywood Boulevard in 1974, but was acquitted at her trial on charges of indecent exposure and lewdness.

Born Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins on April 14, 1926, in Chandler, Ariz., she was divorced five times and widowed twice. - AP