Deborah Walley

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Revision as of 13:05, 27 November 2006 by Midnight Man (Talk | contribs) (Candy, I hope you don't mind me rewriting this article. But there was a whole lot more to write about her.)

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Deborah Walley, born on August 12, 1943 in Bridgeport, CT, was not only a movie actress in the 60s and 70s, she also wrote and produced a highly-awarded half-hour short film named Legend Of Seeks-To-Hunt-Great in 1989. However, in the Ranger fandom, she earned her fame mostly by being the voice actress of Lahwhinie, the Gadget look-alike villainess, and most of all Foxglove, the good-hearted bat girl who fluttered her way into the Rangerphiles' hearts and advanced to be the most popular one-shot character in the whole show. Probably while working on the series, she and Dev Ross became very good friends.

Although she was a famous actress, even voted Photoplay Magazine's Most Popular Actress for her role in Gidget Goes Hawaiian in 1961, and a close friend to Elvis Presley himself, she stayed down on Earth well enough to stay in touch with the Rangerphiles in some very special ways. In 1999, first her manager Marty "Mahtay" Holden left some words at the Acorn Cafe in her name after the Rangerphiles in general and the Foxyphiles in particular have sent her lots of e-mails to show her their admiration, and in the same thread, she paid the Cafe a visit herself. Shortly after that, she came to post once more. She was probably the only staff member who had a fursona, namely Foxglove. One of her perhaps biggest fans, David Junker, even managed to establish a friendship with her. It was him, too, who kept up a contact between the fandom and her and her manager.

The Acorn Cafe was just about to leave Inside The Web when Marty came back to the Cafe with bad news about Deborah suffering from a severe illness on February 18, 2001. Lots of Rangerphiles then started working on a get-well card for her which was assembled by Jaleel who ran the Foxglove Feature. On her website, Deborah herself promised not to give up, but even before the get-well card was completed, cancer got the better of her, and she passed away on May 10, 2001. Upon receiving this sad news, the Cafe community decided to turn the card project into a tribute project.

Characters performed by Deborah Walley

Foxglove

Lahwhinie

Buffy Ratskiwatski

Trivia

Deborah played the main role in the 1961 movie Gidget Goes Hawaiian, and she played the main villainess in the episode Gadget Goes Hawaiian. Actually, the movie role was the reason why she was chosen for the role of Lahwhinie which was then adapted a bit to have a bit more of Gidget in it.

External Links

Deborah's IMDb listing

Dr. Indy's Deborah Walley tribute page

Messageboard Outtakes

Marty and Deborah post at the Cafe

Deborah returns to the Cafe

Marty's bad news

Official statement about her health at the Acorn Cafe

Marty's response to the card plans at the Acorn Cafe

The get-well message at the Acorn Cafe

More bad news from Marty at the Acorn Cafe

More news at the Acorn Cafe

Plans for a Maryland visit at the Acorn Cafe

May 11: (Heart-)Breaking news from Roy Neal Grissom at the Acorn Cafe

Tributes to Deborah Walley

Thanks from Marty for the tributes