Next person biography:
Lita Milan, born Iris Maria Lia Menshell in Brooklyn, New York in 1933, was a Hungarian-Polish actress who rose to fame in the 1950s. Raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, she trained in dance as a child and began her career as a Las Vegas chorine. She was soon noticed and began supplementing her income as a cover girl model in magazines such as Photo and Night & Day.
Against her parents' wishes, Iris moved to Hollywood and made her film debut as a nurse in the "B" crime drama The Big Chase (1954). She then appeared in westerns such as Duel on the Mississippi (1955) and The Violent Men (1955),where she adopted the stage name "Lita Milan." She also began appearing in TV shows such as "The Lone Wolf," "Public Defender," and "It's a Great Life."
Lita was dubbed a "Wampas Baby Star" in 1956 and quickly became typecast as senoritas, Indian maidens, and other exotics in outdoor films. She received her first interesting film role as a firebrand South American revolutionary in The Toughest Man Alive (1955). She also played a sexy Indian maiden in Gun Brothers (1956) and a Cajun distraction in Bayou (1957).
Lita's best-remembered film role is as the sexy Mexican Celsa opposite Paul Newman in The Left Handed Gun (1958). She followed this effort with roles in Girls on the Loose (1958) and Never Love a Stranger (1958). Her final film role was in I Mobster (1959) opposite Steve Cochran.
Lita's personal life was marked by a scandalous affair with Ramfis Trujillo, the son of the Dominican Republic dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The couple married in 1960 and had two sons, Ramses and Ricardo. After her husband's death in 1969, Lita lived in exile in Madrid, Spain, where she continued to lead an active social life.
