Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins (April 14, 1926 – January 22, 2007), known as Liz Renay, was an American author and actress who appeared in John Waters' film Desperate Living (1977)
She was known more as a performer with ties to celebrities, usually actors, rather than as an actor herself. Nevertheless, she did play the lead role in John Waters' film Desperate Living and also appeared on an episode of Adam-12 as a burlesque dancer who calls the police about a peeping tom outside her home (Season 5, November 1972, show entitled "Harry Nobody"). On stage, she and her daughter, Brenda, toured with a striptease act. The act ended when her daughter Brenda committed suicide on her 39th birthday in 1982.
In a tell all book about her many relationships with men both famous and not so famous entitled My First 2,000 Men, she claimed flings with Joe DiMaggio, Regis Philbin, and Cary Grant, among many other male celebrities. Renay's other books include My Face for the World to See and Staying Young (Lyle Stuart, 1982). My Face for the World to See was reissued in 2002, headlined "A Cult Classic," with a foreword by John Waters. Waters integrated the title into the dialogue of his film Female Trouble (1974), prior to working on his film Desperate Living with Renay.
Renay died at age 80 on January 22, 2007, in her adopted hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, from cardiac arrest and gastric bleeding