Lita Milan

Fiery Lita Milan made her brief presence known appearing in 1950s Hollywood films. Born Iris Lia Menshell in New York City around 1933, the younger of two girls, she was the daughter of a salesman and a homemaker and raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. She trained as a child in dance and broke into show biz on the Las Vegas stages as a chorine, supplementing her income by appearing as a cover girl in such magazines as Photo and Night & Day. In Hollywood, she was dubbed a "Wampas Baby Star" in 1956 and moved directly into films. The smoldering beauty found herself immediately typed as a spitfire senorita in outdoor adventures such as La chevauchée du retour (1957) and Naked in the Sun (1957), but scored her biggest attention-getting role opposite Paul Newman in the classic Billy the Kid western Le gaucher (1958).In 1958, Lita abruptly abandoned her career after marrying Ramfis Trujillo, son of the dictator of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo. Her husband seized power of the republic after the assassination of his father in 1961, but the couple were forced to flee the country soon after. The couple had two sons, Ramses and Ricardo. She has lived in exile in Madrid, remaining there after the 1969 death of her husband following a car accident. Show less «