Hollywood stuntwoman and pioneering scuba diver Zale Parry has died aged 93. She died on July 20 at her home in Tillamook, her granddaughter Katherine Maloney confirmed.
Career and achievements
Parry was among the first women to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, an achievement that kickstarted her Hollywood career. She was best known for appearing on the Lloyd Bridges-starring TV show Sea Hunt, the documentary TV show Kingdom of the Sea and doubled for Sophia Loren and Carroll Baker on the big screen.
She appeared in several other TV shows in the late 1950s and early '60s, including Peter Gunn, Wagon Train and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, along with the films Underwater Warrior (1958) and The Miracle (1959).
Underwater film festival and LSD study
Parry was also a co-founder of the International Underwater Film Festival, which took place for 17 years until 1974. She also famously tripped out on LSD in a research study that included Cary Grant, Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper. The swimmer credited LSD with helping her to appreciate the intricacies and interconnectedness and beauty of life in the underwater world.
Near-death experience and family
Her work once almost ended her life early. "I was almost killed once in Florida when another actor was supposed to exchange air hoses with me," Parry told U.P.I. "In the middle of the scene, I found myself breathing water along with the air." She motioned to the cameraman that she couldn't breathe and needed to surface. "They thought I was acting and made me finish the scene," she said. "It almost finished me."
Speaking about how her love of water began, the star previously said: "I learned to swim when I was very small. As one of seven children, it was a case of swim or take the chance of being perpetually dunked by your older brothers and sisters."
In addition to her granddaughter, she is survived by a daughter, Margaret Bivens; two sisters, Valerie Brady and Mary Louise Slutts; and two brothers, Joseph Parry and Jack Parry.
