Kind of a shame when you’re in the Hollywood community, die, and your obit isn’t posted until four months later. As in the case of Candie Rialson whose death Mar. 31, 2006 was just reported Aug. 14, 2006.
Posted on einsiders.com: Candice Rialson, like Rainbeau Smith, was one of the premiere B-movie queens of the 1970s. Like Ms. Smith she appeared in both B-movies and A-list films. She also died out of the limelight. From a physical standpoint, Candice Rialson had more sex appeal than Rainbeau Smith, though she never achieved the status as sex-goddess cum fantasy figure that Ms. Smith did. Just look at her pictures and you will know what I mean. While the circumstances of Ms. Rialson’s passing were not as tragic or dramatic as Ms. Smith’s, her passing did go unnoticed for over four months. By all reports, when Ms. Rialson died of liver disease at age 54 while she was surrounded by a loving family. She was, it seems unaware that she had a still avid fanbase. Ms. Rialson’s passing was discovered by the folks at Code Red DVD who tried to track her down to take part in a commentary track for the 1974 sexploitiation film “Pets.”
My first memory of Candice Rialson came from the Clint Eastwood film “The Eiger Sanction.” She appears in an early scene opposite Clint. Mr. Eastwood plays the college art professor/professional assassin Dr. Jonathan Hemlock. Ms. Rialson played a very sexy student who stays after class to see if there is anything she can do to get a better grade. While the movie would have been so much more enjoyable if Clint had taken her up on her offer, he tells her to go home and “study that pretty little ass off!” While Ms. Rialson appeared in A-list movies like “The Eiger Sanction,” “Logan’s Run,” Mel Brook’s “Silent Movie” and William Richert’s “Winter Kills,” she was best remembered for her exploitation and B-movies.
Mark L. Lester’s “Stunts” is one of the best B-movies of the 1970s. Ms. Rialson added a sexy charge to the action-packed murder mystery. She poured on the backwoods sex appeal in “Moonshine Country Express” opposite Maureen McCormick and the late Claudia Jennings. Candice Rialson’s most memorable roles were in several drive-in sexploitation films. She starred in such skin classics as “Candy Stripe Nurses,” “Summer School Teachers” and Joe Dante’s “Hollywood Boulevard.” Ms. Rialson appeared in “Mama’s Dirty Girls” with Film Noir actress Gloria Graham! Her most notorious film was the sex comedy “Chatterbox.” Taking a cue from “Deep Throat,” this R-rated film told the tale of a woman with a talking vagina!
