Lovely, radiant, enticing, and charismatic blonde Candice Rialson was perhaps the most dynamic and personable actress to appear in enjoyably trashy drive-in pictures throughout the 1970’s. Rialson was born on December 18, 1951 in Santa Monica, California and grew up in Orange County, California. She was crowned Miss Hermosa Beach at age 18. After making her film debut in an uncredited bit as a bikini-clad beauty on the beach in The Gay Deceivers (1969), the pert ‘n’ perky Candice enlivened a bunch of choice down ‘n’ dirty exploitation features: She was a naive, innocent hitchhiker who runs afoul of kinky perverts in the bizarre Submission (1973), one of Gloria Grahame’s slutty daughters in the sleazy Mama’s Dirty Girls (1974), a hapless lass with a talking and singing vagina (!) in the outrageously bawdy Chatterbox! (1977), a small-town tramp in the immensely entertaining Moonshine County Express (1977), and a stuck-up starlet in the nifty Stunts (1977). Following her winningly easy ‘n’ breezy turns in the amiably silly soft-core comedies Candy Stripe Nurses (1974) and Summer School Teachers (1974) for legendary B-movie filmmaker Roger Corman, Candice expertly essayed her best, most substantial, and appealing role as “Candy Wednesday”, a bubbly aspiring actress who winds up working for the chintzy schlock movie studio “Miracle Pictures” (“If it’s a good film, then it’s a Miracle”) in the very clever and hilarious junk film parody Hollywood Boulevard (1976). Moreover, Rialson also had bit parts in the mainstream features The Eiger Sanction (1975), Logan’s Run (1976) and Silent Movie (1976) and made guest appearances on the TV shows Maude (1972), Shaft (1973), Switch (1975), Adam’s Rib (1973), and Fantasy Island (1977).
After doing yet another minor part as a nurse playing with a rake in Winter Kills (1979), Candice Rialson voluntarily quit acting at the end of the 1970’s, got married, settled down in Studio City, California, and had one child. However, she remained a cult favorite of 1970’s exploitation film fans. Quentin Tarantino, in particular, was such a strong admirer of Rialson’s work that he reportedly patterned the Bridget Fonda character in Jackie Brown (1997) after her. Candice Rialson passed away at age 54 from liver disease on March 31, 2006. She is much loved and missed by her many fans the world over.
