The Story Of Carol Wayne Is Far Darker Than We Realized

The Story Of Carol Wayne Is Far Darker Than We Realized

When a fisherman found Tonight Show star Carol Wayne’s body off the coast of Mexico, the police immediately ruled her death as suspicious. But nothing could have prepared them for the results of the autopsy. With her high voice, buxom figure, and comedic timing, Carol Wayne more than earned her regular spot as the naive matinee girl on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. But her brutal and mysterious end exposed some terrible secrets. If anyone experienced the dark side of Hollywood, it was Carol Wayne. Carol was born in Chicago in 1942 and began her show business career at just 15 years old, performing alongside her sister in a 42 city tour with the Icecapades. However, this early start came at a price. The sisters had to drop out of high school for the tour. And not long after, an accident would bring Carol’s skating career to an abrupt end. One day, Carol was performing her usual tricks on the ice when she tripped and fell. It was no simple accident either, and the fall resulted in a 5-inch scar running down her knee. It would have even bigger consequences on her career. Although Carol finished the tour with the Icecapades, the injury meant the end of her skating career long term. This drove her to a devastating realization. She had spent all her supposedly carefree years devoted to skating, missing out on a childhood, growing up dating, and she didn’t even have a high school diploma to show for it.

So, she kept doing the only thing she knew how to do, entertain. Carol and her sister Nenah decided to find employment in a more scandalous place. The sisters had the perfect look to become showgirls in Las Vegas at the Tropicana. But not everyone was pleased with their new career path. According to Wayne, her mother once looked their barely-there outfits up and down and said, “Could you ask them for a couple more feathers?” While working in Las Vegas, Wayne and her sister would often drive down to Los Angeles. On one such trip, Wayne found herself at a party when a man approached her and said, “We’re looking for a girl just like you.” And then invited her for a screen test at a studio in the morning. Although she was skeptical about the audition at first, Wayne absolutely nailed her screen test and landed the role. Still, she had a cheeky theory about why things worked out. Laughing and glancing down at her figure, she later joked, “And I’ve gotten all my parts ever since then.” Around this time, while working in Las Vegas, Wayne met Loretto Larry Sear and fell head over heels for him. The couple married in May of 1965. It could have been the beginning of a more stable and family-focused time for Carol, but it turned into something else entirely. Wayne and her new husband Sear were barely together long enough to take a proper honeymoon. They divorced just 1 month after their second anniversary.

Reflecting on her marriage later, Wayne said, “Skating taught me to be limber, but that marriage really taught me how to be flexible.” At the time of her divorce from Sear, Wayne’s star was on the rise. She was doing several guest spots as characters with sultry names like Ginger Levier and Bootsy Nightingale on established shows like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and I Dream of Jeannie. Little did she know she was about to hit her biggest break yet. Starting in 1967, the year she divorced Sear, Wayne landed a huge opportunity. Johnny Carson and his team hired her to work on the Tonight Show. She had a recurring role in Art Fern’s Tea Time, a popular sketch in which she played the matinee lady, an innocent bombshell who couldn’t help making double entendres. Wayne would go on to have more than 100 appearances on the Tonight Show, but this led to many scandalous backstage rumors. Her chemistry with Carson was undeniable, as were her physical charms, and many believed the pair might have struck a backstage romance. Wayne’s response to this was surprising. When she addressed her time on the Tonight Show in an interview, Wayne didn’t deny the chemistry she had with Carson. She even alluded to feelings on both parts. But according to Wayne, the timing was always bad and the entertainers never seemed to be single at the same time. In the same interview, Wayne made a rather cheeky comment about her relationship with Carson and said, “He loves me. I love him. It’s an understanding, a given. He still sees me everyday in his dreams.” Publicly, however, Carson never voiced such feelings for Wayne.

Shortly after her divorce from Larry Sear and in the heyday of her time at the Tonight Show, Wayne met rock and roll photographer Barry Feinstein. Feinstein was very cool and had connections and close friendships with some of rock’s greatest artists, including Bob Dylan as well as tough-guy actor Steve McQueen. Barry Feinstein’s first wife was Mary Travers of folk band Peter, Paul and Mary. And according to Hollywood’s Babylon Women, when Wayne met Feinstein, he was still married to Mary, but not for long. The musical pair divorced in 1967, the same year Wayne became single. Wayne was perfectly sweet and polite on the outside, but she could dish out an insult when she wanted. After Wayne and Feinstein got together, Wayne allegedly referred to her predecessor Mary Travers’ band as Peter, Paul and Scary. Whatever the truth of their beginnings, Carol Wayne and Barry Feinstein made it official in 1969. A year later, Carol gave birth to her first and only child, a son named Alex. It looked like Carol was settling into modest success and acquiring her family life. But again, that’s not quite what happened. Wayne and Feinstein gave married life their best shot, but in the end, they were together for only 5 years, and much of that was likely for their young son. In 1974, they called it quits and Carol Wayne was on the market again. This time as a single mother. Only Carol never had to wait long for a new man to show up in her life. Just a year after her divorce from Feinstein, she married the television and film producer Bert Sugarman. Sugarman was an influential producer on the kind of television shows that fit Wayne’s curvy, bubbly brand. At the time of her marriage, he was working as a producer on Celebrity Sweepstakes. Wayne was cast as a panelist both on Sweepstakes and Sugarman’s later show.

Wayne was also still a popular regular on the Tonight Show, but she had her sights set on more serious acting roles. After nearly 10 years away from film, she made her return to the big screen with a role as a nurse in the ensemble comedy Scavenger Hunt. Things appeared to be going well for Wayne for now. In the early 1980s, Johnny Carson, unhappy with how things were going at the Tonight Show, threatened to walk off the show. The network was horrified at the thought of losing their biggest star. Carol Wayne must have been worried that her most stable gig was about to end. Although NBC convinced Carson not to leave, the Tonight Show was reduced from its usual hour and a half run time to just 1 hour. This would give Carson more free time, but also meant they had to cut a ton of material from the show, including the matinee girl. In 1980, another piece of Wayne’s life fell apart. Her marriage to producer Bert Sugarman ended in divorce, right around the time her troubles at the Tonight Show started. For the first time in a long time, Carol Wayne did not have any jobs lined up, and it happened almost completely overnight. For the past decade, Wayne had been working steadily, and although her work was not very ambitious, it was stable. Suddenly, no one wanted to hire her. For the next couple of years, the roles almost completely dried up, aside from some sparse film and television work. Carol Wayne had to do something, but not everyone agreed with her next choice. By 1984, Wayne was in dire need of money and not to mention a career boost. So, she made a controversial decision. That year she appeared in Playboy and let’s just say she wasn’t in one of their more conservative shoots. Of course, this was her decision to make. But behind the scenes, there was a much darker story unfolding.

Carol’s son, Alex, was now in high school, and around then he reportedly introduced his mother to clove cigarettes for the first time. She took the habit with a vengeance. According to Hollywood’s Babylon Women, she smoked them so much that their distinctive scent got her kicked out of many Hollywood restaurants. Not long after, Wayne began seeking out even more dangerous substances. In 1984, the same year she earned some much-needed extra cash by posing for Playboy, Carol Wayne ended up filing for bankruptcy. It had become pretty clear she was spending more than she was earning. And sadly, a lot of her income was going toward fueling a growing substance abuse problem. In her petition to the courts, Wayne revealed a tragic detail. The paperwork declared that she had a zero income. The actress, now in her 40s, could not land any new roles. Her financial situation had become unmanageable. Still, in only a year, Wayne would discover that life could get much, much worse. Around the time she filed for bankruptcy, Wayne appeared in the dramatic film Heartbreakers, which was much more serious than any of her previous work. The film screened at the Berlin Film Festival. More than that, even critics took notice. When Roger Ebert saw the film, he singled out Wayne’s performance, saying, “Her performance is so good, so heartbreaking, if you will, that it pulls the whole movie together.” It could have been the beginning of a real acting career for Wayne, but the reality was very different. Heartbreakers was the last film she would ever make. In January of 1985, Wayne made a fateful decision. She went to the Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo, Mexico, reportedly to dry out from her problematic habits. Wayne was accompanied on the trip by Edward Dursten, a car salesman and Hollywood man about town. They appeared to be there as a couple, though the official status of their relationship was murky. Whatever the case, Dursten didn’t appear to be a very good influence on Wayne. In light of what was about to happen, it’s difficult to know for sure if Carol Wayne really had gone to the resort to kick her habits or not. Yet, if she did try, she seems to have failed.

Employees of the hotel went on record saying that Wayne and Dursten spent their time in Mexico having fun, dancing, and drinking, but the fun was about to end. Trouble started for Wayne on January 10th when she and Dursten were about to leave Mexico and return to Los Angeles. For reasons that remain unclear, they ended up missing their flight. Events snowballed from there. The Las Hadas Resort where they had been staying was expensive and they didn’t have enough money to go back there. Seeing their distress at this turn of events, the staff at the resort tried their best to help Wayne and Dursten. They even secured a room for them at the more affordable Playa de Santiago Hotel nearby. However, Wayne did not react well to this change in accommodation. According to eyewitnesses, she was livid about staying at the Playa de Santiago, which she considered a dump, and she lashed out. Wayne reportedly had a fit when they arrived at the hotel around 8:30 p.m. that night and refused to get out of the taxi. As the bellboy and Dursten brought up their luggage to the room, Wayne stood outside fuming. After settling the items in the room and returning to the foyer of the hotel, Dursten made a chilling discovery. Wayne had disappeared and no one around saw where she had gone. Dursten posted up at the hotel bar to wait until she came back. But that was his first mistake. Over the course of the evening, Dursten kept an eye out for Wayne, waiting to see her when she came back to the hotel. Only she never did. This is where his behavior became questionable at best. He simply checked into another hotel, making it impossible for Wayne to find him if she tried. Dursten was apparently fed up with Wayne, and his next move was ice cold. He flew back to Los Angeles without her, though he did take her bags along with him, telling the airline she would pick them up in the morning, even though he had not seen her for some time, and he would not be seeing her again. On January 13th, 1985, a fisherman was out casting his net when he made a horrifying discovery. Carol Wayne’s fully clothed body was floating in a shallow bay. He pulled her in as quickly as he could, but it was already too late.

The beloved matinee lady had finally been found, but now she was gone, and her death left behind far more questions than answers. Mexican police immediately ruled Wayne’s death as suspicious. They had a lot of questions about what happened to the actress. Had Wayne accidentally fallen and drowned? Had she, upset at her circumstances, taken her own life? Had someone, perhaps Edward Dursten, ended her life? They waited for the results of her autopsy. The autopsy revealed Wayne had been dead for 36 to 48 hours when the fisherman finally discovered her. Meaning whatever happened, it had happened shortly after the altercation with Dursten at the hotel. More than that, she had no alcohol or substances in her blood. Whatever her addictions had been, she managed to keep them at bay right before her end. Her autopsy did not reveal any answers. Few explanations for Wayne’s case satisfied Manzanillo District Attorney Jorge Hernandez. He didn’t believe that Wayne would have drowned herself. The waters nearby were gentle and shallow, and Wayne had no bruising or cuts that suggested she’d fallen or hurt herself somehow, which left another, more sinister explanation. Wayne’s companion, Edward Dursten, looked exceedingly guilty to the investigators. After all, they’d had a fight just before Wayne’s death, and he hadn’t filed a missing person’s report after she disappeared. Worst of all, he had taken a flight home without her and did not even leave her things behind. As people looked into his past, their suspicions intensified. Dursten had actually been involved in the suspicious death of another actress years before.

In 1969, aspiring actress Diane Linkletter called Dursten over to her house and then apparently jumped out of a window. In the wake of the case, officers focused on possible substances in Linkletter’s system and cleared Dursten of any suspicions. The cases seemed very similar, but those who believed Dursten had something to do with Wayne’s death would be very disappointed. In the end, Wayne’s passing was ruled an accident, and Dursten was never charged with anything. This remains true even after several reinvestigations into the case. Although Carol Wayne’s true last moments remain a mystery, the general consensus is that she slipped and fell into the water while walking, upset and distracted on the beach. This conclusion is painfully ironic. One of the common jokes about Carol Wayne and her hourglass figure on the Tonight Show was, “With that chest, this lady will never drown.” Even more heartbreakingly, one of Wayne’s exchanges with Carson on the Tonight Show had the host telling her, “Someday you’ll be 47.” Which was Carson’s age at the time, to which Wayne replied, “I hope so.” Tragically, she was only 42 when she died. With all the cheeky charm Carol Wayne brought to the screen, her sudden death left many people heartbroken. Johnny Carson even took his Art Fern character, the one most closely associated with Wayne’s matinee lady, off the Tonight Show for the majority of a year in deference to his friend and colleague who had passed so tragically and so young.