Joyce Ingalls, the actress best known for her role in “Paradise Alley,” has died at the age of 65.
A representative of Ingalls’ husband, Emmy-nominated director
Darrell Fetty, confirmed to Entertainment Weekly on Thursday that Ingalls died Aug. 5. A cause of death was not given.
Ingalls played a kind-hearted prostitute in “Paradise Alley,” which starred Sylvester Stallone and also marked his
directorial debut, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She also had roles in “Lethal Weapon 4” and “The Man Who Would Not Die,” along with a modeling career that put her on the cover of numerous popular magazines.
Ingalls and Fetty married in 1984, and the couple created a ministry to feed homeless families at the Little Brown Church in Studio City, THR reported. Called the Darrell and Joyce Fetty Food Pantry, it has been in operation for 25 years and family members asked that memorials for Ingalls be made to the church or the Cancer Support Center in Sherman Oaks.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune called Ingalls a “rising star” in a 1978 article about her role with Stallone in “Paradise Alley,” and also hinted that rumors were circling that the two were a pair outside the movie. The newspaper said she was a Navy brat who was raised at various military sites on the East Coast, along with her eight siblings.
Ingalls told the Herald-Tribune that she entered a beauty contest on a lark, while still a sophomore in high school. She won and, as part of the prize, got an interview with Eileen Ford at her prestigious modeling agency. Ford told her to lose 25 pounds — Ingalls weighed about 140 pounds at the time — and come back.
She did, and traveled back to New York and lived at the YWCA, beginning to get modeling assignments. However, her father wanted her to return home to finish high school, Ingalls told the newspaper.
“I did as he asked because he threatened to send the Coast Guard after me if I didn’t,” she said. “But right after the senior prom, I went back to New York and the YWCA.”
Ingalls is survived by Fetty, two sons, and eight siblings, THR said.
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