MEXICO CITY -- Actress Carol Wayne, best known as the blonde Matinee Lady on Johnny Carson's 'Tonight Show,' was found dead off the Pacific resort of Manzanillo while vacationing in Mexico, officials said Monday. She was 42.
'The body of Carol Wayne was found Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. floating in Santiago Bay,' north of the Pacific Coast resort, a spokesman for the Manzanillo District Attorney's office said.
'An autopsy will be performed today to determine the cause of death,' Arturo de Leal, the spokesman said Monday.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman also confirmed that 'she was found dead in the water off Manzanillo,' which is some 325 miles west of Mexico City.
There was no immediate report of how the death occurred.
Wayne appeared in episodes of 'I Spy,' 'Bewitched,' 'I Dream of Jeannie,' 'The Partridge Family,' 'Dance Fever,' and 'The Hollywood Squares.' She appeared 42 times in 'Love, American Style,' and in 'Comedy Theatre,' a television anthology from 1976-79.
She was best known for playing the Matinee Lady in a skit, 'The Art Fern Tea Time Movie,' which aired 101 times on the 'Tonight Show' in 1971.
Most recently, she made a movie, 'Heartbreaker,' in 1984 for Orion Pictures and appeared in 'Surf 2' in 1982.
Barry Feinstein, who was divorced from Wayne in 1976 after eight years of marriage, said from his home in Bearsville, N.Y., that Wayne had gone to Mexico 'with friends for a few days vacation.'
'Carol was a great woman,' he said. 'She was funny and bright and a good person.'
The couple's son, 15-year-old Alex, lives with Feinstein.
Wayne later married and divorced producer Bert Sugarman.
She made her home in Los Angeles. A sister, Nina Wayne, lives in Palm Springs. Her mother, Billie Carlson, lives in Chicago where Wayne was born and raised.
