Merissa Mathes Bio
Merissa Mathes is an American actress, glamour and nude model. She was born Marrisa Mathes on January 26, 1940, in Moses Lake, Washington. Playboy named her its June 1962 Playmate at 22. Her appearance came during the 1960s, as Playboy grew into a major force in American magazine publishing.
Mathes has natural breasts, brown eyes and brown hair. Her measurements are 36-22-36.
Merissa Mathes was already working toward an acting career when Playboy entered the picture. At Santa Monica City College, she studied drama and liberal arts while appearing in local theatrical productions, treating modeling as one part of a larger ambition rather than the destination itself. Ingrid Bergman was among the actresses she admired, and Mathes spoke openly about wanting to build a serious dramatic career, travel widely and eventually settle somewhere with enough land for a ranch full of animals.
Film work had begun to arrive as well. She completed a role in the low-budget science-fiction production The Phantom Planet, an early screen credit that placed her inside the independent filmmaking world of the period. Playboy also reported that she had been in discussions with Martin Scorsese about a part in Who’s That Knocking at My Door, his first feature-length film. Whether or not that possibility developed further, the connection reflected how actively Mathes was pursuing acting rather than simply waiting for opportunities to appear.
Away from sets and rehearsals, she preferred an active life. Swimming, skiing and sailing shared time with horseback riding and cycling, while reading offered a quieter counterpoint. Travel was another recurring interest, with Hawaii and Mexico among the places she had already visited. Mathes particularly enjoyed trying unfamiliar foods while away, treating travel as a chance to experience something different rather than merely change scenery.
That mix of drama training, independent film work and restless curiosity gives Mathes a more substantial Playboy-era story than a single pictorial suggests. Her ambitions were directed squarely toward performance, but she imagined success broadly enough to include travel, animals and life beyond Hollywood. Playboy caught her while those possibilities were still open and the marquee she dreamed about remained somewhere ahead.
