[citation needed] Although Duguay’s family reportedly originated in Marseilles, France, as wine merchants, she was recorded to have been born in Paterson, New Jersey.

Duguay began spelling her name Dugay around the age of 12, about the time that she landed the role of a young Maria Montez in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944).

[citation needed][note 4][6] She portrayed a Native American woman, Starfire, in the Western film Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) that starred Barbara Stanwyck and future President of the United States Ronald Reagan.

Cattle Queen turned out to be one of her most recognizable roles, but Duguay also portrayed a Native American character, Minnehaha, in another film, Hiawatha (1952), in which she starred opposite Vince Edwards.

She also played a Native American woman in an episode of Bronco (1959), a Warner Bros. television series starring Ty Hardin.