Advertisement
AP
`Munsters' star Yvonne De Carlo dies
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer 43 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES -
Yvonne De Carlo, the beautiful star who played Moses' wife in "The Ten Commandments" but achieved her greatest popularity on TV's "The Munsters," has died. She was 84.
ADVERTISEMENT
De Carlo died of natural causes Monday at the Motion Picture & Television facility in suburban Los Angeles, longtime friend and television producer Kevin Burns said Wednesday.
De Carlo, whose shapely figure helped launch her career in B-movie desert adventures and Westerns, rose to more important roles in the 1950s. Later, she had a key role in a landmark Broadway musical, Stephen Sondheim's "Follies."
But for TV viewers, she will always be known as Lily Munster in the 1964-1966 slapstick horror-movie spoof "The Munsters." The series (the name allegedly derived from "fun-monsters") offered a gallery of Universal Pictures grotesques, including Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, in a cobwebbed gothic setting.
Lily, vampire-like in a black gown, presided over the faux scary household and was a rock for her gentle but often bumbling husband, Herman, played by 6-foot-5-inch character actor Fred Gwynne (decked out as the Frankenstein monster).
While it lasted only two years, the series had a long life in syndication and resulted in two feature movies, "Munster Go Home!" (1966) and "The Munsters' Revenge." (1981, for TV).
At the series' end, De Carlo commented: "It meant security. It gave me a new, young audience I wouldn't have had otherwise. It made me `hot' again, which I wasn't for a while."
"I think she will best remembered as the definitive Lily Munster. She was the vampire mom to millions of baby boomers. In that sense, she's iconic," Burns said Wednesday.
"But it would be a shame if that's the only way she is remembered. She was also one of the biggest beauty queens of the `40s and `50s, one of the most beautiful women in the world. This was one of the great glamour queens of Hollywood, one of the last ones."
De Carlo was able to sustain a long career by repeatedly reinventing herself. A longtime student of voice, she sang opera at the Hollywood Bowl. When movie roles became scarce, she ventured into stage musicals.
Her greatest stage triumph came on Broadway in 1971 with "Follies," which won the 1972 Tony award for best original musical score. She belted out Sondheim's showstopping number, "I'm Still Here," a former star's defiant recounting of the highs and lows of her life and career.
Over the years, De Carlo augmented her stardom by shrewd use of publicity. Gossip columnists reported her dates with famous men. In her 1987 book, "Yvonne: An Autobiography," she listed 22 of her lovers, who included Howard Hughes, Burt Lancaster, Robert Stack, Robert Taylor, Billy Wilder, Aly Khan and an Iranian prince.
The Canadian-born De Carlo began her career with a parade of bit parts in films of the early 1940s, then emerged as a star in 1945 with "Salome — Where She Danced," a routine movie about a dancer from Vienna who becomes a spy in the wild West.
She recalled her entrance in the film: "I came through these beaded curtains, wearing a Japanese kimono and a Japanese headpiece, and then performed a Siamese dance. Nobody seemed to know quite why."
Universal Pictures exploited her slightly exotic looks and a shape that looked ideal in a harem dress in such "sex-and-sand" programmers as "Song of Scheherazade," "Slave Girl," "Casbah" and "Desert Hawk."
The studio also employed her to add zest to Westerns, usually as a dance-hall girl or a gun-toting sharpshooter. Among the titles: "Frontier Gal," "Black Bart" (as Lola Montez), "River Lady," "Calamity Jane and Sam Bass" (as Calamity Jane) and "The Gal Who Took the West."
In 1956 she veered from her former image when Cecil B. DeMille chose her to play Sephora, wife to
Charlton Heston's Moses in "The Ten Commandments." The following year she co-starred with Clark Gable and
Sidney Poitier in "Band of Angels" as Gable's upper-class sweetheart who learns of her black forebears.
Among her later films: "McClintock" (starring John Wayne), "A Global Affair" (Bob Hope), "Hostile Guns" (George Montgomery), "The Power" (George Hamilton), "American Gothic" (Rod Steiger) and "Oscar" (
Sylvester Stallone).
De Carlo was born Peggy Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sept. 1, 1922, (some sources say 1924). Abandoned by her father, she was raised by her mother in poor circumstances. The girl took dancing lessons and dropped out of high school to work in night clubs and local theaters. She continued dancing in clubs when she and her mother moved to Los Angeles.
Paramount Pictures signed her to a contract in 1942, and she adopted her middle name and her mother's middle name. Dropped by Paramount after 20 minor roles, she landed at Universal, which cast her as the B-picture version of the studio's sultry star Maria Montez.
In 1955, De Carlo married Bob Morgan, a topflight stunt man, and the marriage produced two sons, Bruce and Michael, as well as much-publicized separations and reconciliations.
During a stunt aboard a moving log train for "How the West Was Won," Morgan was thrown underneath the wheels. The accident cost him a leg, and for a time De Carlo abandoned her career to care for him. They later divorced.
In her late years, De Carlo lived in semiretirement near Solvang, north of Santa Barbara. Her son Michael died in 1997, and she suffered a stroke the following year.
`Munsters' star Yvonne De Carlo dies
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer 43 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES -
Yvonne De Carlo, the beautiful star who played Moses' wife in "The Ten Commandments" but achieved her greatest popularity on TV's "The Munsters," has died. She was 84.
ADVERTISEMENT
De Carlo died of natural causes Monday at the Motion Picture & Television facility in suburban Los Angeles, longtime friend and television producer Kevin Burns said Wednesday.
De Carlo, whose shapely figure helped launch her career in B-movie desert adventures and Westerns, rose to more important roles in the 1950s. Later, she had a key role in a landmark Broadway musical, Stephen Sondheim's "Follies."
But for TV viewers, she will always be known as Lily Munster in the 1964-1966 slapstick horror-movie spoof "The Munsters." The series (the name allegedly derived from "fun-monsters") offered a gallery of Universal Pictures grotesques, including Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, in a cobwebbed gothic setting.
Lily, vampire-like in a black gown, presided over the faux scary household and was a rock for her gentle but often bumbling husband, Herman, played by 6-foot-5-inch character actor Fred Gwynne (decked out as the Frankenstein monster).
While it lasted only two years, the series had a long life in syndication and resulted in two feature movies, "Munster Go Home!" (1966) and "The Munsters' Revenge." (1981, for TV).
At the series' end, De Carlo commented: "It meant security. It gave me a new, young audience I wouldn't have had otherwise. It made me `hot' again, which I wasn't for a while."
"I think she will best remembered as the definitive Lily Munster. She was the vampire mom to millions of baby boomers. In that sense, she's iconic," Burns said Wednesday.
"But it would be a shame if that's the only way she is remembered. She was also one of the biggest beauty queens of the `40s and `50s, one of the most beautiful women in the world. This was one of the great glamour queens of Hollywood, one of the last ones."
De Carlo was able to sustain a long career by repeatedly reinventing herself. A longtime student of voice, she sang opera at the Hollywood Bowl. When movie roles became scarce, she ventured into stage musicals.
Her greatest stage triumph came on Broadway in 1971 with "Follies," which won the 1972 Tony award for best original musical score. She belted out Sondheim's showstopping number, "I'm Still Here," a former star's defiant recounting of the highs and lows of her life and career.
Over the years, De Carlo augmented her stardom by shrewd use of publicity. Gossip columnists reported her dates with famous men. In her 1987 book, "Yvonne: An Autobiography," she listed 22 of her lovers, who included Howard Hughes, Burt Lancaster, Robert Stack, Robert Taylor, Billy Wilder, Aly Khan and an Iranian prince.
The Canadian-born De Carlo began her career with a parade of bit parts in films of the early 1940s, then emerged as a star in 1945 with "Salome — Where She Danced," a routine movie about a dancer from Vienna who becomes a spy in the wild West.
She recalled her entrance in the film: "I came through these beaded curtains, wearing a Japanese kimono and a Japanese headpiece, and then performed a Siamese dance. Nobody seemed to know quite why."
Universal Pictures exploited her slightly exotic looks and a shape that looked ideal in a harem dress in such "sex-and-sand" programmers as "Song of Scheherazade," "Slave Girl," "Casbah" and "Desert Hawk."
The studio also employed her to add zest to Westerns, usually as a dance-hall girl or a gun-toting sharpshooter. Among the titles: "Frontier Gal," "Black Bart" (as Lola Montez), "River Lady," "Calamity Jane and Sam Bass" (as Calamity Jane) and "The Gal Who Took the West."
In 1956 she veered from her former image when Cecil B. DeMille chose her to play Sephora, wife to
Charlton Heston's Moses in "The Ten Commandments." The following year she co-starred with Clark Gable and
Sidney Poitier in "Band of Angels" as Gable's upper-class sweetheart who learns of her black forebears.
Among her later films: "McClintock" (starring John Wayne), "A Global Affair" (Bob Hope), "Hostile Guns" (George Montgomery), "The Power" (George Hamilton), "American Gothic" (Rod Steiger) and "Oscar" (
Sylvester Stallone).
De Carlo was born Peggy Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sept. 1, 1922, (some sources say 1924). Abandoned by her father, she was raised by her mother in poor circumstances. The girl took dancing lessons and dropped out of high school to work in night clubs and local theaters. She continued dancing in clubs when she and her mother moved to Los Angeles.
Paramount Pictures signed her to a contract in 1942, and she adopted her middle name and her mother's middle name. Dropped by Paramount after 20 minor roles, she landed at Universal, which cast her as the B-picture version of the studio's sultry star Maria Montez.
In 1955, De Carlo married Bob Morgan, a topflight stunt man, and the marriage produced two sons, Bruce and Michael, as well as much-publicized separations and reconciliations.
During a stunt aboard a moving log train for "How the West Was Won," Morgan was thrown underneath the wheels. The accident cost him a leg, and for a time De Carlo abandoned her career to care for him. They later divorced.
In her late years, De Carlo lived in semiretirement near Solvang, north of Santa Barbara. Her son Michael died in 1997, and she suffered a stroke the following year.
posted by:
|
Unsubscribed |
Advertisement
Advertisement
-
Unsu...
Re: `Munsters' star Yvonne De Carlo dies
Wed, January 10, 2007 - 8:57 PMa little on Yvonne
Yvonne De Carlo (born Margaret Yvonne Middleton) (September 1, 1922 - January 8, 2007) was a Canadian-born American film and television actor, best known for her role as "Lily Munster" on the 1964-1966 CBS television series The Munsters.
Early life
The daughter of an ambitious but unsuccessful aspiring actress, Margaret (nicknamed Peggy) Yvonne Middleton was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was taken to Hollywood at the age of fifteen by her mother. She was "Miss Venice Beach" 1938. Unable to find work, they returned to Canada until 1940, when they once again traveled to Hollywood. De Carlo supported herself working in a chorus while trying to find film work. She made her first film appearance in 1941, but could only find bit parts for the next few years.
She was a Paramount starlet but the studio apparently signed her mainly for her slight resemblance to Dorothy Lamour as it was common then for studios to sign lookalikes in order to remind the stars in question that they easily could be replaced should their behavior become difficult or their box-office appeal begin to wane. When she moved to Universal studios, she was utilized as a B-movie version of Maria Montez, one of the studio's reigning divas.
Film career
Her break came in 1945 playing the title role in Salome, Where She Danced. Though not a critical success it was a box office favorite and De Carlo was hailed as an up-and-coming star. Of the role, she was less sure, saying of her entrance, "I came through these beaded curtains, wearing a Japanese kimono and a Japanese headpiece, and then performed a Siamese dance. Nobody seemed to know quite why."
In 1947 she played her first leading role in Slave Girl and then in 1949 had her biggest success. As the female lead opposite Burt Lancaster in Criss Cross, she played a femme fatale, and her career began to ascend. The 1957 film Band of Angels featured her opposite Clark Gable in an American Civil War story, along with Sidney Poitier and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
For the next several years, she was constantly working although many of the films failed to advance her career.
Cast in The Ten Commandments (1956) in a leading role (as Zipporah, Moses' wife), De Carlo was part of a major hit. The film was a huge success and De Carlo was among those to be praised for her restrained work.
The Munsters
However, her most famous role that led her to pop culture legacy is of Lily Munster in the cult television series The Munsters (1964-1966), which allowed De Carlo to demonstrate a comic flair that her films had failed to utilize.
Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Yvonne De Carlo was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6124 Hollywood Blvd. and a second star at 6715 Hollywood Blvd. for her contribution to television.
Other entertainment activities
DeCarlo performed on Broadway, notably in the role of Carlotta Campion, introducing the song "I'm Still Here" in the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies, of which show she was the last lead female performer to die (having been predeceased by Alexis Smith, Dorothy Collins, Fifi D'Orsay, and Ethel Shutta).
Trained in opera and a former chorister when she was a child in Vancouver, De Carlo possessed a powerful contralto voice and released an LP of standards called Yvonne De Carlo Sings in 1957. She sang and played the harp on at least one episode of The Munsters.
She also received recognition for her work in various low-budget horror movies, such as The Power, The Seven Minutes, House of Shadows, Sorority House Murders, Cellar Dweller, Mirror, Mirror, Blazing Stewardesses, and American Gothic.
De Carlo worked in both film and television, playing her most recent role in the television production of The Barefoot Executive (1995).
Personal life
She was married to the stuntman Robert Morgan from 1955 to 1968, when they divorced; they had two sons, Bruce and Michael. Morgan had a daughter, Bari, from a previous marriage. De Carlo was a naturalized citizen of the United States. In her autobiography, published in 1987, she listed 22 lovers, including Aly Khan, Billy Wilder, Burt Lancaster, Howard Hughes, Robert Stack, and Robert Taylor.
Last career appearance and later life
De Carlo's last big-screen appearance was as Aunt Rosa in the 1991 Sylvester Stallone comedy Oscar, directed by John Landis.
Her last TV movie appearance was as Norma, in the 1995 Disney remake of The Barefoot Executive, opposite Brian Keith.
Her son Michael died in 1997. De Carlo had a stroke the following year. Former Munsters co-star Butch Patrick said on the September 25, 2006, edition of the Howard Stern Show that De Carlo was by then a resident of the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.
On January 8, 2007, De Carlo died of natural causes at the age of 84 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California., and is survived by two children, son Bruce and step-daughter Bari
Filmography
I Look at You (1941) (short subject)
Harvard, Here I Come! (1941)
The Kink of the Campus (1941) (short subject)
This Gun for Hire (1942)
Road to Morocco (1942)
Youth on Parade (1942)
Lucky Jordan (1942)
Rhythm Parade (1942)
The Crystal Ball (1943)
Salute for Three (1943)
So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
Let's Face It (1943)
Deerslayer (1943)
True to Life (1943)
Standing Room Only (1944)
The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944)
Fun Time (1944) (short subject)
Kismet (1944)
Rainbow Island (1944)
Here Come the Waves (1944)
Practically Yours (1944)
Bring on the Girls (1945)
Salome, Where She Danced (1945)
Frontier Gal (1945)
Song of Scheherazade (1947)
Brute Force (1947)
Slave Girl (1947)
Black Bart (1948)
Casbah (1948)
River Lady (1948)
Criss Cross (1949)
Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949)
The Gal Who Took the West (1949)
Buccaneer's Gal (1950)
The Desert Hawk (1950)
Tomahawk (1951)
Hotel Sahara (1951)
Silver City (1951)
The San Francisco Story (1952)
Scarlet Angel (1952)
Hurricane Smith (1952)
Sombrero (1953)
Sea Devils (1953)
The Captain's Paradise (1953)
Fort Algiers (1953)
Border River (1954)
Happy Ever After (1954)
Passion (1954)
Shotgun (1955)
The Contessa's Secret (1955)
Flame of the Islands (1956)
Raw Edge (1956)
Magic Fire (1956)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Death of a Scoundrel (1956)
Band of Angels (1957)
The Sword and the Cross (1958)
Timbuktu (1959)
McLintock! (1963)
A Global Affair (1964)
Law of the Lawless (1964)
Forbidden Temptations (1965) (documentary)
Munster, Go Home (1966)
Hostile Guns (1967)
The Power (1968)
Arizona Bushwhackers (1968)
The Delta Factor (1970)
The Seven Minutes (1971)
Black Fire (1975)
Blazing Stewardesses (1975)
It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (1975)
House of Shadows (1976)
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
Satan's Cheerleaders (1977)
Nocturna (1979)
Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979)
Black Fire (1979) (Spanish version)
The Man with Bogart's Face (1980)
Silent Scream (1980)
Liar's Moon (1981)
National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1982)
Vultures (1983)
Play Dead (1985)
Flesh and Bullets (1985)
American Gothic (1988)
Cellar Dweller (1988)
Mirror, Mirror (1990)
Oscar (1991)
The Naked Truth (1992 direct-to-video)
Desert Kickboxer a.k.a. Desert Hawk (1992 direct-to-video; unconfirmed[2])
Seasons of the Heart (1993) (voice only)
TV work
The Munsters (1964 - 1966)
The Girl on the Late, Late Show (1974)
The Mark of Zorro (1974)
The Munsters' Revenge (1981)
A Masterpiece of Murder (1986)
Here Come the Munsters (1995) (Cameo)
The Barefoot Executive (1995)
Yvonne at IMDB www.imdb.com/name/nm0001119/
Yvonne at Brians Drive In Theatre
www.briansdriveintheater.com/yvo...html
Yvonne at Northern Stars
www.northernstars.ca/actorsd...bio.html
Denny Jacksons Yvonne De Carlo Page
www.geocities.com/Hollywood...carlo.html
Yvonne at Classic Movies the Golden Years
www.thegoldenyears.org/decarlo.html
Yvonne at NNBD
www.nndb.com/people/348/000044216/
Yvonne at History of Vancouver
www.vancouverhistory.ca/archiv...nne.htm
