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Yvonne De Carlo (born Margaret Yvonne Middleton) (September 1 1922 - January 8 2007) was a Canadian-born American film and television actress, best known for her role as "Lily Munster" on the 1964-1966 CBS television series The Munsters.
BiographyEarly lifeThe daughter of an aspiring actress, Marie De Carlo, and a salesman, William Middleton, De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, British Columbia. "I was named Margaret Yvonne - Margaret because my mother was very fond of one of the derivatives of the name. She was fascinated at the time by the movie star Baby Peggy, and I suppose she wanted a Baby Peggy of her own."[1] Her father abandoned her family when she was 3. As a teenager, “Peggy” was taken by her mother to Hollywood who enrolled her in dancing school. Unable to find work, they returned to Canada. The pair made several such trips until 1940, when De Carlo was first runner up to "Miss Venice Beach" and was hired as a showgirl at Florentine Gardens. She made her first film appearance in 1941, but could only find bit parts for the next few years.
Film careerHer 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.
The MunstersHowever, 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. She also played Lily in the 1966 feature film Munster, Go Home and the 1981 TV movie The Munsters' Revenge. Stars on the Hollywood Walk of FameFor 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 activitiesTrained 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.This album was orchestrated by the movie composer John Williams. She sang and played the harp on at least one episode of The Munsters. From 1967 onward she became increasingly active in musicals, appearing in off-broadway productions of Pal Joey and Catch Me If You Can. In early 1968 she joined Donald O'Connor in a 15 week run of Little Me staged between Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas, performing 2 shows per night. But her defining stage role came with her big break on Broadway in the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies, which ran from February 1971 until July 1, 1972. Notable in the role of Carlotta Campion, she introduced the song "I'm Still Here". The show opened in Los Angeles with the original cast on July 22 of that year, and closed 11 weeks later. She was the last lead female performer from the original production to die (having been predeceased by Alexis Smith, Dorothy Collins, Fifi D'Orsay, and Ethel Shutta). She also received recognition for her work in various horror movies, spoofs and thrillers, such as The Power, The Seven Minutes, House of Shadows, Sorority House Murders, Cellar Dweller, The Man With Bogart's Face, 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 lifeShe was married to the stuntman Robert Morgan from Nov 1955 to June 1974, 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 lifeDe 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 Eddie Albert. 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 Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California. Yvonne De Carlo last years were spent living at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills in California and on January 8 2007, De Carlo died there of natural causes at the age of 84; she is survived by her son Bruce R Morgan. A memorial service was held a few days later at The Woodland Hills MGM Theater. Filmography
TV work
Book
Footnotes
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