Everything about Yvonne De Carlo totally explained
Yvonne De Carlo (
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.
Biography
Early life
The daughter of an aspiring actress, Marie De Carlo, and a salesman, William Middleton, De Carlo was born
Peggy 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." Her father abandoned her family when she was 3. As a teenager, “Peggy” was taken by her mother to Hollywood where she 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 runnerup 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.
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." Perhaps because of her "olive skin" (as described by Paramount's head of casting, John Zinn) and "sloe eyes," she was frequently cast in exotic and biblical roles, wearing costumes ranging from sarongs to seven veils.
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.
The actress worked steadily for the next several years, although many of the films failed to advance her career.
Cast in
The Ten Commandments (
1956) in a leading role (as
Zipporah, also spelled Sephora,
Moses' wife), De Carlo became part of a major hit. The film was a huge success and De Carlo was praised for her restrained work in an epic in which several other performances were considered somewhat over-the-top.
The Munsters
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 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
Trained in opera and a former chorister at St Paul's Anglican Church, Vancouver, when she was a child, 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.
Last appearances
De Carlo's last-released 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 last TV interview appearance was on January 20, 2002 in a segment of
Larry King Live which also featured
Richard Hack, author of
Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters.
Personal life
She was married to the
stuntman Robert Morgan from Nov 1955 to June 1974, when they divorced; they'd 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 intimate friends, including
Aly Khan,
Billy Wilder,
Burt Lancaster,
Howard Hughes,
Robert Stack and
Robert Taylor.
Her son Michael died in 1997 as did her mother, Marie. De Carlo had a
stroke the following year. Later, she moved to a home in the Black Lake retirement community near
Solvang, California but in declining health, she then became a resident of the
Motion Picture & Television Hospital, in
Woodland Hills, California, where she spent her last years. There, on
January 8 2007, she died of natural causes and was cremated. A memorial service was held a few days later at The Woodland Hills MGM Theater. She is survived by her son Bruce R. Morgan. Her ashes were presumably given to either a friend or family.
Filmography
- Harvard, Here I Come! (1941)
- 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)
- 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) (cameo)
- Satan's Cheerleaders (1977)
- Nocturna (1979)
- (1979)
- Black Fire (1979) (Spanish version)
- The Man with Bogart's Face (1980)
- Silent Scream (1980)
- Liar's Moon (1981)
- Play Dead (1981)
- Vultures (1983)
- 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)
- Seasons of the Heart (1993) (voice only)
- Ghost Camera (In Production) [NotIndependently Verified]
- Project Lodestar (In Production) [NotIndependently Verified]
- Saucer Syndicates (In Production) [NotIndependently Verified]
Short subject
I Look at You (1941)
The Kink of the Campus (1941)
The Lamp of Memory (1942)
Fun Time (1944)
TV work
Bonanza: A Rose For Lotta (1959)
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Night the Monkey Died (1964)
The Munsters (1964 - 1966)
The Girl on the Late, Late Show (1974)
The Mark of Zorro (1974)
(1979) (miniseries)
The Munsters' Revenge (1981)
Murder, She Wrote: Jessica Behind Bars (1985) (guest star)
A Masterpiece of Murder (1986)
Tales From the Crypt (1995)
Here Come the Munsters (1995) (cameo)
The Barefoot Executive (1995)
Bibliography
Footnotes
Further Information
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