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Yvonne De Carlo
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Yvonne De Carlo (September 1, 1922 – January 8, 2007) was a Canadian-born American film and television actress, dancer and singer. In her six decades of television, Her most prolific appearances in film came in the 1940s and 1950s, and included her best known film roles, such as Salome Where She Danced and The Ten Commandments, opposite Charlton Heston. In the 1960s, she gained a whole new generation of fans, playing "Lily Munster" on CBS television series The Munsters, opposite Fred Gwynne.
daughter of an aspiring actress, Marie De Carlo, and a salesman, William Middleton, De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
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Encyclopedia
Yvonne De Carlo (September 1, 1922 – January 8, 2007) was a Canadian-born American film and television actress, dancer and singer. In her six decades of television, Her most prolific appearances in film came in the 1940s and 1950s, and included her best known film roles, such as Salome Where She Danced and The Ten Commandments, opposite Charlton Heston. In the 1960s, she gained a whole new generation of fans, playing "Lily Munster" on CBS television series The Munsters, opposite Fred Gwynne.
Biography
The daughter of an aspiring actress, Marie De Carlo, and a salesman, William Middleton, De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. "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 maternal grandfather, Michael de Carlo, was Sicilian-born, and her maternal grandmother, Margaret Purvis, was Scottish-born. Margaret's mother ran away from home, when she was 16 to become a ballerina, after a couple of years working as a shop girl, she was finally married in 1924. Little Margaret was just a toddler when her father beat a hasty departure only one step ahead of the law. Her father abandoned her family when she was 3. While her mother was away with her boyfriends, Margaret lived with her grandparents. She found a secure spot with them., however, she wanted some attention, very desperately. The little girl inherited her mother's personality. By the time she entered grade school, she found that her strong singing voice, brought her the attention she longed for. Although her mother recognized Margaret's talent for singing, she had decided long ago that any daughter of hers would be a dancer. As a teenager, “Peggy” was taken by her mother to Hollywood where she enrolled her in dancing school, also attending Le Conte Middle School in Hollywood. Margaret also lived in a downtown apartment, with her mother, where Marie took on an odd job such as a waitress. Margaret was uprooted again when her Visa expired, she would have to make three trips, the first of which is from Los Angeles, California to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, within a few years, where she and her mother both returned, because she was unable to find work. Despite of all the traveling she went to, her ballet had already continued. It was also noted that her body was also not subtle enough to withstand the rigors of ballet.
She attended and dropped out of Vancouver's defunct King Edward High School, to focus more on her dance studies. She then attended, the B.C. School of Dancing. It was there that Canadian dance instructor, June Roper, started her in a new direction, she was grateful and relieved. The following year, Orphann Theater, where Margaret appeared as a hula dancer, in the famous Waikiki. When she was 17, Margaret had become a graceful young woman. A new nightclub, the Palamar had opened in Vancouver, she finessed into a weeklong booking. Hoping to see the more sophisticated image, she combined her middle name with her mother's maiden name, which turned out to be Yvonne De Carlo.
The pair made several such trips until 1940, when De Carlo was first runnerup to "Miss Venice Beach" and was hired by showman Nils Granlund as a dancer at the Florentine Gardens. She had been dancing for Granlund only a short time when she was arrested by immigration officials and deported to Canada,but in January of 1941, Granlund sent a telegram to Canadian immigration officials pledging his sponsorship of De Carlo in the United States, and affirmed his offer of steady employment, both requirements to reenter the country.
Before she worked at Florentine, she also got her first job at 16, working at Vancouver's Palomar, where it expanded from a ballroom to a nightclub in 1938, and been employed ever since. When refused by allowing Mr. Carroll to show her bare breasts, just like he did with many other future actresses and/or stars, she and her mother explicitly left the nightclub.
Seeking contract work in the movies, she abruptly quit the Florentine Gardens after less than a year, landing a role as a bathing beauty in the 1941 B-movie Harvard, Here I Come. Other roles were slow to follow, and De Carlo took a job in the chorus line of Earl Carroll, another Hollywood showman. Her sixth film appearance was at the request of Nils Granlund, and the film Rhythm Parade was set at the Florentine Gardens nightclub in Hollywood.
In December 1941, the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor signaled America's entrance in World War II. From there, she joined Hollywood's biggest stars performing in morale boosting U.S. oceans. She clearfully sang in front of thousands of servicemen. De Carlo was a favorite leading lady of the 1940s, and a recipient of many letters from GI's.
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.
She realized that her sensitivity brought her more money she had craved for as a child. As she entered more sophisticated circles, the lesson she'd learned from her maternal grandparents weren't forgotten. She was given a musical short as a Zombie in The Pearl of Bagdad. The young dancer appreciated what she saw on the screen, thinking she had a shot at the major leagues. With a glamorous lifestyle along and big bucks, De Carlo changed her mind to become a movie star.
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.
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.
Lovely character actress
Prior to becoming a full-fledged moviestar, De Carlo also became a lovely character actress, made her debut on a 1952 episode, Lights Out. The part led to other roles in The Ford Television Theatre, Screen Directors Playhouse, Shower of Stars, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Playhouse 90, Bonanza, Burke's Law, 2 episodes of Follow the Sun, Adventures in Paradise, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Custer, The Name of the Game, 2 episodes of The Virginian, among many others.
Television series
The Munsters
De Carlo was deeply in debt and was also in jeopardy, as she had a rocky 1964 year. After several odd jobs, she worked over the last 30 years, while her film career came to a short end, she was in depression. Her life had changed when she signed a contract with Universal Studios, after receiving a phone call to perform the female lead role in the cult sitcom, The Munsters, opposite Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster. She was also the producers' second choice to play Lily Munster, when Joan Marshall, who played Phoebe, wasn't right for the role. When she co-starred in that series, her feelings were very complicated. This cult, but, short-lived sitcom, also starred familiar actor Al Lewis as Lily's dad, Grandpa Munster, and unfamiliar actors Beverley Owen as Marilyn Munster and Butch Patrick as Eddie Munster. Overall, the entire cast got along real well with De Carlo, esp. Patrick, both on-screen and off.
After she was casted in The Munsters, according to both Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis, they thought they might have heard of her so much that she came to the set barging in, however, they're wrong. She was extremely wonderful on the show. The Munsters was already a monster hit, at the beginning of the first season. When another unfamiliar actress Pat Priest replaced Owen (after she got married), its show continued to grow. De Carlo brought a unique quality that was perfect for a TV Mom, that was the vampire verson of both Barbara Billingsley and Donna Reed. She also loved indulging in the broad comedy and the lively banter that made the relationship between De Carlo's & Gwynne's characters, sparkled.
To transform herself in the action-face vampire, she shed her image and took 3 hours in the makeup chair every morning, before putting in a 12 hour workday. However, it was worth it, for herself, becoming a pop culture icon. She also drove around some Jaguar Munster automobiles on the set of the show, for her TV family.
During its second season, ratings began to drop, thanks to the debut of Batman, which dominated the ratings, early in 1966. That same year, De Carlo was more than happy to reprise her role in a color Munster movie, Munster, Go Home! (1966), in hoping to renew interest in a TV series. Unfortunately, it was too late. After its movie released, Munsters was canceled after 70 episodes, as De Carlo was looking for her next paycheck. Her real-life family was in serious turmoil.
When E! Online asked Patrick if she didn't mind playing Lily Munster, he thought, "She seemed to be all right with it," he then said, "She seemed to have no problem with the Munster thing." Butch also said about his professional relationship with De Carlo on- the set, could mean off- the set as a friend, "She was sweet and kind, a good TV mother." In the many years De Carlo has had a long career in movies, before she transfered to television, where she'd became a household word to millions of people, he said, "She had a big presence," said Butch, "When she walked into a room, everybody knew it." Compared to many Munsters fans or fans of Yvonne De Carlo's, he wasn't unaware of his mother's past, he told us, "My mom kind of told me what a big star she was," After the series' cancelation, both De Carlo & Patrick continued to be friends for over 4 decades until her death in 2007, but have never kept in touch of one another. In addition, Patrick was too old to reprise his Eddie Munster role in the reunion movie, The Munster Revenge (1981), but was very busy working on other projects, before focusing on his own rock band, Eddie And The Monsters, which he founded, after the character he played, almost 2 decades ago. He got the chance to be reunited with De Carlo three times, once in 1994 on a daytime talk show, Vicki, and the following year in the movie Here Comes the Munsters (1995), where Patrick was reunited with De Carlo. The deaths of Marie in 1993, followed by, Michael, 4 years later, in 1997, drew De Carlo & Patrick, very strongly, as Patrick was growing more concerned about his mentor's losses, in retrospective years. His concerned escalated, when De Carlo herself was hospitalized with a stroke, in 1998, Patrick once said a prayer to her and was soon recovered. Just a few weeks before De Carlo's death, Patrick was her caregiver for one last time at a nursing home, where he spent his Thanksgiving holiday, being right by her side. After De Carlo's own death, Patrick was very devastated and was so close that he'd loved her so very much, and she taught him some valuable lessons, growing up.
Honor
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 later in Los Angeles with the original Broadway cast on July 22, 1972, 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.
She also made a cameo appearance on The Late Show which was hosted by comedian Ross Shafer in 1988, to talk about her own autobiography, she'd written Yvonne: An Autobiography in 1987.
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.
De Carlo also appeared on the talk show, Vicki, hosted by her lifelong fan, Vicki Lawrence, on a special episode Sitcom Legends, along with Dawn Wells, Jamie Farr, Dick Sargent, Donna Douglas and Butch Patrick, who also starred with De Carlo in The Munsters, in 1994.
De Carlo also had a small cameo role on the Munsters TV movie remake "Here Come the Munsters" in 1995.
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.
Hobbies
Throughout her long life her hobbies were golf, dancing, singing, drinking wine, and listening to music.
Quotes
- Yvonne: "Men, no matter what their promises, rarely leave their spouses the louses." (Source: Behind The Bedroom Doors of Famous Women)
- Yvonne on writing her own autobiography: "If I could, I'd change a lot of things because I'm not proud of everything I've done in my life. But to those people who helped me, and there were a lot, I say, thank you. They're the reason I wrote this book." (Source: USAToday.com)
- Yvonne on the cancelation of The Munsters: "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." (Source: LATimes.com)
- Yvonne on using a car that would be perfect for The Munsters: "I thought it would be fun to drive around." (Source: LATimes.com)
- Yvonne when Stephen Sondheim invited her to join the musical, Follies: "He wrote it for me, just for me!" (Source: Eonline.com)
- Yvonne when asked in 1972 about her affair with Howard Hughes before he turned into a legendary recluse: "Howard taught me how to land a plane and how to take off. But he never taught me anything about flying in between. He thought that I had learned the difficult parts, and that was enough." (Source: LATimes.com)
- Yvonne on Howard Hughes's romance, after watching Salome Where She Danced (1945): "A man came over ... he said 'Mr. Hughes would like to meet you. Well, I was not too much awawre of Mr. Hughes at the time --- who he was on anything. So, I said, 'Oh, yes, fine!' And so, I looked and thought, 'Wow, this would be a terrific boyfriend for my aunt.'" (Source: Eonline.com)
- Yvonne who told the media in 1971 about her stars, if she was really nervous about residing in New York City: "I'm from Hollywood, I'm too dumb to be nervous about New York." (Source: Eonline.com)
- Yvonne: "I was on cloud nine all the time. After I made my hit in Salome, Universal sent me to New York so I could learn to be a proper movie star." (Source: Eonline.com)
Personal life
While starring in The Gal Who Took the West (1949), De Carlo not only walked away with the picture, but, she walks away with Jock Mahoney, who was her boyfriend, at the time. At one point, both she & Jock were going to start a new family, and in 1949, she was engaged. In her first trimester, she didn't just suffer the miscarriage, but her relationship with Jock was unsuccessful, hence, De Carlo called off the engagement.
She was married to the stuntman Robert Morgan from November 21, 1955 to June 1968, whom he met on De Carlo's, Shotgun, 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 intimate friends, including Aly Khan, Billy Wilder, Burt Lancaster, Howard Hughes, Robert Stack and Robert Taylor.
She received a phone call from Phoenix, Arizona, and Bob had been ran over by train, while doing stunt work on How the West Was Won (1962). A distraught De Carlo quickly ran into the hospital to be by her husband's side. The doctors did everything they could to fix her husband's body. When his left leg was amputated. Bob got help through his fake leg, after months of surgeries. However, his contract with MGM assumed no responsibility for the accident. De Carlo & Morgan had filed a $1.4 million lawsuit against the studio, claiming her husband was on permanent disability, through the film's assistant director. The family was completely devastated when the De Carlo family sued MGM, their attempts finally came to an end.
Her mother, Marie, died in 1993, of cancer, that was followed by her son, Michael, who died in 1997 of epileptic seizures, four years later. De Carlo had a stroke the following year, and soon recovered.
Death
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. A memorial service was held a few days later at The Woodland Hills MGM Theater, among them attending the service were surviving The Munsters co-stars, Butch Patrick and Pat Priest. She is survived by her son, Bruce R. Morgan. She was cremated.
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) - Handmaiden (uncredited)
- 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)
- La Contessa di Castiglione (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)
- 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)
- 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)
Short subjects
- I Look at You (1941)
- The Kink of the Campus (1941)
- The Lamp of Memory (1942)
- Fun Time (1944)
TV work
Bibliography
External links
- Media Newswire press release:
- at
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