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Yvonne De Carlo (Peggy Yvonne Middleton) (b. September 1, 1922 – January 8, 2007) Canadian-born Hollywood leading lady. Best known as Lily Munster in TV’s The Munsters (1964-66) and such spin-off movies as Munster, Go Home! (1966) and The Munster’s Revenge (1981).
Career
de Carlo was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her father abandoned the family when she was only three years old and her mother supported the family by waitressing. Her mother enrolled her in dance classes and introduced her to drama. At age 15, the small family left Canada for Hollywood in 1937 but daunted by lack of success soon returned home.
They returned to Hollywood in 1940 and Yvonne began dancing in chorus lines at night while searching for a means to break into film. She landed a few small parts including a brief, but notable appearance as a bathing beauty in Harvard Here I Come. Several more uncredited roles followed and early roles included Road to Morocco and The Deerslayer.
A career of small, unimportant roles until her breakout appearance in the lead role in Salome Where She Danced. More successful roles followed including the western Frontier Gal, Song of Scheherazade, Slave Girl and River Lady. Universal Studios exploited her curvy figure and exotic beauty to add intrigue to several Westerns including Calamity Jane and Sam Bass and The Gal who Took the West. In 1956, she appeared in The Ten Commandments opposite Charlton Heston as Sephora, the wife of Moses. The film was a great success and cemented her Hollywood success.
Other appearances include guest spots on Bonanza and The Virginian. de Carlo will perhaps be best remembered as Lily Munster in 1964's the Munsters. She continued to act throughout the 80s and 90s. Genre roles included Roots with LeVar Burton in 1977. American Gothic, Nocturna in 1979 (1988), Mirror Mirror in 1990 and an appearance on Tales from the Crypt in 1993. She followed up with Band of Angels starring Clark Gable and Sidney Poitier.
Despite the difficulties of maintaining a long career in Hollywood, de Carlo managed to do so by changing with the times. Having studied voice, she sang opera at the Hollywood Bowl and in the absence of good roles on screen, she turned to the stage. In 1971, she appeared in Follies which won the Tony award for best original musical score.
de Carlo also sustained success by courting salacious gossip. Gossip columnists often reported her various appearances with well known men and in her autobiography she listed twenty-two lovers including Burt Lancaster, Aly Khan, and Billy Wilder.
Personal Life
de Carlo married stunt man Bob Morgan on November 21, 1955. They had two sons, Bob and Michael. She also had a stepdaughter, Bari. The couple divorced in 1968 after separating and reconciling.
de Carlo lost her son Michael in 1997 and in 1998, she suffered a stroke. She died of natural causes on Monday, December 8, 2007 at the Motion Picture and Television facility in Los Angeles.
External Links
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