Editor’s Note: This was originally written and published the day after she died, 09 Jan 2007.
Like most people my age, I was first exposed to the lovely Yvonne De Carlo as Lily Munster, from the 1964-1966 television show “The Munsters”. But Yvonne, who died on January 8, 2007 at the age of 84, had a film career spanning more than fifty years.
She got her first work during World War II, catching small parts in films like “The Kink Of The Campus” (1941) and “This Gun For Hire” (1942). She played mostly pretty young showgirls for the duration of the war, before breaking out into leading roles in exploitational films of the late 1940′s, such as “Brute Force” and “Slave Girl”, both released in 1947. After that, she was a leading lady, starring opposite Cornell Wilde, James Arness, Peter Cushing, David Niven, and Alec Guiness.
By the late 1950′s, Yvonne was experimenting with television, guest-starring on shows such as “Playhouse 90″, “Bonanza”, and “Death Valley Days”. But it was her 71 episodes starring with Fred Gwynne, Butch Patrick, and Al Lewis on “The Munsters” that gave her pop culture immortality.
Following the cancellation of “The Munsters”, she added to her pop culture resume with appearances in “Blazing Stewardesses” (1975), “Satan’s Cheerleaders” (1977), and “Roots” (1977). She stayed busy throughout the 1980′s and into the nineties, appearing in “Tales From The Crypt” and “Dream On”, as well as many movies, most notably in the 1988 horror film “American Gothic”, playing “Ma” opposite Rod Steiger’s “Pa”.
She retired from acting in 1995, suffered a stroke in 1998, and lived out her remaining years as a resident of the famous Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.
