...yvonne de carlo - the matriarch of 1313 mockingbird lane...

To the diehard fans of television comedies in the 60s, I am certain this address is very familiar. You may not be able to place where you have seen this address (or you have visited it), because it is the residence of the ghoulish family (frankenstien, vampires and werewolves) - "The Munsters". This famous television comedy ran for seventy episodes.

Lily Munster, the mother in the family was played by the beautiful and talented Yvonne De Carlo (1st September 1922 - 8th January 2007). De Carlo was born Peggy (some say Margaret) Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, Canada. Her mother sent her to dance school and later, she learnt dramatics. Her mother took her to Hollywood when Yvonne was fifteen, but nothing came out of it and they returned to the Mecca of Dreams in 1940.

She appeared briefly in some uncredited roles - "This Gun For Hire" (1942 - Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake starred in this film noir, with Yvonne appearing as a showgirl in a club), as a handmaiden in Crosby/Hope/Lamour hit "Road To Morocco" (1942), "Lucky Jordan" in the same year, the famous war drama "So Proudly We Hail" (1943 - with Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake taking the leads), in Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" (1943), the musical "Let's Face It" (1943 - Bob Hope and Betty Hutton), Marlene Dietrich's "Kismet" (1944) to name a few.

She was then starred in Universal's "Salome Where She Danced" (1945) with Rod Cameron, where she did a exotic dance. Again with Cameron in another western "Frontier Gal" (1945) made her a name in the movies. They showcased her beauty but the movies were lackluster. "Song Of Scheherazard" 1947 starred her in the role of a cabaret dancer when Hollywood was focusing on lives of composers (fictionalized or otherwise). "Brute Force" a 1947 thriller noir starring Burt Lancaster gave her a A-leading man. This penitentiary thriller also starred Hume Cronyn who stole the show, Charles Bickford and gave Yvonne three other lovely ladies to content with - Ann Blyth, Ella Raines and Anita Colby.

"Casbah" (1948) was a musical remake of "Algiers" (1938). It starred Tony Martin as the singing Pepe Le Moko. She reunited with Burt Lancaster in another film noir "Criss Cross" (1949) and portrayed the famous lady of the West - Calamity Jane in "Calamity Jane and Sam Bass" (1949 - Howard Duff played the latter). She was given Joel McCrea for a leading man "The San Francisco Story" (1952) and Rock Hudson in "Scarlet Angel" (1952). She went to MGM to make a musical romance "Sombrero" in 1953 a film with three interwoven story, where Yvonne gets to sing "You Belong To My Heart" with the dashing Vittorio Gassman but unfortunately that scene was deleted. She was given a very funny role opposite Sir Alec Guinness in "The Captain's Paradise" (1953).

In 1956, she appeared in the biblical film that immortalized her best, Cecil B. DeMille's epic, "The Ten Commandments", with a very strong casts (Charlton Heston as Moses, Yul Brynner as Rameses, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, Debra Paget, John Derek, Nina Foch, Martha Scott, Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson, John Carradine). Yvonne's role as Sephora, wife of Moses is a little laid back compared to most of her earlier roles, nevertheless, it still displayed her beauty and dramatics.

She was Amantha Starr in the civil war romance drama opposite Clark Gable in "The Band Of Angels" (1957) and adventure "Timbuktu" (1959) with Victor Mature. In the early 50s and 60s, she appeared and guest starred in television like "Bonanza" and "Death Valley Days". She came back to big screen in 1963's "McLintock!" with John Wayne and Maureen O' Hara. Yvonne then popped up in Bob Hope's lesser comedy, "A Global Affair" (1964).

She then took the part of Lily on "The Munsters" (1964), when husband Bob Morgan, an actor and stuntman suffered a near-fatal injury while filming "How The West Was Won" (1962). She accepted the part to help pay for the medical bills. She never imagined, at that time, that Lily Munster would become her most famous role.

She then did a western, in a smaller budgetted "Arizona Bushwacker" (1968) alongside with Howard Keel, John Ireland and Marilyn Maxwell. She even starred in sexploitation comedy, "Blazing Stewardess" (1975). There was a all-star cameo in "Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood" (1976) as a cleaning women. She continued to make more TV appearences - "Roots" (1977), two episodes of "Fantasy Island" (1979 and 1978) and my favourite murder-mystery that featured many old celebrities, "Murder, She Wrote" (1985) starring the versatile Angela Lansbury. She kept appearing in more movies and television until 1995.

In the 70s, she originated the role of mantrap, Carlotta Campion in Stephen Sondheim's "Follies" and sang the musical's anthem of survival, "I'm Still Here". Yvonne DeCarlo died on January 8 of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Fund's Retirement Home in Woodland, Hills, California, according to Reuters. She was 84.