Yvonne DeCarlo

Movie Actress

Yvonne DeCarlo was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on September 1st, 1922 and is the Movie Actress. At the age of 84, Yvonne DeCarlo biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, movies, TV shows, and networth are available.

  Report
Date of Birth
September 1, 1922
Nationality
Canada, United States
Place of Birth
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Death Date
Jan 8, 2007 (age 84)
Zodiac Sign
Virgo
Profession
Actor, Dancer, Film Actor, Singer, Stage Actor, Television Actor
Yvonne DeCarlo Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

At 84 years old, Yvonne DeCarlo physical status not available right now. We will update Yvonne DeCarlo's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

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Weight
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Yvonne DeCarlo Religion, Education, and Hobbies
Religion
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Hobbies
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Education
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Yvonne DeCarlo Spouse(s), Children, Affair, Parents, and Family
Spouse(s)
Robert Drew Morgan, ​ ​(m. 1955; div. 1973)​
Children
2
Dating / Affair
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Parents
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Yvonne DeCarlo Career

De Carlo and her mother made several trips to Los Angeles. In 1940, she won second place in the Miss Venice beauty contest, and placed fifth in that year's Miss California competition (and can be seen in that pageant at 0:36 of the British Pathé film "A Matter of Figures"). At the Miss Venice contest, she was noticed by a booking agent who told her to audition for an opening in the chorus line at the Earl Carroll Theatre on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

De Carlo and her mother arrived at Earl Carroll's for the audition, but after learning that Carroll would have to examine her "upper assets" before hiring her, De Carlo and her mother searched for work at another popular Hollywood nightclub, the Florentine Gardens. They met the proprietor, Nils Granlund, and he introduced De Carlo to the audience before she tap danced to "Tea for Two". Granlund then asked, "Well, folks ... is she in or out?" The audience responded with "a rousing round of applause, with whistles and cheers", and De Carlo got the job. She started in the back of the chorus line, but after months of practice and hard work, Granlund featured her in a "King Kong number." In it, she danced, and cast off several chiffon veils before being carried away by a gorilla. She was given more solo routines and also appeared in her first soundie.

She had been dancing at the Florentine Gardens only a few months when she was arrested by immigration officials and deported to Canada in late 1940. In January 1941, Granlund sent a telegram to immigration officials pledging his sponsorship of De Carlo in the U.S., and affirmed his offer of steady employment, both requirements to reenter the country.

In May 1941, she appeared in a revue, Hollywood Revels, at the Orpheum Theatre. A critic from the Los Angeles Times who reviewed it said the "dancing of Yvonne de Carlo is especially notable." She also made her debut on network radio with Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen, who were performing extracts from a series based on their Flagg-Quint performances.

De Carlo wanted to act. At the encouragement of her friend Artie Shaw, who offered to pay her wages for a month, she quit the Florentine Gardens and hired a talent agent, Jack Pomeroy. Pomeroy got De Carlo an uncredited role as a bathing beauty in a Columbia Pictures B film, Harvard, Here I Come (1941). She had one line ("Nowadays a girl must show a front") in a scene with the film's star, boxer Maxie Rosenbloom. Her salary was $25 and her work in the film got her into the Screen Actors Guild. When no other acting jobs came her way, she decided to return to the chorus line and auditioned for Earl Carroll, who hired her. While working for Carroll, she won a one-line part in This Gun for Hire (1942) at Paramount. Carroll found out and fired her, as he did not allow his dancers to work outside the nightclub without his permission. She asked Granlund if he could rehire her and he did. In December 1941, she was dancing in the revue Glamour Over Hollywood at the Gardens. America's entry into World War II saw De Carlo and other Florentine dancers busy entertaining troops at USO shows. A skilled horsewoman, she also appeared in a number of West Coast rodeos.

Following an interview at Paramount, De Carlo was cast as one of Dorothy Lamour's handmaidens in Road to Morocco (1942). She was given a screen test for the role of Ata in The Moon and Sixpence, but lost the part to Elena Verdugo. She returned to Paramount for a bit role in Lucky Jordan (1942) and found another small part in a Republic Pictures film, Youth on Parade (1942), which she later called a "dreadful ... bomb". After recovering from a bout of bronchial pneumonia, she went to Paramount Pictures and signed a six-month contract, possibly going up to seven years, starting at $60 a week.

For her first assignment as a Paramount player, De Carlo was loaned out to Monogram Pictures to play a Florentine Gardens dancer in Rhythm Parade, starring Nils Granlund (who had requested her for the role) and Gale Storm. She then appeared as an extra in Paramount's The Crystal Ball (1943), of which she wrote, "Only my left shoulder survived after editing". She asked director Sam Wood for a part in his next film, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), and he gave her a small role in the cantina scene with Gary Cooper.

De Carlo was also seen in Let's Face It (1943), So Proudly We Hail! (1943) and Salute for Three (1943), She kept busy in small roles and helping other actors shoot tests. "I was the test queen at Paramount", she said later. But she was ambitious and wanted more. "I'm not going to be just one of the girls", she said. Cecil B. DeMille, Paramount's most famous director, saw De Carlo in So Proudly We Hail! and arranged for a screen-test and interview for a part in his film The Story of Dr. Wassell (1943), and subsequently selected her for a key role. He ended up choosing Carol Thurston for the role of Tremartini and casting De Carlo in an uncredited part as a native girl, but he promised her another role in a future film.

Shortly after losing the role of Tremartini, De Carlo was loaned out to Republic Pictures to portray the Native American princess Wah-Tah in Deerslayer. It was her first featured role in a full-length film. At Paramount, she played unbilled bit roles in True to Life (1943) and Standing Room Only (1944), and also made a screen test for the role of Lola in Double Indemnity (1944). She was billed in a short, Fun Time (1944) and went to MGM to play an uncredited lady-in-waiting in Kismet (1944).

The New York Times later dubbed De Carlo "threat girl" for Dorothy Lamour "when Dotty wanted to break away from saronging." This had its origin when De Carlo was set to replace Dorothy Lamour in the lead of Rainbow Island (1944); however Lamour changed her mind about playing the role. De Carlo was given a bit part in the final movie.

De Carlo played further unbilled roles in Here Come the Waves (1944), Practically Yours (1944), and Bring on the Girls (1945). Paramount then decided not to renew her contract option but did renew Lamour's contract.

Later career

She was in debt by 1964 when she signed a contract with Universal Studios to perform the female lead role in The Munsters opposite Fred Gwynne. She was also the producers' choice to play Lily Munster when Joan Marshall, who played the character (originally called "Phoebe"), was dropped from consideration for the role. When De Carlo was asked how a glamorous actress could succeed as a ghoulish matriarch of a haunted house, she replied simply, "I follow the directions I received on the first day of shooting: 'Play her just like Donna Reed.'" She sang and played the harp in at least one episode ("Far Out Munsters") of The Munsters.

After the show's cancellation, she reprised her role as Lily Munster in the Technicolor film Munster, Go Home! (1966), partially in hopes of renewing interest in the sitcom. Despite the attempt, The Munsters was cancelled after 70 episodes. Of the sitcom and its cast and crew, she said: "It was a happy show with audience appeal for both children and adults. It was a happy show behind the scenes, too; we all enjoy working with each other." Years later, in 1987, she said: "I think Yvonne De Carlo was more famous than Lily, but I gained the younger audience through The Munsters. And it was a steady job."

After The Munsters, she guest-starred in "The Moulin Ruse Affair" in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1967) and "The Raiders" for Custer (1967) and episodes of The Virginian.

She starred in Hostile Guns (1967) and Arizona Bushwhackers (1968), a pair of low-budget westerns produced by A. C. Lyles and released by Paramount Pictures. During this time, she also had a supporting role in the 1968 thriller The Power.

After 1967, De Carlo 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 and she did a five-month tour in Hello Dolly. Later she toured in Cactus Flower.

De Carlo continued to appear in films such as The Delta Factor (1970) and had a notable part in Russ Meyer's The Seven Minutes (1971). The Los Angeles Times said about the latter that De Carlo featured in "an improbable sequence pulled off with verve by the still glamorous star."

Her defining stage role was as "Carlotta Campion" in Harold Prince's production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies in 1971–72. Playing a washed-up star at a reunion of old theater colleagues, she introduced the song "I'm Still Here". De Carlo said she was told the part was written especially for her.

In October 1972, De Carlo arrived in Australia to replace Cyd Charisse in Michael Edgley's production of No, No, Nanette. Her opening night was on November 6, 1972, at Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne. The show moved on to Adelaide, Sydney, and then to several New Zealand cities. It closed in the fall of 1973, and De Carlo returned to the United States.

In late 1973 and early 1974, she starred in a production of Ben Bagley's Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter in San Diego.

In May 1975, she starred in the San Bernardino Civic Light Opera's production of Applause at the California Theatre of the Performing Arts. The San Bernardino Sun described her performance as "brilliant" and wrote, "a packed house watched Yvonne De Carlo give a new dimension to Margo Channing, a part she was playing for the first time, but nonetheless, a part she was very well suited for."

De Carlo appeared in The Girl on the Late, Late Show (1974), The Mark of Zorro (1974), Arizona Slim (1974), The Intruder (1975), Blazing Stewardesses (1975), It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (1975), Black Fire (1975), and La casa de las sombras (1976).

She continued to appear on stage, notably in Dames at Sea, Barefoot in the Park and The Sound of Music.

She was seen on Satan's Cheerleaders (1977), Nocturna (1979), Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979), Fuego negro (1979), The Silent Scream (1979) and The Man with Bogart's Face (1980). She guest-starred on shows like Fantasy Island.

De Carlo was in The Munsters' Revenge (1981), then Liar's Moon (1982), Play Dead (1982), Vultures (1984), Flesh and Bullets (1985), and A Masterpiece of Murder (1986) (with Bob Hope). She was in a revival of The Munsters.

De Carlo's later films included American Gothic (1988), for which she won the Best Actress Award from International Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Show (Fantafestival); Cellar Dweller (1988); and Mirror Mirror (1990). She had a supporting role as the title character's Aunt Rosa in the Sylvester Stallone comedy Oscar (1991). Aunt Rosa is present when Oscar's father, played by Kirk Douglas, extracts "a deathbed promise" from his son. Of her role, De Carlo said, "Mine is a small part—but funny."

She appeared in Murder, She Wrote ("Jessica Behind Bars", 1985), The Naked Truth (1992), Seasons of the Heart (1993), and "Death of Some Salesmen" in Tales from the Crypt (1993). She had a small cameo role in Here Come the Munsters, a 1995 television film remake of The Munsters. De Carlo, along with Al Lewis, Pat Priest, and Butch Patrick, did not have to wear costumes "because the Munsters have several lives."

Her final performance was as Norma, "an eccentric Norma Desmond lookalike", in the 1995 television film The Barefoot Executive, a Disney Channel remake of the 1971 film of the same title. Norma, a former stand-in for film actors, "monkey-sits" the title character, a chimpanzee named Archie who is able to predict top-rated television series. "She has these outrageous costumes—six of them—and it's just a small part", De Carlo told Los Angeles Times. "But I like to do small things now."

In 2007, her son Bruce revealed that, before her death, she played supporting roles in two independent films that have yet to be released.

Source

Yvonne DeCarlo Awards
  • In 1946, Variety named her one of the three "top new Hollywood stars" of 1945, along with Lizabeth Scott and Lauren Bacall: "Miss de Carlo is definitely a personality. She has proved this in Universal's Salome, Where She Danced, and followed this appearance as star in [the] same company's Frontier Gal. She is a controversial figure, but she's managed to come out a star during discussions."
  • She was a medalist in Boxoffice Barometer's The All-American Screen Favorites of 1946 list.
  • She was a medalist in Boxoffice Barometer's The All-American Screen Favorites of 1947 list.
  • In 1947, Max Factor's chief hair stylist, Fred Fredericks, named her one of the 10 "best tressed" film actresses.
  • In 1950, the Camera Club of America voted her "Sexnicolor Queen of the Screen" "for putting more sex [appeal] into Technicolor than any other star."
  • In 1957, she won a Laurel Award for Topliner Supporting Actress for The Ten Commandments (1956).
  • In 1957, she received a BoxOffice Blue Ribbon Award for The Ten Commandments (1956).
  • In 1960, she was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The motion picture star is on the south side of the 6100 block of Hollywood Boulevard. The television star is on the north side of the 6700 block of Hollywood Boulevard.
  • In 1964, she received a second BoxOffice Blue Ribbon Award for McLintock! (1963).
  • In 1966, she was honored by the City of Niagara Falls, Canada, for "having created good will for her native country and given inspiration to others."
  • In 1966, she was named honorary mayor of North Hollywood, Los Angeles.
  • In 1987, she won the International Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Show (Fantafestival) Award for Best Actress for American Gothic.
  • In 2005, she was one of the 250 female Hollywood legends nominated for the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Stars list.
  • In 2007, she was nominated for the "Who Knew They Could Sing?" TV Land Award for The Munsters.