Yvonne De Carlo | |
|---|---|
 Yvonne De Carlo c. 1955 | |
| Born | Margaret Yvonne Middleton September 1, 1922 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Died | January 8, 2007 (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1939–1995 |
| Notable work | Sephora in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956) |
| Television | The Munsters (1964–1966) |
| Spouse |
Robert Drew Morgan
(m. 1955; div. 1973) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | 1957 Laurel Award for Topliner Supporting Actress for The Ten Commandments (1956) |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Labels | |
Margaret Yvonne Middleton (September 1, 1922 – January 8, 2007), known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Hollywood film star in the 1940s and 1950s, made several recordings, and later acted on television and stage.
De Carlo was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and was enrolled in a local dance school by her mother when she was three. By the early 1940s, she and her mother had moved to Los Angeles, where De Carlo entered beauty contests and worked as a dancer in nightclubs. In 1942, she signed a three-year contract with Paramount Pictures, where she got uncredited bit parts in important films. Her first lead was for producer E. B. Derr in the 1943 James Fenimore Cooper adventure Deerslayer.
She obtained her breakthrough role in Salome, Where She Danced (1945), a Universal Pictures release produced by Walter Wanger, who described her as "the most beautiful girl in the world."[1][2][3] The film's publicity and success turned her into a star, and she signed a five-year contract with Universal. Universal starred her in its lavish Technicolor productions, such as Frontier Gal (1945), Song of Scheherazade (1947), and Slave Girl (1947). Cameramen voted her "Queen of Technicolor" three years in a row.[4] Tired of being typecast as exotic women, she made her first serious dramatic performances in two film noirs, Brute Force (1947) and Criss Cross (1949).
The first American film star to visit Israel, De Carlo received further recognition as an actress for her leading performances in the British comedies Hotel Sahara (1951), The Captain's Paradise (1953), and Happy Ever After (1954). Her career reached its peak when eminent producer-director Cecil B. DeMille cast her as Moses' Midianite wife, Sephora in his biblical epic The Ten Commandments (1956).[5] For this role, she won a Laurel Award for Topliner Supporting Actress.[6] Her success continued with other notable starring roles in Flame of the Islands (1956), Death of a Scoundrel (1956), Band of Angels (1957), and The Sword and the Cross (1958), in which she portrayed Mary Magdalene.
She starred in the CBS sitcom The Munsters (1964–1966),[7] playing Herman Munster's glamorous ghoulish wife, Lily, a role she reprised in the feature film Munster, Go Home! (1966) and the TV film The Munsters' Revenge (1981). In 1971, she played Carlotta Campion and introduced the popular song "I'm Still Here" in the Broadway production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies. Yvonne, her best-selling autobiography, was published in 1987. A stroke survivor, De Carlo died of heart failure in 2007. She was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to motion pictures and television.
- ^ ""Most Beautiful Girl" Discovered". Spokane Daily Chronicle. September 18, 1944. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
- ^ Cohen, Harold V. (May 7, 1945). ""Salome, Where She Danced" Comes to Harris". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
- ^ "Yvonne De Carlo Chosen for Role Over '20,000 Beautiful Girls'". Montreal Gazette. July 25, 1945. Archived from the original on March 18, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
- ^ Willett, Bob (November 13, 1954). "Slave Girl Wants Freedom: Tired of playing exotic sirens, Canada's lovely Yvonne De Carlo seeks more serious film roles". Ottawa Citizen. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
- ^ Jacob Sparks, Karen (2008). Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. p. 123. ISBN 9781593394257. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ "1956–1957 Laurel Award Winners". Motion Picture Exhibitor. 58 (18): SS-48. August 28, 1957. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
- ^ "Yvonne De Carlo Is The Mama In a Nice Monster Family". St. Petersburg Times. June 23, 1964. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved April 9, 2014.