Lily Munster Dead At 84.

Yvonne De carlo died this week at the age of 84. She was living near our house in Woodland Hills at a rather odd assisted living facility. It is managed and funded by the union that binds all actors/actresses, and looks after them when they are too old to look after themselves. It's a nice place, really, and a very comforting place for those who used to bask in the glow of Hollywood's heydey.
Yvonne De Carlo was born Peggy Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, Canada (eh). Born Sept 1st, 1922, she missed that whole "free-ride" thing the kids love so much in Vancouver today. Her father abandoned the family when she was three, and her mother pushed her into acting classes. She moved to Los Angeles and won the title of "Ms. Venice Beach" in 1938. She married a stuntman who was almost killed on the set of "How The West Was Won," and was forced out of semi-retirement to pay the medical bills. The job? Lilly Munster, wife of Herman Munster (Fred Gwynn).
Although she had been in numerous successful films, her role as Lilly was the most revered. Yvonne was in films like "The Ten Commandments," "The Deerslayer," Brute Force," "Salome Where She Danced," "Frontier Gal," and many more. Lily she would later admit was a role she never expected to gain anything from!
Ms. De Carlo divorced her husband eventually and lived in SOLVANG, CA (my fave place to road ride, especially from the Union Hotel in Los Alamos!) up until 2000. She then moved to the home in Woodland Hills, where she passed away this week at 84.

What does this have to do with cycling? Nothing really. I grew up glued to the T.V. watching the Munsters, and I was sad when Fred Gwynn died a few years ago. For some reason, Ms. De Carlo's passing has affected me more. Never knew her pesonally, only the way millions of other Americans did, through the black and white T.V. screen as she took "Spike" the pet dragon for a walk. Miss ya' Yvonne, hope all is as it should be up there...

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Yvonne De Carlo as Lily Munster, her most famous and accidental role.