{"id":5807,"date":"2026-08-23T15:05:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T15:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5807"},"modified":"2026-08-23T15:05:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T15:05:41","slug":"leslie-parrish-actress-in-lil-abner-and-the-manchurian-candidate-dies-at-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5807","title":{"rendered":"Leslie Parrish, Actress in \u2018Li\u2019l Abner\u2019 and \u2018The Manchurian Candidate,\u2019 Dies at 90"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tLeslie Parrish, who starred as the hopelessly in love Daisy Mae in the Paramount Pictures musical Li\u2019l Abner\u00a0<\/em>and sported a Queen of Diamonds costume for The Manchurian Candidate<\/em>, has died. She was 90.<\/p>\n

Read more Bunny Levine, Librarian Turned Actress in \u2018Gilmore Girls,\u2019 Thelma\u2019 and \u2018You Don\u2019t Mess With the Zohan,\u2019 Dies at 97<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tParrish lived in Washington state and died late last year, Erica Berdan, a daughter of the actress\u2019 second husband, Jonathan Livingston Seagull<\/em> author Richard Bach, told The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>. THR<\/em> only recently learned of her death.<\/p>\n

\n\tParrish also starred opposite Vic Morrow (as Dutch Schultz) in Portrait of a Mobster<\/em> (1961); was\u00a0one of Thelma Ritter\u2019s daughters (Mitzi Gaynor and Julie Newmar were the others) in For Love or Money<\/em> (1963), starring Kirk Douglas; and played a Janet Leigh patient who dated Jerry Lewis in Three on a Couch<\/em> (1966).<\/p>\n

\n\tIn two memorable guest-starring turns on television in 1967, she portrayed USS Enterprise archaeology and anthropology officer Carolyn Palamas on the Star Trek<\/em> episode \u201cWho Mourns for Adonais?\u201d and was Glacia Glaze, a lovely ice skater and henchwoman in cahoots with Mr. Freeze (Eli Wallach), on Batman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Edie Adams starred as Daisy Mae in a Tony-winning turn in the hit Broadway musical comedy based on the Al Capp comic strip, Parrish donned the polka-dot blouse and headed to Dogpatch, USA to star in the 1959 movie version of Li\u2019l Abner<\/em> opposite Peter Palmer. (Bosley Crowther in his New York Times<\/em> review said Parrish \u201cfills [the part] out generously.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tPalmer had played the hillbilly title role in New York, and several others also joined him in the move to Hollywood, including Newmar as Stupefyin\u2019 Jones, Stubby Kaye as Marryin\u2019 Sam and Melvin Frank, who co-wrote the play\u2019s book, as the movie\u2019s director.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn John Frankenheimer\u2019s taut\u00a0The Manchurian<\/em> Candidate (1962), Parrish portrayed Jocelyn Jordan, the doomed daughter of a liberal senator (John McGiver), and her costume worn at a party winds up \u201cactivating\u201d her boyfriend, sleeper agent Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey). She said it was her favorite role.<\/p>\n

\n\tLater, Parrish served as an associate producer on Jonathan Livingston Seagull<\/em> (1973), hiring crewmembers \u2014 including cinematographer Jack Couffer, an eventual Oscar nominee \u2014 and taking care of birds in a room at a Holiday Inn. However, she received credit only as a \u201cresearcher\u201d after a reported tiff with writer-director Hall Bartlett.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1981, she married Bach, the spiritual author of the best-selling novella on which the movie was based. She served as his inspiration for two subsequent books, The Bridge Across Forever<\/em> and One<\/em>, before they divorced in 1999.<\/p>\n

\n\tParrish was born Marjorie Hellen on March 18, 1935, in Melrose, Massachusetts. Raised in Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania, she studied piano before moving to New York in 1953. She then got a job as a model for the Conover Agency and sat for hours in front of NBC technicians working on a new-fangled invention, color TV.<\/p>\n

\n\tSigned by Fox in 1954, she appeared in 1955 films including A Man Called Peter<\/em>, Fred Astaire\u2018s Daddy Long Legs<\/em> and The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing<\/em> before moving to MGM and gigs in The Opposite Sex <\/em>(1956) and Man on Fire<\/em> (1957).<\/p>\n

Read more Mark Ruffalo Rejects Paramount\u2019s Claim His Anti-Merger Comments Were \u201cAntisemitic\u201d: \u201cMy Views Should Never Be Interpreted as Hostility Toward Jewish People\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tShe was billed as Leslie Parrish for the first time on Li\u2019l Abner<\/em> after Frank told her that \u201cno one will remember a girl with two first names.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actress kept busy in the \u201960s as she appeared on TV on such programs as Bat Masterson<\/em>, Acapulco<\/em>, 77 Sunset Strip<\/em>, Perry Mason<\/em>, The Red Skelton Hour, The Wild Wild West<\/em>, The Big Valley<\/em> and Mannix<\/em> and films including Sex and the Single Girl<\/em> (1964), The Money Jungle<\/em> (1967), The Candy Man<\/em> (1969) and The Devil\u2019s 8<\/em> (1969).<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Parrish was becoming a fervent antiwar activist. On June 23, 1967, after leaving the set of Star Trek<\/em>, she and thousands of other demonstrators participated in a peace march in Century City with President Johnson in town for a Democratic Party fundraiser. More than 50 people were arrested and many more injured in a clash with police.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAn actress deals in emotions and therefore should be aware of the anguish and suffering going on around her,\u201d she said in 1968.<\/p>\n

\nA biography on her website notes she also helped create an organization called STOP! (Speakers and Talent Organized for Peace); produced rock concerts and other events to raise money for the peace movement; protested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago; campaigned for Tom Bradley in his first two runs for Los Angeles mayor in 1969 and \u201973; and was instrumental in the launch of KVST-TV, an L.A. forerunner of C-SPAN that was briefly on the air in the \u201970s.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe also was married to singer\/lyricist Ric Marlow (\u201cA Taste of Honey\u201d) from 1955-61.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1981, Bach declared bankruptcy and relinquished rights to royalties from his books to the government, but Parrish gathered \u201cevery penny she had,\u201d she told People<\/em> magazine in 1992, and bought back his copyrights.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair also donated conservation easements in a series of transactions over the years that now protect 168 acres of forest land and wildlife habitat in Washington on the Spring Hill Wildlife Sanctuary on Orcas Island\u2019s Mount Woolard. (The sanctuary has acknowledged her death.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true and one of the best things I\u2019ve done in my life,\u201d she said of her donation. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to have children to enjoy the idea of preserving land for future generations. It\u2019s what I\u2019m most proud of, and it will surely, more than any other work I\u2019ve ever done, be the accomplishment that outlasts me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Spa Weekend\u2019 Review: Leslie Mann and Isla Fisher Go Underserved in a Lukewarm Bath of a Comedy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leslie Parrish, who was Daisy Mae in the Paramount musical Li'l Abner\u00a0and wore a Queen of Diamonds outfit in The Manchurian Candidate, has died at 90.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2296,39,1220],"class_list":["post-5807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-fred-astaire","tag-obituaries","tag-star-trek"],"yoast_head":"\nLeslie Parrish, Actress in \u2018Li\u2019l Abner\u2019 and \u2018The Manchurian Candidate,\u2019 Dies at 90 - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5807\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leslie Parrish, Actress in \u2018Li\u2019l Abner\u2019 and \u2018The Manchurian Candidate,\u2019 Dies at 90 - 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