Leslie Parrish
Encyclopedia
Leslie Parrish is an American
actress. She worked under her birth name, Marjorie Hellen, until she changed it in 1959.
, and was a promising piano student at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. She discovered that by modeling she could earn more money than as a concert pianist. She came to New York City
in November 1953. Before modeling she worked as a waitress in a diner.
She joined the Home Theatre Group of professional performers who put on plays at a private theater in Hollywood
. Ruth Warrick
and Mark Herron
were also members. Parrish believed the experience of facing a live audience made her a better actress and more capable of transforming a scripted part into a three-dimensional human being.
Leslie Parrish appeared as a special guest on Perry Mason, episode 30 year 61?
in 1954, when she was 19. The studio gave her statistics as 5 feet 6 inches, with measurements of 35-24-34. Her hair is reddish gold, and she has gray eyes with a cream complexion. In May 1956, Parrish signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
.
Her two most significant roles are as lithe Daisy Mae in Li'l Abner (1959) and as the doomed Jocelyn Jordan in The Manchurian Candidate
(1962). In Portrait of a Mobster (1961) Parrish plays the wife of a detective who consorts with criminals. She is the daughter of a bootlegger who rebuffs the advances of Dutch Schultz
, played by Vic Morrow
. Eventually she becomes disillusioned with the corruption among the police force, and she leaves her husband to live with Schultz.
She made a number of films of the B-movie
and science fiction
genres. Among these are Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Three on a Couch (1966), The Money Jungle (1968), The Candy Man (1969), The Devil's 8 (1969), Brother, Cry For Me (1970), and The Giant Spider Invasion (1975).
-TV borrowed the studios of WPIX
every weekday morning. Parrish was employed by NBC as its 'human test pattern' in regard to color tones. She sat for hours on a stool in front of color cameras, while engineers adjusted the tints and the lighting, and worked with costumes in different tints. Parrish was seldom seen on WNBC
, Channel 4, since most of her color work was performed on closed-circuit television
.
Parrish was in an episode of the Kraft Suspense Theatre
"The Kamchatka Incident" (1964). She performed with John Forsythe
in a drama which concerned a U.S.-bound airplane's encounter with Russian fighter planes above Siberia
. She has made numerous television appearances, including a role in the Star Trek
episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?" (1967), in which Parrish plays Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas, who becomes the lust
object of the Greek god Apollo
. In the 1971 series Bearcats!, she played Liz Blake, an ex-love of lead character Hack Brackett, who is helped by him when her oil business is threatened by a series of mysterious fires.
In the TV series Logan's Run (1977), Parrish played the commander of an alien space ship on a Noah's Ark
-type mission to gather and study specimens of beings from planets in different solar systems.
She married Richard Bach
, the author
of
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
, in 1977, whom she met during the making of the movie of the same name. She was a major element in two of his subsequent books—The Bridge Across Forever and One—which primarily focused on their relationship and Bach's concept of soulmate
s. They divorced in 1999.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress. She worked under her birth name, Marjorie Hellen, until she changed it in 1959.
Education
Parrish was born in Upper Black Eddy, PennsylvaniaUpper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania
The village of Upper Black Eddy aka "UBE" is located in northern Bucks County, Pennsylvania who have second homes here due to the early american 18th and 19th century charm, rural character of the area and short distance from the "City" located only 58 miles to the east.Upper Black Eddy...
, and was a promising piano student at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. She discovered that by modeling she could earn more money than as a concert pianist. She came to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in November 1953. Before modeling she worked as a waitress in a diner.
She joined the Home Theatre Group of professional performers who put on plays at a private theater in Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
. Ruth Warrick
Ruth Warrick
Ruth Elizabeth Warrick , DM, was an American singer, actress and political activist, best known for her role as Phoebe Tyler on All My Children, which she played regularly from 1970 until her death in 2005....
and Mark Herron
Mark Herron
Mark Herron was an American actor best known as the fourth husband of singer and actress Judy Garland. He appeared in films such as Federico Fellini's 8½ and Eye of the Cat....
were also members. Parrish believed the experience of facing a live audience made her a better actress and more capable of transforming a scripted part into a three-dimensional human being.
Leslie Parrish appeared as a special guest on Perry Mason, episode 30 year 61?
Movie Actress
Parrish signed with 20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
in 1954, when she was 19. The studio gave her statistics as 5 feet 6 inches, with measurements of 35-24-34. Her hair is reddish gold, and she has gray eyes with a cream complexion. In May 1956, Parrish signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
.
Her two most significant roles are as lithe Daisy Mae in Li'l Abner (1959) and as the doomed Jocelyn Jordan in The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)
The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver...
(1962). In Portrait of a Mobster (1961) Parrish plays the wife of a detective who consorts with criminals. She is the daughter of a bootlegger who rebuffs the advances of Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...
, played by Vic Morrow
Vic Morrow
Victor "Vic" Morrow was an American actor whose credits include a starring role in the 1960s TV series Combat!, prominent roles in a handful of other television and cinema dramas, and numerous guest roles on television...
. Eventually she becomes disillusioned with the corruption among the police force, and she leaves her husband to live with Schultz.
She made a number of films of the B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
genres. Among these are Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Three on a Couch (1966), The Money Jungle (1968), The Candy Man (1969), The Devil's 8 (1969), Brother, Cry For Me (1970), and The Giant Spider Invasion (1975).
Television
In 1954, NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
-TV borrowed the studios of WPIX
WPIX
WPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
every weekday morning. Parrish was employed by NBC as its 'human test pattern' in regard to color tones. She sat for hours on a stool in front of color cameras, while engineers adjusted the tints and the lighting, and worked with costumes in different tints. Parrish was seldom seen on WNBC
WNBC
WNBC, virtual channel 4 , is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan...
, Channel 4, since most of her color work was performed on closed-circuit television
Closed-circuit television
Closed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....
.
Parrish was in an episode of the Kraft Suspense Theatre
Kraft Suspense Theatre
Kraft Suspense Theatre, an anthology series, was telecast from 1963 to 1965 on NBC. Sponsored by Kraft Foods, it was seen three weeks out of every four and was pre-empted for Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall specials once monthly...
"The Kamchatka Incident" (1964). She performed with John Forsythe
John Forsythe
John Forsythe was an American stage, television and film actor. Forsythe starred in three television series, spanning four decades and three genres: as single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the sitcom Bachelor Father ; as the unseen millionaire Charles Townsend on the crime drama Charlie's...
in a drama which concerned a U.S.-bound airplane's encounter with Russian fighter planes above Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. She has made numerous television appearances, including a role in the Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?" (1967), in which Parrish plays Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas, who becomes the lust
Lust
Lust is an emotional force that is directly associated with the thinking or fantasizing about one's desire, usually in a sexual way.-Etymology:The word lust is phonetically similar to the ancient Roman lustrum, which literally meant "purification"...
object of the Greek god Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
. In the 1971 series Bearcats!, she played Liz Blake, an ex-love of lead character Hack Brackett, who is helped by him when her oil business is threatened by a series of mysterious fires.
In the TV series Logan's Run (1977), Parrish played the commander of an alien space ship on a Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
-type mission to gather and study specimens of beings from planets in different solar systems.
Marriages
Parrish married Eric Marlow in 1956 and divorced him in May 1961.She married Richard Bach
Richard Bach
Richard David Bach is an American writer. He is widely known as the author of the hugely popular 1970s best-sellers Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, and others. His books espouse his philosophy that our apparent physical limits and mortality are merely...
, the author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach, is a fable in novella form about a seagull learning about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection...
, in 1977, whom she met during the making of the movie of the same name. She was a major element in two of his subsequent books—The Bridge Across Forever and One—which primarily focused on their relationship and Bach's concept of soulmate
Soulmate
A soulmate is believed by some to be the person with whom one has a feeling of deep or natural affinity, similarity, love, intimacy, sexuality, spirituality, or compatibility. A related concept is that of the twin flame or twin soul, which is thought to be the ultimate soulmate...
s. They divorced in 1999.
Partial filmography
- Missile to the MoonMissile to the MoonMissile to the Moon is a 1958 black-and-white science fiction film directed by Richard E. Cunha, and is a remake of the 1953 film Cat-Women of the Moon.-Plot:...
(1958) - Li'l Abner (1959)
- The Manchurian CandidateThe Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver...
(1962) - For Love or MoneyFor Love or Money (1963 film)For Love or Money is a 1963 romantic comedy film starring Kirk Douglas, Mitzi Gaynor and Thelma Ritter.-Plot summary:Lawyer Donald Kenneth "Deke" Gentry is given the task of playing matchmaker for the three daughters of his wealthy client Chloe Brasher .-Cast:* Kirk Douglas as Donald Kenneth...
(1963) - Sex and the Single GirlSex and the Single GirlSex and the Single Girl was written in 1962 by Helen Gurley Brown, as an advice book that encouraged women to become financially independent and experience sexual relationships before or without marriage...
(with Natalie Wood) (1964) - The Giant Spider InvasionThe Giant Spider InvasionThe Giant Spider Invasion is a low-budget 1975 film produced by Transcentury Pictures, a partnership owned by the film's director Bill Rebane. The film is about giant spiders that terrorize the town of Merrill, Wisconsin and the surrounding area. The Giant Spider Invasion was given a U.S. release...
(1975) - Invisible StranglerInvisible StranglerInvisible Strangler is a 1976 American film directed by John Florea.The film is also known as The Astral Fiend .- Plot summary :...
(1976)
Selected TV appearances
- 1960 Bat MastersonBat Masterson (TV series)Bat Masterson is an American Western television series which showed a fictionalized account of the life of real-life marshal/gambler/dandy Bat Masterson. The title character was played by Gene Barry and the half-hour black and white shows ran on NBC from 1958 to 1961...
(1958) playing "Lucy Carter" in episode: "The Elusive Baguette" (episode # 2.34) 2 June - 1965 The Wild Wild WestThe Wild Wild WestThe Wild Wild West is an American television series that ran on CBS for four seasons from September 17, 1965 to April 4, 1969....
(1965) playing "Greta Lundquist" in episode: "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth" (episode # 1.3) 1 October - 1966 BatmanBatman (TV series)Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
(1966/II) playing "Dawn Robbins" in episode: "Fine Feathered Finks" (episode # 1.3) 19 January - 1966 BatmanBatman (TV series)Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
(1966/II) playing "Dawn Robbins" in episode: "The Penguin's a Jinx" (episode # 1.4) 20 January - 1966 The Wild Wild WestThe Wild Wild WestThe Wild Wild West is an American television series that ran on CBS for four seasons from September 17, 1965 to April 4, 1969....
(1965) playing "Morn" in episode: "The Night of the Flying Pie Plate" (episode # 2.6) 21 October - 1967 BatmanBatman (TV series)Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
(1966/II) playing "Glacia Glaze" in episode: "Ice Spy" (episode # 2.59) 29 March - 1967 BatmanBatman (TV series)Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
(1966/II) playing "Glacia Glaze" in episode: "The Duo Defy" (episode # 2.60) 30 March - 1967 Star TrekStar Trek: The Original SeriesStar Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
(1966) playing "Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas" in episode: "Who Mourns for Adonais?" (episode # 2.2) 22 September - 1967 The Man from U.N.C.L.E.The Man from U.N.C.L.E.The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...
(1964) playing "Leslie Welling" in episode: "The Master's Touch Affair" (episode # 4.6) 16 October - 1968 The Big ValleyThe Big ValleyThe Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman...
(1968) playing Layle Johnson in episode "Bounty on a Barkley" (Episode #230 Season 3), Aired: 26 February 1968 - 1968 MannixMannixMannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors...
(1968) playing Linda Marley in episode "The Girl In The Frame" (Episode #24 Season 1), Aired: 16 March 1968 - 1971 Hogan's HeroesHogan's HeroesHogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E...
playing "Karen" in episode: "Kommandant Gertrude" - 1971 Bearcats! playing Liz Blake in episode: "Blood Knot" (Episode 7), Aired: on 4 November
- 1972 Adam 12 playing Sharon Blake in episode: "Gifts and Long Letters" (Episode 12, Season 5), aired on 20 September 1972
- 1974 McCloud (1970) playing "Lynne O'Connell" in episode: "The Gang That Stole Manhattan" (episode # 5.2) 13 October