BIRTH: September 1, 1922
DEATH: January 8, 2007
AGED: 84 yrs
DIED FROM: Heart Failure
REAL NAME: Margaret Yvonne Middleton
NICKNAME: Peggy
MARRIED: Once to stuntman, Bob Morgan
CHILDREN: 2 sons and 1 step-daughter
AFFAIRS: gets ready…Billy Wilder, Howard Hughes, Robert Stack, Burt Lancaster, Prince Abdul Reza Pahlavi, Howard Duff, Jock Mahoney, Cornel Lucas, Robert Urquhart. She was engaged to Jock, Howard, Cornel and Robert.
TALENT: Singer, dancer and could ply numerous instruments like the harp.
KNOWN FOR: was coined by producer Walter Wanger, the Most Beautiful girl in the world which started her career in Hollywood. TV Icon, Lily Munster from the TV Show, “The MUnsters”.
This Canadian girl wanted to become famous and so did her mother who made sure she took singing and dancing lessons. They headed off to Hollywood with Yvonne’s new name. Along with Maria Montez, Maureen O’Hara, and Rhonda Fleming , was known as the queen of technicolor. She had numerous affairs and became engaged to a few of them but they either got cold feet, had other gals on the side or were alcoholics. She married and it was good until he suffered a bad accident on the set of “ How The West Was Won” and had to have his leg amputated. Due to a clause in the studio contract, they didn’t have to pay for his treatment so it fell on Yvonne to try to work. They were in a bad way financially when John Wayne heard about her financial problem so she hired her on as a co-star for his film, “McLintock” which really helped her out. A year later she was cast as Lily Munster in the fun family tv sitcom called , “The Munsters”. This really saved her bacon and she played this character in later tv films. She had 2 huge fans in Eva Peron and Sophia Loren who said she saw all her films. Sadly, her son, Michael, died in 1997 from a brain hemorrhage and she was, obviously, devastated. Her mom died that same year and Yvonne suffered a small stroke, brought on by the sadness she endured the previous year. In the last few years of her life she was in the Motion Picture Home for actors and actresses where she passed away. No matter what, she lived quite the life!
FILMS
1. Salome, Where She Dances-1945
2. Song of Scherazade-1947
3. Brute Force-1947
4. Criss Cross-1949
5. Scarlet Angel-1952
6. Fort Algiers-1953
7. Happy Ever After-1954
8. The Ten Commandments-1956
9. McLintock-1963
10. Munsters, Go Home!
Beautiful blog
ReplyDeleteShe was Lily Munster!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beauty....
ReplyDeleteHi Birgit!
ReplyDeleteMarvelous choice for the month!!! Love Yvonne and think she is much underrated, though that can often be laid at the feet of the vehicles the studio cast her in. Fun but hardly demanding movies that did not require great thesping. However, the few times she did get a chance she showed herself quite capable (she was much like Virginia Mayo in that respect).
I've seen a lot of her films from her prime period and have avoided many from her later years where she was taking what came along in mostly low budget junk like American Gothic and Blazing Stewardesses and will continue to do so! I had heard about her husband and the way the studio screwed them over when he was hurt. Awful, nowadays they would be able to sue and get some recompense and had it happened during the golden days of the studios he probably would have been taken care of, but it happened during all the upheaval of the 60's.
Don't know if I can produce a top ten, but I will try, since outside of maybe her top 5 or 6 films her movies all hewed to similar plot points geared more to spotlight her incredible beauty than her acting.
Her absolute peak was the 1949 noir Criss Cross with Burt Lancaster. It asked the most of her and she acquits herself admirably.
Next would be The Ten Commandments where I think she gives the most understated performance in the entire film. A quiet center in a swirl of overacting (though I find the overacting immensely entertaining!)
After that:
McClintock! -which took advantage of her gift for comedy.
The Captain's Paradise
Death of a Scoundrel
Frontier Gal
Sea Devils
Tomahawk
Passion
Scarlet Angel
She certainly had her challenges, didn't she?
ReplyDeleteSandra sandracox.blogspot.com
That was quite the list of affairs. It's probably for the best that she didn't marry any of the alcoholics.
ReplyDelete