Back in the day, there were many skilled and gorgeous actresses, and the stunning Yvonne De Carlo was unquestionably one of them.
She rose to prominence as the leader of the CBS comedy The Munsters, only to have her career cut short by a sad tragedy.
The famous actress Yvonne De Carlo was beautiful and skilled, and she had a six-decade-long career in movies. She was born in 1922 and is unquestionably one of the most notable personalities to have emerged from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
De Carlo’s father abandoned her when she was a young child. She was raised in poverty by her mother, but she always knew she wanted to be an actor, and as a 13-year-old, De Carlo wrote her own plays.
Throughout her tenure in Hollywood, the blue-eyed brunette showed herself to be the real deal, capable of doing it all. It wasn’t simply her stunning beauty; De Carlo appeared to be a really down-to-earth person as well.
Her work in film and television demonstrates her character strength and tenacity. She played Moses’ wife in the epic film The Ten Commandments, among other things, but she is most recognized for her appearance on the television sitcom The Munsters.
No one could have played Lily Munster’s role as a vampire better than De Carlo, who was spot-on in the horror sitcom. Several of us may still recall Lily, the matriarch of the monster family, saying, “I’ve never heard of anything so outlandish in all my life!”
Yvonne De Carlo became a TV star because of the show. The role she played made her career, and she got a whole new audience. It may even be said that The Munsters revitalized De Carlos’ career. Even before the show, she had a successful career in Hollywood, where she was frequently referred to as “the most beautiful girl in the world,” and the crowd adored her.
But De Carlo’s star power had begun to wane around the time she was cast in the monster sitcom. When she was given the part of Lily, the Canadian-American actress was 42 years old. And no one could have predicted that The Munsters would go down in history as one of the finest television shows of all time.
“That signified security,” De Carlo explained afterward. “That offered me a fresh, young audience I wouldn’t have had otherwise. That made me ‘hot,’ something I hadn’t been in a long time.”
“But I had no idea it would become such a cult phenomenon.” It took two hours of makeup to make me seem that way. It went on for two tremendous seasons before CBS fought with the producers about repeats and we were canceled. In 1966, a color film [‘Munster, Go Home!’] displayed everything in reds and greens on my face. “Wow, I was hideous.”
De Carlo continued to perform in TV shows and on stage after The Munsters. She had followers from every generation and had no trouble obtaining fresh and interesting jobs as one of the most acclaimed actresses in the business.
Regrettably, De Carlo had a difficult time in the latter years of her life. It all started in 1955, when the actress met stuntman Robert “Bob” Morgan on site.
The two clearly had chemistry, but Morgan was married at the time, and Yvonne refused to pursue things further. She stated that she had “no intention of causing that marriage to fail.”
Her spouse had a leg amputated.
Morgan and De Carlo reconnected on the set of The Ten Commandments in Egypt after Morgan’s wife died. They fell in love, married, and had two boys, Bruce Ross and Michael, together.
But living with a stuntman and daredevil has a cost.
Morgan’s leg was amputated as a result of the accident. He nearly perished while doing the trick, and the terrible incident would have an impact on the entire family. Medical costs piled up after the event, and De Carlo worked exceedingly hard to maintain her family. Yvonne, who had essentially retired from acting by that time, had to return to work in order to pay her bills.
“Before the accident, we were on the edge of breaking up, but when they rushed me to the hospital, I simply cried up, and just one thought flooded my mind: I don’t want my husband to die,” she added.
The Hollywood pair were married until 1973.
Unfortunately, De Carlo would have to confront unspeakable sorrow once more. Her son Michael died in 1997 at the age of 39. According to his brother, Michael died of brain damage following a stroke.
The death of De Carlo’s son devastated her. She finished her last picture in 1995 and never worked in the entertainment industry again after her son died. In 1998, she suffered a mild stroke.
According to her second son, Bob Ross, the stroke was caused by De Carlo’s stress and sadness at Michael’s death.
“That basically preyed on her mind to the point where she had a stroke the following year,” said James Bawden, a former Toronto Star TV journalist.
“All she spoke about was her son.”
Cause of death for Yvonne De Carlo
Yvonne De Carlo died in January 2007 at the age of 84. She spent her latter years in a semi-retirement facility near Solvang, north of Santa Barbara.
Heart failure was the cause of her death.
“I believe she will be remembered most for being the ultimate Lily Munster. She was millions of baby boomers’ vampire mother. “She’s iconic in that way,” her longtime friend and television producer Kevin Burns noted at the time.
“Yet, it would be a pity if that is the only way she is remembered.” She was also one of the most famous beauty queens of the 1940s and 1950s and one of the world’s most attractive women. This was one of Hollywood’s great glamour queens, and one of the last.”
Yvonne De Carlo is a true legend! She embodies what acting is all about and is constantly reinventing herself.
She was always on top of her game and depicted her character in the most graceful and realistic way, no matter what part she played. Peace be with you!