Leslie Parrish
| Leslie Parrish | |
|---|---|
Leslie Parrish (circa 1962)
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| Born |
Marjorie Hellen March 18, 1935 Melrose, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, Activist, Writer, Producer |
| Years active | 1955-1978 |
| Spouse(s) |
Ric Marlow (1955–1961; divorced) Richard Bach (1977–1999; divorced) |
| Website | www |
Leslie Parrish (born March 18, 1935) is an American actress who worked under her birth name, Marjorie Hellen, until she changed it in 1959. She is also an activist, an environmentalist, a writer, and a producer.
As a child, Parrish lived in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. At the age of 10, she finally settled in Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania. At the age of 14, Parrish was a talented and promising piano and composition student at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. At the age of 16, Parrish earned money for her tuition by working as a maid and a waitress, and by teaching piano. At the age of 18, to earn enough money to be able to continue her education at the Conservatory, her mother convinced her to become a model for one year, so that she could continue her studies.
In April 1954, as a 19-year-old model with the Conover Agency in New York City, she was under contract to NBC-TV as "Miss Color TV" (she was used during broadcasts as a human test pattern to check accuracy of skin tones). She was quickly discovered and signed with Twentieth Century Fox in Hollywood. In 1956, she was put under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Because acting allowed her to help her family financially, she remained in Hollywood and gave up her career in music.
Parrish co-starred/guest-starred in numerous films and television shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She first gained wide attention in her first starring role as Daisy Mae in the 1959 movie version of Li'l Abner, where she changed her name from Marjorie Hellen to Leslie Parrish at the director's request. In 1962 she appeared in the classic film The Manchurian Candidate, playing Laurence Harvey's on screen wife, Jocelyn Jordan. Other film credits include starring opposite Kirk Douglas in For Love or Money (1963) and Jerry Lewis in Three on a Couch (1966), among others.
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