“Elvis was great, but what's a shame is that all the time we would sit together chatting in directors' chairs between the scenes, I never did ask him for an autograph or to sign my script!” she said, laughing. Previously starring in “Car 54, Where Are You?" “She came up with the idea for me to perform a pantomime to a comic record while the performers set up.”. Is a member of Delta Zeta sorority, Alpha Chi chapter. Born in Bountiful, Utah, in 1936, Pat Priest would go on to find fame as television character Marilyn Munster in one of the wackiest TV sitcoms of the '60s. (You might still see her signature on some old paper money!) Queen of the Norfolk (Virginia) Azalea Pageant in 1954.
Leslie Neilsen was poker-faced brilliant, the supporting cast good (including Mission: Impossible’s Peter Lupus) and the show lasted a mere 6 episodes, one those bizarre instances of being ahead of it’s time. “Occasionally, there was a show built around me, but I usually didn’t have a lot of lines and I just accepted that,” she said. This led to a few local TV commercials and she soon began getting guest shots on TV shows. There she acquired an agent and appeared in commercials and small television roles. They just push aside the old valve, replace it with a new one, and your body absorbs the old one. Forgive me for using some “Mormon” terms. Little did I realize that it was just beginning.”. If you know a member of our church, you know that we’re just like other folks. There are some other female Mormon celebrities, but since you asked about actresses, that’s what I gave. As of July 2010 was an antique dealer, along with her sister, at a shop in Boise, ID. “On a positive note, I could learn my three or four lines on the freeway on my way to the studio!”. “In November, I've got to have my aortic valve replaced using the TAVR procedure – Trans Aortic Valve Replacement,” she said. “They played off one another so beautifully, were best friends, and their families were all very close,” she said. So I look back on my acting career as a wonderful experience, something I will never forget.”. In May 2001 she was diagnosed with lymphoma, but she was undergoing treatment to contain the disease. “I was in the middle of my junior year in high school and as far as I was concerned my life was over. Pat was 23. Pat Priest Easy Come, Easy Go, 1967. It should be just a local anesthetic, an overnight hospital stay, and I’ll be home. All rights reserved. Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery and has written features, columns, and interviews for over 750 newspapers and magazines. She and then-husband Pierce Andrew Jensen Jr. welcomed their second child - son Pierce Andrew III - on July 10, 1960. Priest came from a Mormon family and credits her mother for being such an inspiration to her in terms of her acting career. Soon, she began receiving offers to perform her skits at Lions Club and Rotary Club events. As of September 2001 she was living in Hailey, ID, where she restores and resells houses. After moving to Washington, Priest worked on local TV and, after marrying, moved to the West Coast when her naval husband was transferred. “My first day on the set the two of us were in a scene together and the director asked me to move forward into the light. It’s with that optimism Priest faces an upcoming health challenge. “But interestingly, while the rest of us would later meet at TV conventions and autograph shows, Fred didn't want anything to do with 'The Munsters.' © 2020 www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com. Pat discovered, however, that she had inherited her mother's interest in show business rather than politics, and after an appearance on "Art Lamb in Washington", she left the Washington social scene and made her way to California. Priest stayed with the series until its cancellation in 1966. Selected as one of the Capitol's "Ten Most Beautiful Women" while living in Washington, D.C. with her mother, United States Treasurer Ivy Baker Priest, whose signature appeared on United States currency from 1953-1961. “My (second) husband said he wished he’d known me then because we would have that car up on blocks in a storage unit today!”. MORE:   Bela Lugosi Jr. recalls growing up with ‘Dracula’ in his blood, MORE:   TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz headed back to sea with 'family'. Guest Column. This would eventually spawn many TV and film credits such as her time on The Munsters from 1964 to 1966. Full Name: Patricia Ann Priest “She was a major movie star from the '40s and '50s,” explained Priest. In November 2000, she was a guest at the Asheville Film Festival (now called the Western North Carolina Film Festival) in Asheville, North Carolina, along with Pamela Sue Martin, Julie Parrish, Elizabeth MacRae, James Whitmore, Soupy Sales, Rhodes Reason, Noreen Nash and Peggy Moran. While Priest’s role in "The Munsters" was often small, she has always been upbeat about the experience. Bela Lugosi Jr. recalls growing up with ‘Dracula’ in his blood, TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz headed back to sea with 'family', Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Famous Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She and then-husband Pierce Andrew Jensen Jr. welcomed their first child - son Lance - on August 29, 1958. But Elvis did sell her his 1965 black Eldorado Cadillac convertible for $3,000, which she drove for a few years before trading in. ", “I’ve done everything I wanted to do and gone everywhere I wanted to go,” she adds. He preferred to be known as a fine actor, not just identified with the Munster character, and would never sign autographs or be interviewed about the show. “She was a very strong woman who instilled in me from the time I was a child that you could do anything you set your mind on doing,” said Priest. Pat was 22. However, we eventually got along well and often had lunch together. She has just finished maintenance treatments for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and is in remission. Attended and graduated from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia in 1954.