Yvonne De Carlo in The Ten Commandments

She was multi-talented and has appeared in many movies and TV shows as a dancer, singer, actress or all three.
   Most old-time movie goers are well familiar with the roles she played but as an actress she may have been forgotten by most and her name appears in the long list of What Ever Happened To?
   She was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton on this day in Vancouver, B.C. She was the daughter of an aspiring actress, Marie De Carlo, and a salesman, William, and nicknamed 'Peggy'. Maternal grandfather, Michael de Carlo, was Sicilian-born, and her maternal grandmother, Margaret Purvis, was Scottish-born. 

   Marie ran away from home, when she was 16 to become a ballerina, after a couple of years working as a shop girl, she was finally married in 1924.
   De Carlo break came in 1945 playing the title role in Salome, Where She Danced. Though not a critical success, it was a box office favorite, and De Carlo was hailed as an up-and-coming star.
   In 1949 she had her biggest success. As the female lead opposite Burt Lancaster in Criss Cross, she played a femme fatale, and her career began to ascend.   While starring in The Gal Who Took the West (1949), De Carlo not only walked away with the picture, but she walked away with Jock Mahoney, who was her boyfriend at the time.
   She and Jock were going to start a family, and in 1949, they were engaged. In her first trimester, she suffered a miscarriage, and her relationship with Jock was unsuccessful, and, De Carlo called off the engagement.
   De Carlo has played in almost 90 movies, including The Munsters' (Lily Munster) and The Ten Commandments (I’ve seen this movie many times and had no idea who the actress was). She was cast in a leading role (as Zipporah, also spelled Sephora, Moses' wife).

She was married to the stuntman Robert Morgan, whom she met on the set of Shotgun, from Nov. 21, 1955 to June 1974, when they divorced.
   They had two sons, Bruce and Michael. Morgan also had a daughter, Bari, from a previous marriage.
   The actress worked steadily for the next several years, although many of the films failed to advance her career.

   The year 1964 was a rocky one for De Carlo, as she was deeply in debt. After having worked for over 30 years, her film career came to a sudden end, and she was suffering from depression.
   She signed a contract with Universal Studios after receiving an offer to perform the female lead role in The Munsters opposite Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster. She was also the producers' choice to play Lily Munster when Joan Marshall, who played Phoebe, was dropped from consideration for the role.
   During its second season, ratings began to drop, due in part to the debut of Batman, which dominated the ratings, early in 1966.
   Later that year, De Carlo accepted an offer to reprise her role in a color Munster movie, Munster, Go Home! (1966), partially in hopes of renewing interest in the TV series.  Despite the attempt, The Munsters was cancelled after only 72 episodes.

   For her contribution to the motion picture industry, De Carlo was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6124 Hollywood Blvd. and a second star at 6715 Hollywood Blvd. for her contribution to television.

In her autobiography, published in 1987, she listed 22 intimate friends, including Aly Khan, Billy Wilder, Burt Lancaster, Howard Hughes, Robert Stack and Robert Taylor.
   De Carlo's final appearance on the big-screen was as Aunt Rosa in the 1991 Sylvester Stallone comedy Oscar.     
   Later, she moved to a home in the Black Lake Retirement Community, near Solvang, California, but in declining health, she then became a resident of the Motion Picture & Television Hospital, in Woodland Hills, Cali., where she spent her last years. 

   Her son Bruce R. Morgan was De Carlo's key caregiver during her last days. There, on Jan. 8, 2007, she died of natural causes.
   No matter if they died as a well-known actress or not, if they were Canadian they all deserve a place in It’s Our History, Our Country.

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