Leslie Parrish was born Marjorie Hellen in Melrose, Massachusetts on March 18, 1935. She grew up in Black Eddy, Pennsylvania. She studied piano when she was very young and studied piano and composition at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music when in her early teens. She was 19 when she became a model with the Conover Agency in New York City, primarily to earn money to continue her education at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. She was "Miss Colour-TV" for NBC, who used her to check skin tones for their colour broadcasts. It was not long before she was signed to Twentieth Century Fox.
At Twentieth Century Fox, she appeared in the movies A Man Called Peter (1955), Daddy Long Legs (1955), The Virgin Queen (1955), How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955), The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955), and The Lieutenant Wore Skirts (1956). She signed with MGM in 1956 and for the remainder of the 1950s she appeared in such movies as The Power and the Prize (1956), The Opposite Sex (1956), Hot Summer Night (1957), Man on Fire (1957), Missile to the Moon (1958), Tank Battalion (1959), and Li'l Abner (1959). She made her television debut in 1959 in an episode of Steve Canyon. In the Fifties, she guest starred on the shows 77 Sunset Strip; The Rough Riders; Bold Venture; Tightrope; The Aquanauts; The Roaring 20s; Bat Masterson; Hawaiian Eye; The Red Skelton Show; Perry Mason and Michael Shayne.
In the Sixties, Leslie Parrish's career shifted largely to television. She guest starred on the shows Acapulco; Hot Off the Wire;77 Sunset Strip; Bringing Up Buddy; Follow the Sun; Surfside 6; Perry Mason; Bachelor Father; The Red Skelton Show; Hawaiian Eye; Alcoa Premiere; Channing; The Lieutenant; Kraft Suspense Theatre; Kentucky Jones; The Reporter; My Three Sons; The Wild Wild West; Tarzan; Batman; Star Trek; Good Morning, World; The Man From U.N.C.L.E.; Insight; Iron Horse; The Big Valley; My Friend Tony; Family Affair; Petticoat Junction; To Rome with Love; Love, American Style; and Mannix. She appeared in the movies Portrait of a Mobster (1961), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), For Love or Money (1963), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Three on a Couch (1966), The Money Jungle (1967), The Candy Man (1969), The Devil's 8 (1969), and Brother, Cry for Me (1970).
In the Seventies, she guest starred on Love, American Style; Hogan's Heores; Bearcats!; Marcus Welby, M.D.; Cade's County; O'Hara. United States Treasury; Adam-12;The Magician; McCloud; Logan's Run; and Police Story. She appeared in the movies The Giant Spider Invasion (1975), Crash! (1976), and The Astral Factor (1979). After the Seventies, Leslie Parrish retired from acting to focus on social activism and environmental causes.
Leslie Parrish was certainly lovely, which explains why she was so much in demand as a love interest in movies and TV shows, but her presence on film and television went well beyond merely being ornamental. Leslie Parrish had real talent and could play a variety of roles. She may be best remembered as Daisy Mae, who was hopelessly in love with Abner in L'il Abner, and the sweet, but ill-fated Jocelyn Jordan in The Manchurian Candidate, but she could play roles well-removed from those. In the Batman episode "Ice Spy"/"The Duo Defy," she played the glamorous, slightly narcissistic ice skater Glacia Glaze, who was working hand in hand with Mr. Freeze (Eli Wallach). In the Star Trek episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?,' she played archaeologist and anthropologist Lt. Carolyn Palomas, who becomes the focus of the god Apollo's attentions. In the Wild Wild West episode "The Night of the Flying pie plate she played the leader of a trio of female con artists claiming to be from Venus. In Three on a Couch, she played Southern belle Mary Lou Mauve, one of three women dated by Christopher Pride (Jerry Lewis). Leslie Parrish was a remarkable actress with a great deal of talent, who also accomplished a lot with regards to various social and political causes.
