# Leslie Parrish

Leslie Parrish (born Marjorie Hellen; March 13, 1935) is an American actress, activist, environmentalist, writer, and producer. She worked under her birth name for six years before changing it in 1959.

## Early life

As a child, Parrish lived in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. At the age of 10, her family 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 continue her education at the Conservatory, her mother persuaded her to become a model for one year.

## Modeling and acting

In April 1954, as a 19-year-old model with the Conover Agency in New York City, Parrish 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.

## Films and television

Parrish co-starred/guest-starred in numerous films and television shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She gained wide attention in her first starring role as Daisy Mae in the movie version of Li'l Abner (1959), where she changed her name from Marjorie Hellen to Leslie Parrish at the director's request. She appeared in the film The Manchurian Candidate (1962), playing Laurence Harvey's on-screen fiancée, 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.
Parrish amassed an extensive résumé of television credits. Among many other credits, Parrish appeared in guest starring roles on episodes of The Wild Wild West, My Three Sons, Perry Mason, Family Affair, Bat Masterson, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Adam-12, Good Morning World, Police Story, Batman and McCloud. In 1967, she guest-starred on the Star Trek episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?", portraying Lt. Carolyn Palamas, the love interest of the character Apollo. In February 1968, she played opposite Peter Breck in the episode "A Bounty on a Barkley" of The Big Valley. The following month, Parrish made her first guest appearance on Mannix in the episode "The Girl in the Frame".
Parrish served as associate producer on the film version of Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973). Among other things, she hired the director of photography Jack Couffer – who later received an Academy Award nomination for his efforts – and she was responsible for the care of the film's real-life seagulls, which she kept inside a room at a Holiday Inn in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California for the duration of the shoot. When the relationship between author Richard Bach and director Hall Bartlett disintegrated and a lawsuit followed, Parrish was appointed as the mediator between the two men, but the mediation failed. Ultimately, the film was released in theaters with Bach's name taken off the screenwriting credits, while Bartlett demoted Parrish's credit in the finished film from associate producer to researcher.
In 1975, Parrish appeared in the low budget B-Movie The Giant Spider Invasion which is now regarded as a cult film.
While acting provided financial stability, her main interest was in social causes including the anti-war and civil rights movements and, as far back as the mid 1950s, the environment.

## Political activism

Parrish's interests and activities in social movements and politics grew to become her main work. She was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, and a member of the Jeannette Rankin Brigade, a group of notable women who fought against the war and for civil rights. Parrish founded "STOP" (Speakers and Talent Organized for Peace), an anti-war organization that trained speakers to engage the public.

## Los Angeles municipal government

In 1969, Parrish joined many in an effort to remove Los Angeles mayor Sam Yorty from office. She supported and campaigned for a former police lieutenant named Tom Bradley, who was then the city's first black city councilman. Despite high polling numbers prior to the election, Bradley lost to Yorty, giving rise to what was later known as "The Bradley Effect." Next day, he decided to run again, and over the next four years Parrish worked with him closely to help secure his victory in the next mayoral election. In 1973, Bradley became Los Angeles's first black mayor. Parrish was one of forty activist citizens who served on Bradley's Blue Ribbon Commission to choose new Los Angeles Commissioners. Parrish and Tom Bradley remained friends for many years.

## Creator of innovative television

The lack of media coverage during the Century City riots in 1967 prompted Parrish to think of a new way to cover such events live to prevent suppression and/or manipulation of the news. In 1969, she began to create a television station that would devote itself to covering public events and provide in-depth analysis and discussions of important developments in the world. In 1974, KVST-TV (Viewer Sponsored Television, Channel 68, Los Angeles) went on the air as part of the PBS system of stations. Film notables, business people and local activists formed the board of directors and provided support for the unique station. After a difficult start, KVST was receiving positive reviews in Los Angeles and nationwide attention. However, by 1976, internal dissension on the board of directors led to the demise of the station; the signal was turned off and the licence turned in.

## Environmental activism

Parrish's concern for the environment dates back to the 1950s when Los Angeles’ severe smog, and the reason for it, worried her. In 1979, she and her then-husband, Richard Bach, built an experimental home in southwest Oregon using 100% solar power with no cooling or heating systems, in order to prove it could be done.
While living in Oregon, Parrish saw devastated forests managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and decided to protest a local timber sale. With two neighbors, she and Bach established an organization called "Threatened and Endangered: Little Applegate Valley" (TELAV). They worked for two years researching and writing a 600-page legal and scientific protest of BLM's logging of forests which would not regenerate, which was illegal. The BLM assistant state director eventually agreed, telling the Medford Mail Tribune that ..."The sale involves enough improprieties in BLM rules and procedures that it can’t be legally awarded. In order to comply with our own procedures we had no choice but to withdraw the sale and reject all bids." The TELAV protest document served as the basis for many future timber sale protests in the U.S. and Canada. TELAV continues to fight for the environment to this day and the Little Applegate Valley has never been logged.
In 1999, Parrish created a 240-acre (97 ha) wildlife sanctuary on Orcas Island (in the San Juan Islands, Washington State) to save it from normal development techniques which include logging. She named it the "Spring Hill Wildlife Sanctuary". For seventeen years, she carefully developed the ridge-top property by creating nearly a dozen small, hidden home sites on 25% of the land while preserving the remainder in perpetuity within the San Juan Preservation Trust. While the property is now fully developed there are no breaks in the heavily forested ridge line. The developed land is invisible from the island community and the forest is intact.

## Marriages

Parrish married songwriter Ric Marlow in 1955; the couple divorced in 1961. In 1981, she married Richard Bach, the author of the 1970 book Jonathan Livingston Seagull, whom she met during the making of the 1973 movie of the same name. She was a major element in two of his subsequent books—The Bridge Across Forever (1984) and One (1988)—which primarily focused on their relationship and Bach's concept of soulmates. They divorced in 1999.

## Film credits

| Year | Title | Role |
| 1955 | The Virgin Queen | Anne* |
| 1955 | A Man Called Peter | Newlywed* |
| 1955 | Daddy Long Legs | College Girl* |
| 1955 | How to Be Very, Very Popular | Girl On Bus* |
| 1955 | The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing | Florodora Girl* |
| 1956 | The Lieutenant Wore Skirts | Tipsy Girl At Party* |
| 1956 | The Power and the Prize | Telephone Operator* |
| 1957 | Hot Summer Night | Hazel* |
| 1957 | Man on Fire | Honey* |
| 1958 | Missile to the Moon | Moon Girl |
| 1958 | Tank Battalion | Lt. Alice Brent* |
| 1959 | Li'l Abner | Daisy Mae |
| 1961 | Portrait of a Mobster | Iris Murphy |
| 1962 | The Manchurian Candidate | Jocelyn Jordan |
| 1963 | For Love or Money | Jan Brasher |
| 1964 | Sex and the Single Girl | Susan |
| 1966 | Three on a Couch | Mary Lou Mauve |
| 1968 | The Money Jungle | Treva Saint |
| 1969 | The Candy Man | Julie Evans |
| 1969 | The Devil's 8 | Cissy |
| 1970 | Brother, Cry for Me (aka: Boca Affair) | Jenny Noble |
| 1971 | D.A.: Conspiracy to Kill | Ramona Bertrand |
| 1971 | Banyon | Ruth Sprague |
| 1975 | The Giant Spider Invasion | Ev |
| 1976 | The Astral Factor (aka: Invisible Strangler) | Colleen Hudson |
| 1977 | Crash | Kathy Logan |
* credited as Marjorie Hellen

## Television credits
### General television credits

| Airdate | Series title | Episode title | Role |
| January 3, 1959 | Steve Canyon | "Operation Big Thunder" | Jo |
| February 29, 1959 | 77 Sunset Strip | "Lovely Alibi" | Jodie (uncredited) |
| 1959 | Bold Venture | — | unknown |
| May 21, 1959 | The Rough Riders | "Deadfall" | Cleopatra |
| April 12, 1960 | Tightrope | "Gangsters Daughter" | Theresa |
| April 30, 1960 | Perry Mason | "The Case of the Madcap Modiste" | Hope Sutherland |
| June 2, 1960 | Bat Masterson | "The Elusive Baguette" | Lucy Carter |
| September 21, 1960 | The Aquanauts | "Collision" | Jill Talley |
| October 22, 1960 | The Roaring 20s | "Champagne Lady" | Bubbles LaPeer |
| December 15, 1960 | Bat Masterson | "A Time to Die" | Lisa Anders |
| December 21, 1960 | Hawaiian Eye | "Services Rendered" | Marcella |
| December 23, 1960 | Michael Shayne | "Death Selects the Winner" | Ellen Cook |
| January 27, 1961 | 77 Sunset Strip | "The Positive Negative" | Amanda Sant |
| April 3, 1961 | Acapulco | "Fisher's Daughter" | unknown |
| April 17, 1961 | Surfside 6 | "Circumstantial Evidence" | Sunny Golden |
| April 18, 1961 | The Jim Backus Show (aka: Hot off the Wire) | "The Plant" | unknown |
| June 28, 1961 | Bringing Up Buddy | "The Couple Next Door" | unknown |
| September 16, 1961 | Perry Mason | "The Case of the Impatient Partner" | Vivien Ames |
| October 22, 1961 | Follow the Sun | "Busmans Holiday" | Tiffany Caldwell |
| November 6, 1961 | Surfside 6 | "The Affairs at Hotel Delight" | Lavender |
| November 25, 1961 | Perry Mason | "The Case of the Left-Handed Liar" | Veronica Temple |
| January 9, 1962 | Bachelor Father | "Kelly and the Yes Man" | Kim Fontaine |
| February 14, 1962 | Hawaiian Eye | "Four-Cornered Triangle" | Kathy Marsh |
| February 27, 1962 | Ichabod and Me | "Bob's Housekeeper" | Lily Fontain |
| February 21, 1963 | Alcoa Premiere | "Chain Reaction" | Vicki |
| December 4, 1963 | Channing | "A Dolls House with Pom Pom and Trophies" | Joyce Ruskin |
| March 28, 1964 | The Lieutenant | "Operation Actress" | Toni Kaine |
| November 12, 1964 | Kraft Suspense Theatre | "The Kamchatka Incident" | Susan King |
| November 21, 1964 | Kentucky Jones | "The Sour Note" | Miss Patterson |
| November 27, 1964 | The Reporter | "Murder by Scandal" | Ruth Killiam |
| October 1, 1965 | The Wild Wild West | "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth" | Greta Lundquist |
| December 4, 1965 | Insight | "Fire Within" | Joanne |
| January 20, 1966 | Batman | "The Penguin's a Jinx" | Dawn Robbins |
| September 15, 1966 | My Three Sons | "Stag at Bay" | Flame LaRose |
| 1966 (Fall) | Green for Danger | pilot episode | unknown |
| October 21, 1966 | The Wild Wild West | "The Night of the Flying Pie Plate" | Morn/Maggie |
| February 17, 1967 | Tarzan | "Mask of Rona" | Beryl |
| March 29, 1967 | Batman | "The Duo Defy" | Glacia Glaze |
| March 30, 1967 | Batman | "Ice Spy" | Glacia Glaze |
| September 22, 1967 | Star Trek | "Who Mourns for Adonais?" | Lt. Carolyn Palamas |
| October 3, 1967 | Good Morning World | "World, Buy Calimari" (pilot episode) | Audrey Zeiner |
| October 16, 1967 | The Man From U.N.C.L.E. | "The Masters Touch Affair" | Leslie Welling |
| January 6, 1968 | Iron Horse | "Dry Run to Glory" | Eve Lewis |
| February 26, 1968 | The Big Valley | "A Bounty on a Barkley" | Layle Johnson |
| March 16, 1968 | Mannix | "The Girl in the Frame" | Linda Marley |
| January 5, 1969 | My Friend Tony | Voices | Lila |
| March 17, 1969 | Family Affair | "Speak for Yourself, Mr. French" | Emily Travers |
| October 18, 1969 | Mannix | "The Playground" | Mona |
| November 8, 1969 | Petticoat Junction | "The Tenant" | Jacquelin Moran |
| November 16, 1969 | To Rome with Love | "A Palazzo Is Not a Home" | Elaine |
| December 8, 1969 | Love, American Style | "Love and the Mountain Cabin" | Mrs. Pfister |
| October 31, 1970 | Mannix | "The Other Game in Town" | T.C. |
| February 5, 1971 | Love, American Style | "Love and the Pulitzer Prize" | Michelle Turner |
| February 28, 1971 | Hogan's Heroes | "Kommandant Gertrude" | Karen |
| November 4, 1971 | Bearcats! | "Blood Knot" | Liz Blake |
| December 14, 1971 | Marcus Welby M.D. | "Cross Match" | Elaine Perino |
| January 31, 1972 | Cade's County | "Slay Ride" - Part 1 | Jana Gantry |
| February 6, 1972 | Cade's County | "Slay Ride" - Part 2 | Jana Gantry |
| March 10, 1972 | O'Hara, U.S. Treasury | "Operation: Smokescreen" | Olga Miles |
| December 20, 1972 | Adam 12 | "Gifts and Long Letters" | Sharon Blake |
| January 8, 1974 | The Magician | "Shattered Image" | Lydia |
| February 12, 1974 | Police Story | "The Ripper" | Mrs. Delaley |
| October 13, 1974 | McCloud | "The Gang That Stole Manhattan" | Lynne OConnell |
| September 13, 1977 | Logan's Run | "The Collectors" | Joanna |
| April 30, 1978 | Police Story | "No Margin for Error" | Georgie Hayes |

### Variety show credits (live TV)

| Airdate | Series title | Episode title | Role |
| January 12, 1960 | The Red Skelton Show | "Clem Kadiddlehopper in Dog Patch" | Daisy June |
| April 4, 1961 | The Red Skelton Show | "Clem's Theatre" | Daisy June |
| January 23, 1962 | The Red Skelton Show | "Clem and the Kadiddlehopper Hop" | Daisy June |

### Talk shows

| Airdate | Series title | Notes |
| November 19, 1962 | Here's Hollywood | Jack Linkletter (Interviewer) – S.2, Ep.52 |
| May 24, 1966 | The Tonight Show | Jerry Lewis (guest-host) |

### Game shows

| Series title | Notes |
| The Dating Game | several broadcast in the early 1960s |
| Stump the Stars | several broadcast in the 1960s |