page_title: William Demarest
section_title: Personal life and later years
hierarchical_section_title: William Demarest / Personal life and later years
caption_attribution_description: English: Estelle Collette, Demarest's first wife.
context_page_description: Carl William Demarest was an American character actor, known for playing Uncle Charley in My Three Sons. Demarest became a prolific film and television actor, appearing in over 140 films, beginning in 1927 and ending in the 1970s. He appeared in The Jazz Singer, the first sound film. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles.
context_section_description: Demarest was married twice. His first wife was his vaudeville partner Estelle Collette (October 26, 1886 – November 19, 1968), born Esther Zichlin. Demarest helped raise her daughter, author Phyllis Gordon Demarest (March 31, 1908 – December 20, 1969), from her earlier marriage, in 1907, to poet and novelist Samuel Gordon (September 10, 1871 – January 10, 1927), who had divorced Zichlin before his death. Demarest's second wife was Lucile Thayer (September 30, 1912 – October 16, 2009), born Lucile Theurer, daughter of Herman Theurer and Lillie Sjoberg, who due to her activism on health issues in the motion picture industry in October 1960 was named California lay-chairman of the ANA fundraising campaign.
  Demarest's favorite recreations were hunting, fishing, golf, and playing the cello.
  He died in Palm Springs, California, and was interred in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park. At the time of his death, he was suffering from prostate cancer and pneumonia.
caption: Demarest's first wife.[7]
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