Pat Crowley, a distinguished actress from Hollywood’s classic era, known for sharing the screen with prominent figures of the 1950s and achieving sustained success in television, passed away peacefully at her Los Angeles home on Sunday. She was 91 years old.
Her son, Jon Hookstratten, who serves as the executive vice president of administration and operations at Sony Pictures Entertainment, confirmed her passing.
Immediately after high school, Ms. Crowley launched her career on both television and Broadway. Her natural charisma, warmth, and vibrant energy quickly set her on a path to becoming a notable actress of her generation.
A striking black-and-white photograph shows Pat Crowley early in her acting career, captured in 1955.
She made her Hollywood debut in two Paramount films, including “Money From Home” (1953), which was her first of two collaborations with the iconic duo Martin and Lewis. In this film, she portrayed the veterinarian love interest of Jerry Lewis’s eccentric character, who was the cousin of a gambler played by Dean Martin. This role also ignited a professional relationship with Mr. Martin that would span decades, with her frequently appearing as a guest on his variety show.
In the 1954 theater comedy “Forever Female,” loosely based on J.M. Barrie’s play “Rosalind” and penned by brothers Julius and Philip Epstein, Ms. Crowley captivated audiences as a spirited teenager vying for a role coveted by a veteran star, Ginger Rogers. The film also featured William Holden and Paul Douglas.
Her compelling performances in both films earned Ms. Crowley a Golden Globe in 1954 for “New Star of the Year,” an award category that was later retired in the 1980s.
A film poster from “Forever Female” (1954), illustrating Ms. Crowley’s role as a determined teenager pursuing a coveted part.
Frequently cast as the ingénue, Ms. Crowley continued to grace the screen with leading stars of the era. She acted alongside Rosemary Clooney in the 1954 western musical spoof “Red Garters,” and shared the screen with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in Douglas Sirk’s noir-infused “There’s Always Tomorrow” (1956). In “The Square Jungle” (1955), she played the love interest to Tony Curtis’s character, a grocery clerk aspiring to be a boxer.
Despite her promising start, Ms. Crowley did not achieve the towering stardom Paramount had envisioned, and her contract with the studio was eventually terminated for undisclosed reasons. While she continued acting, her career trajectory largely transitioned to television.
Reflecting on her career in a 2020 interview for this obituary, Ms. Crowley candidly admitted, “The business of this business is really tricky, and I was never really into that. I never had a manager. I never had a publicity person. I was in that medium thing where I would have an agent call and say, ‘Go and do this audition.’”
Her television career, primarily in guest-starring roles, proved to be remarkably consistent and lasted for decades. Her portrayal of a captain’s ex-wife in the 1963 military drama “The Lieutenant” particularly impressed her co-star Robert Vaughn. This led him to personally select her for the pilot episode of “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” (1964), where she transformed into a Midwestern housewife plunged into the thrilling world of espionage. A standout moment from the episode featured her and Vaughn’s characters, soaked and steaming, suspended from a pipe in a boiler room.
A memorable scene from 1964, featuring Ms. Crowley with Robert Vaughn in “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”
In 1965, her career gained significant momentum with “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” a family sitcom based on Jean Kerr’s book. She took on the role of Joan Nash, a newspaper columnist navigating a bustling household with four sons, a sheepdog, and a college professor husband. Ms. Crowley felt a personal connection to Kerr, who had loosely based the main character on herself; both women hailed from northeast Pennsylvania.
Patricia Margaret Crowley was born on September 17, 1933, in Olyphant, Pennsylvania. She was the younger of two daughters born to Vincent and Helen (Swartz) Crowley. Her father worked as a foreman in the coal mines, while her mother, a homemaker, had a deep passion for music and theater.
During her teenage years, Pat’s elder sister, Ann, caught the attention of renowned pianist and vocal coach Frank La Forge after a performance at a local men’s luncheon. La Forge offered to train Ann in New York, leading Ann and her mother to move to the city. The following year, the rest of the family joined them, settling into an apartment in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen.
Another captivating image of Ms. Crowley from 1955, highlighting her youthful entry into television and Broadway straight out of high school.
While her sister starred in a touring production of “Carousel,” the young Ms. Crowley took on a walk-on role in the chorus. She honed her skills in acting, singing, and dancing, eventually graduating from Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts in 1950, sharing her class with future comic actor Dom DeLuise.
Post-graduation, Ms. Crowley engaged in numerous theater productions, earning accolades for her compelling performances even when the shows themselves received lukewarm reviews. Noted theater critic Brooks Atkinson, in his review of Margo Jones’s “Southern Exposure,” famously remarked that she was “practically the only professional thing on the stage.” Her talent was further acknowledged with a Theater World Award as one of the most promising personalities of the 1950-51 season. She also rose to prominence as the title character in “A Date With Judy,” a live television program broadcast on Saturday mornings in New York during the early 1950s.
In 1957, Ms. Crowley married Ed Hookstratten, who would later become a highly successful entertainment lawyer and agent. The couple had two children before separating in the early 1980s. She subsequently married Andy Friendly, a television executive, in 1986.
A more recent photograph of Ms. Crowley from 2014, showcasing her continued presence in the industry with guest television roles for decades, concluding with the 2012 indie romance film “Mont Rêve.”
She is survived by her husband, Andy Friendly; her son, Jon Hookstratten; her daughter, Ann Osher; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Her extensive career saw her take on numerous guest roles across a wide spectrum of television shows and genres, including “Columbo” (1971), “Happy Days” (1980), “Police Story” (1980), “Beverly Hills, 90210” (1997-98), and “Friends” (1998). She also became a familiar face in the world of soap operas, with recurring roles in “Dynasty,” “Generations,” “Port Charles,” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
Her final on-screen appearance was a return to film in 2012, in the independent romance “Mont Rêve.”
Reflecting on her early career, she once noted, “I didn’t really have the face for film, like when you see the great beauties. I always played the feisty little troublemaker.”
Ash Wu contributed reporting to this obituary.