Pat Crowley, a celebrated actress from Hollywood’s golden era, who graced both the silver screen alongside the biggest stars of the 1950s and enjoyed a lengthy, successful career in television, passed away at her Los Angeles home on Sunday at the age of 91.
Her son, Jon Hookstratten, currently the executive vice president of administration and operations at Sony Pictures Entertainment, confirmed her passing.
Right after high school, Ms. Crowley launched her career on both television and Broadway. Her innate charisma, captivating warmth, and vibrant energy quickly set her on a path to becoming a prominent actress of her time.
She made her Hollywood debut in two Paramount films, notably ‘Money From Home’ (1953), which was one of her two comedies starring the iconic duo Martin and Lewis. In the film, she charmed audiences as the veterinarian love interest of Jerry Lewis’s character, who was the quirky cousin of Dean Martin’s gambler. This role also ignited a professional bond with Mr. Martin that would last for decades, with her frequently appearing on his variety show.
The following year, in ‘Forever Female’ (1954) — a witty theater comedy by Julius and Philip Epstein, loosely based on J.M. Barrie’s ‘Rosalind’ — Crowley portrayed a vivacious teenager vying for a role coveted by a declining star, played by Ginger Rogers. The film also featured acclaimed actors William Holden and Paul Douglas.
These standout performances earned Ms. Crowley a Golden Globe in 1954 for ‘New Star of the Year,’ a category that was later retired in the 1980s.
Frequently cast as the charming ingénue, Ms. Crowley’s career saw her star alongside more celebrated names. Her film credits include the western musical spoof ‘Red Garters’ (1954) with Rosemary Clooney, and Douglas Sirk’s noir-tinged drama ‘There’s Always Tomorrow’ (1956), where she shared the screen with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. She also played Tony Curtis’s love interest in ‘The Square Jungle’ (1955), where he portrayed a grocery clerk aspiring to be a boxer.
Despite her promising start, Ms. Crowley didn’t achieve the superstar status Paramount had envisioned, and she was eventually released from her contract for reasons unknown. While she continued acting, her focus gradually shifted to television.
Reflecting on her career in a 2020 interview for her obituary, Ms. Crowley 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 presence on the small screen, primarily in guest roles, proved enduring for decades. Her performance as an army captain’s ex-wife in the 1963 military drama ‘The Lieutenant’ so captivated her co-star Robert Vaughn that he personally selected her for the pilot episode of ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ (1964). In this iconic spy series, she played a Midwestern housewife unexpectedly thrown into a world of glamour and intrigue, famously appearing in a scene where she and Vaughn’s character are suspended from a pipe in a steamy boiler room.
In 1965, her career saw a resurgence with ‘Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,’ a family sitcom based on Jean Kerr’s popular book. Crowley took on the role of Joan Nash, a newspaper columnist navigating life with four boisterous boys, a family sheepdog, and a college professor husband. Hailing from northeast Pennsylvania herself, Ms. Crowley felt a strong connection to Ms. Kerr, who had loosely drawn the character from her own life.
Patricia Margaret Crowley was born on September 17, 1933, in Olyphant, Pennsylvania. She was the younger daughter of Vincent Crowley, a coal mine foreman, and Helen (Swartz) Crowley, a homemaker with a passion for music and theater.
Her sister, Ann, first caught the attention of renowned pianist and vocal coach Frank La Forge during a performance at a local men’s luncheon while still a teenager. La Forge offered to train Ann in New York, leading Ann and her mother to move to the city. The following year, the entire family relocated to an apartment in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen.
During a touring production of ‘Carousel,’ where her sister held a starring role, a young Ms. Crowley made her stage debut with a walk-on part in the chorus. She honed her skills in acting, singing, and dancing, eventually graduating from Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts in 1950, a classmate of fellow actor Dom DeLuise.
Following high school, Ms. Crowley immersed herself in various theater productions, consistently earning accolades for her performances even when the shows themselves received lukewarm reviews. Esteemed New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson, for example, once described her in a review of Margo Jones’s ‘Southern Exposure’ as ‘practically the only professional thing on the stage.’ Her talent was further acknowledged with a Theater World Award as one of the most promising new personalities of the 1950-51 season. She also gained significant recognition as the titular character in ‘A Date With Judy,’ a live television show 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. They raised two children before separating in the early 1980s. She remarried in 1986 to Andy Friendly, a prominent television executive.
She is survived by her husband, Andy Friendly; her son, Jon Hookstratten; her daughter, Ann Osher; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Her extensive television career featured guest appearances across countless shows and genres for decades. Her notable roles included ‘Columbo’ (1971), ‘Happy Days’ (1980), ‘Police Story’ (1980), ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ (1997-98), and ‘Friends’ (1998). She also had memorable recurring roles in popular soap operas such as ‘Dynasty,’ ‘Generations,’ ‘Port Charles,’ and ‘The Bold and the Beautiful.’
Her final acting credit was a return to film in 2012, appearing in the indie romance ‘Mont Rêve.’
Reflecting on her early career, she once quipped, “I didn’t really have the face for film, like when you see the great beauties. I always played the feisty little troublemaker.”