Pat Crowley, a beloved actress from Hollywood’s vibrant Golden Age, whose career spanned memorable film roles with legendary stars before she became a familiar and cherished face on television for decades, has passed away at the age of 91 at her home in Los Angeles.
Her son, Jon Hookstratten, who serves as executive vice president of administration and operations at Sony Pictures Entertainment, confirmed her passing.
Fresh out of high school, Ms. Crowley immediately made her mark on both television and Broadway. Her undeniable charisma, warm presence, and vibrant energy quickly set her on a path to becoming a prominent actress of her time.
Her entry into Hollywood was marked by two Paramount productions, including the 1953 comedy “Money From Home.” This film, one of two Martin and Lewis features she appeared in, saw her play the veterinarian love interest to Jerry Lewis’s quirky character, the cousin of a gambler portrayed by Dean Martin. This initial collaboration blossomed into a professional relationship with Mr. Martin that would span decades, with Ms. Crowley frequently appearing on his popular variety show.
The 1954 theater comedy “Forever Female,” penned by Julius and Philip Epstein and loosely inspired by J.M. Barrie’s “Rosalind,” featured Ms. Crowley as a vibrant teenager vying for a coveted role. She shared the screen with an aging star, played by Ginger Rogers, who ultimately accepts a motherly part. The film also boasted performances by William Holden and Paul Douglas.
These impressive performances earned Ms. Crowley a Golden Globe award 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 continued to shine alongside major stars. She shared the screen with Rosemary Clooney in the 1954 western musical spoof “Red Garters,” and with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in Douglas Sirk’s 1956 noir-infused drama “There’s Always Tomorrow.” In “The Square Jungle” (1955), she portrayed the romantic interest of Tony Curtis’s character, a grocery clerk with boxing aspirations.
Despite her promising start, Ms. Crowley didn’t quite achieve the superstar status Paramount had envisioned, and she eventually departed the studio. Her acting career persisted, but it gracefully transitioned primarily to the realm of television.
Reflecting on her career in a 2020 interview for this obituary, Ms. Crowley acknowledged the complexities of the entertainment industry: “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 aptitude for the small screen led to decades of successful guest appearances. In the 1963 military drama “The Lieutenant,” her portrayal of a captain’s ex-wife so captivated her co-star Robert Vaughn that he personally chose her for the pilot episode of “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” (1964). In this iconic spy series, where she starred alongside David McCallum, Ms. Crowley played a Midwestern housewife unexpectedly thrown into a glamorous world of espionage. A particularly memorable scene featured her and Mr. Vaughn, soaking wet from sweat and steam, dramatically suspended from a pipe in a boiler room.
In 1965, Ms. Crowley’s career enjoyed a boost with the family sitcom “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” based on Jean Kerr’s popular 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 Ms. Kerr, who had loosely based the character on herself, as 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 older 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, prompting her and their 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.
While her sister starred in a touring production of “Carousel,” a young Ms. Crowley made her own stage debut with a walk-on role in the chorus. She continued to hone her acting, singing, and dancing skills, eventually graduating from Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts in 1950, a classmate of fellow performer Dom DeLuise.
Following high school, Ms. Crowley participated in various theater productions, consistently earning accolades for her performances even when the plays themselves received lukewarm reviews. Notably, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times, in a review of Margo Jones’s “Southern Exposure,” lauded her as “practically the only professional thing on the stage.” Her talent was further acknowledged with a Theater World Award, recognizing her as one of the most promising personalities of the 1950-51 season. She also gained widespread 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 had two children before separating in the early 1980s. She remarried in 1986 to Andy Friendly, a television executive.
She is survived by her husband, her son Jon, her daughter Ann Osher, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Throughout her long and varied career, Ms. Crowley graced countless television screens in guest roles across decades and genres. Her notable appearances include “Columbo” (1971), “Happy Days” (1980), “Police Story” (1980), “Beverly Hills, 90210” (1997-98), and “Friends” (1998). She also held 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, in the independent romance “Mont Rêve.”
Reflecting on her early career during the 2020 interview, she candidly remarked, “I didn’t really have the face for film, like when you see the great beauties. I always played the feisty little troublemaker.”