Beverley Owen, an actress best known for her one-season stint as the beautiful non-monster Marilyn on the CBS classic ’60s sitcom The Munsters, died Feb. 21 at her home in Vermont. She was 81.
Her death was confirmed by her former cast mate Butch Patrick, who played little wolfish boy Eddie Munster on the 1964-66 series.
“Beautiful Beverly [sic] Owen has left us,” Patrick posted on Facebook yesterday. “What a sweet soul. I had the biggest crush on her. RIP Bev and thanks for your 13 memorable Marilyn Munster episodes.”
Owen’s daughter Polly Stone told TMZ that her mother died following a two-year battle with ovarian cancer. The former actress had not publicly disclosed her illness, but was surrounded by friends and family at her Vermont home when she passed, according to Stone.
Stone’s acting career was short-lived. After debuting on As the World Turns and guest starring on a half-dozen other episodic early ’60s series, Stone, in a blonde Marilyn Monroe-style wig, appeared in the first 13 episodes of the The Munsters, the sitcom about a friendly family of monsters – Fred Gwynne as the Frankenstein-like Herman, Yvonne De Carlo as vampire wife Lily, Al Lewis as vampire Grandpa, and Patrick as a sort of hybrid werewolf-vampire kid with a memorable widow’s peak.
As the gorgeous human Marilyn, Stone played the family oddball. In other words, the one Munster who appeared normal to the outside world.
Owen left the series after only one season to marry Jon Stone, a writer, producer and editor who would go on to a long association with Sesame Street. The actress was replaced on The Munsters by look-alike Pat Priest.
Owen divorced Stone in 1974 after a decade of marriage and reportedly went on to earn her master’s degree in early American history in 1989. She is survived by daughters Polly and Kate.
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