Yvonne De Carlo

Yvonne De Carlo (born Margaret Yvonne Middleton; September 1, 1922 – January 8, 2007) was a Canadian-American actress, dancer, and singer. Known as the "Most Beautiful Girl in the World" and the "Queen of Technicolor", she was an internationally famous Hollywood star of the 1940s and 1950s. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for motion pictures and television.

"Three Show‐Biz Girls and How They Grew" (1971)

 * Quotes of De Carlo from the New York Times article "Three Show‐Biz Girls and How They Grew" (1971)


 * I was on cloud nine all the time. After I made my hit in Salome, Universal sent me to New York so I could learn to be a proper movie star. I lived at the Sherry‐Netherland for two months and I went to the John Robert Powers school. They taught me things like how to walk off a New York curb and how to enter a room in a manner befitting a big‐time movie star.
 * They also tried to teach me how to eat. One day the big boss came into town and took me to dinner. I knew why he was taking me to dinner; he wanted to watch me eat. I was so nervous that when I started to lift my soup spoon to my mouth, my hand shook so much that I had to put the spoon down again. I couldn't eat soup for a whole year after that.
 * We had dinner with Duke Wayne and his wife recently. He's really worried about the picture industry and how much harm it's done. And he isn't just making casual conversation, either. Duke is very concerned.
 * I'm from Hollywood. I'm too dumb to be nervous about New York.

"A girl no longer, but . . . De Carlo's a beauty still" (1975)

 * Quotes of De Carlo from "A girl no longer, but . . . De Carlo's a beauty still" (1975)


 * You want to know about the title, right. The most beautiful girl in the world. . . It was a straight publicity thing but it ballooned. Of course, I never could wear blue jeans to the market after that. I had a reputation to uphold.


 * I played so many oriental princesses and cowtown saloon madams after that I lost count. I broke in all the new actors, to use a phrase. I acted with Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis before they became big names.


 * Baby, I've never been drunk in public and I never run around with men half my age. The dames I started out with are all batty today. They had their looks and nothing more and now they think they're finished.


 * Reality to me is a home, my kids, best friends and only then a career and the limelight. I never thought like Marilyn Monroe that I was washed up when I was 35.


 * One critic called me one of the most magnificent resources Canada has allowed to escape to the United States. Because I was born and raised in Vancouver and lived up there until I was 17. My kids sons Bruce and Michael are, of course, American citizens. But not me. I defiantly refuse to change.


 * My mother was the shaping force in my life. Don't ask me how but she always had money for my dancing lessons. She was convinced I was going to be somebody.

"Yvonne De Carlo Reminds The World There Was Life Before Lily Munster" (1987)

 * Quotes of De Carlo from "Yvonne De Carlo Reminds The World There Was Life Before Lily Munster" (1987)


 * I think Yvonne De Carlo was more famous than Lily. But I gained the younger audience through The Munsters. And it was a steady job.


 * I enjoyed being in The Ten Commandments. That was a great experience—to suddenly become one of those holy people. I was holier than thou.


 * I enjoyed the comedies with Alec Guinness, and I had a real great time with Peter Ustinov in Hotel Sahara. I found I had the ability to do comedy. My timing was really inborn.

Quotes about Yvonne De Carlo



 * Miss De Carlo photographs beautifully in color and in black and white film. She is a fine actress, an excellent dancer and singer. It is very unusual to find so much talent in one person.
 * Walter Wanger, as quoted in "Yvonne De Carlo Chosen for Role, Over '20,000 Beautiful Girls'" (1945)


 * Early one  morning  she  answered  the telephone.  . . . "Yvonne?"  asked  the  voice on  the  other  end  of  the  phone.  It  was her  agent.  "You  know  about  Ten  Commandments, don’t  you?" "Know  what?"  she  asked.  Of  course, she  knew  about  the  picture.  Everyone in  town  did.  "What  about  it?"  she  asked. "Great  news,"  the  voice  sounded breathless.  "The  part  of  Sephora—Moses'  wife.  Until  today,  that  part  was wide  open.  Not  any  more.  Guess  who’s got  it?  You!  DeMille  wants  De  Carlo!" Not  until  weeks  later,  in  conversations with  Mr.  DeMille,  did  Yvonne  find  out how,  without  asking,  she  had  won  this important  role. DeMille  was  in  the  process  of  casting and  was  considering  Nina Foch  for  the role  of  Moses'  Egyptian  foster  mother. Miss  Foch's  agent  suggested  that  he  see an  earlier  Foch  movie  called  Sombrero. A date  was  set  and  DeMille,  with  a few of  his  staff,  was  shown  the  film  in  the studio  screening  room.  Foch  was  fine, he  commented  to  an  assistant.  "Cast  her." And  he  started  to  rise  to  return  to  his office.  Suddenly,  looking  up  he  saw  a tormented,  sadly  beautiful  face,  veiled  in a Mexican  shawl,  flash  upon  the  screen. Sinking  back  into  his  chair,  he  watched the  scene  through.  When  it  was  over, he  had  reached  another  decision.  "Get  me that  face,"  he  ordered.  "That’s  Sephora."
 * Howard Eisenberg, Photoplay article "Life Can Be Beautiful" (1957)


 * It's fitting that Yvonne ends up as a star on the very lot where she started as an extra. Audiences will now see her as the really fine actress she is.
 * Cecil B. DeMille, as quoted in the Photoplay article "Life Can Be Beautiful" (1957)


 * I cast Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, the wife of Moses, after our casting director, Bert McKay called my attention to one scene she played in Sombrero, which was a picture far removed in theme from The Ten Commandments, I sensed in her a depth, an emotional power, a womanly strength which the part of Sephora needed, and which she gave it.
 * Cecil B. DeMille, in The Autobiography of DeMille (1959), p. 416


 * Oh, how I loved the movies as a little girl. Particularly I loved Yvonne De Carlo—she was my favorite. Others, too, like Rita Hayworth, but I used to dream that I was Yvonne De Carlo. And I liked that little one—what was her name?—June Allyson, too. But for me there was only one Yvonne De Carlo.
 * Sophia Loren, as quoted in Dick Kleiner's "Hollywood Today" column (July 30, 1965)


 * I remember Yvonne with very warm and positive feelings. There was a warmth and sexiness which came out in everything she did, and that is what was irresistible to audiences. Like most top actresses, she needed direction and support, but her objective was always to be equal to the stars around her, especially the males.
 * Ken Annakin, as quoted in L.A. Noir: Nine Dark Visions of the City of Angels (2004), p. 42–43