- Born
- Birth namePatricia Ann Priest
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- This sweet, wholesome, porcelain-skinned beauty was your typical bouffant blonde of the early-to-mid 1960s. She was picture perfect, whether romping along the coast of Malibu Beach in a bikini or peering over a white picket fence as the girl-next-door. Pat Priest was born Patricia Ann Priest on August 15, 1936 in Bountiful, Utah. Her mother, Ivy Baker Priest, was a renowned government official and served as United States Treasurer under the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration from 1953-1961. She also was California's Treasurer while Ronald Reagan was Governor from 1966-1974. Living a glamorous débutante's life in Washington, D.C. during her mother's 1950s term, she won attention as a beauty contest winner in the area.
Stagestruck, she moved to Los Angeles and pursued commercials, modeling and community theater work. She happened to be in the San Francisco Bay area, in 1964, when she got the call from Hollywood as a possible replacement for lookalike actress Beverley Owen, the original Marilyn Munster, who was suddenly leaving the series The Munsters (1964) for marriage. Most viewers never caught on that there was a cast change. The decorative sitcom role did wonders for Pat as the prettiest resident of 1313 Mockingbird Lane, making her a minor household name. On the down side, she was given very little to do but to serve as a pretty and innocent foil for the weird and funny characters around her.
Her one-joke premise revolved around her feeling abnormal amid her ghoulish relatives. The series ran another two seasons with Pat, then she went on to what would become a less-than-enviable post-Munsters career. Other than a few guest roles in such series as Bewitched (1964), Perry Mason (1957), The Virginian (1962) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970), the pickings grew scarce. Deemed too old to play Marilyn after the series was canceled (she was 29), she was replaced by redheaded Debbie Watson for the feature film, Munster, Go Home! (1966), which included the rest of her series cast.
She did dally around with Elvis Presley in Easy Come, Easy Go (1967), one of his lesser vehicles, and also appeared in the sub-par cult horror film, The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971), which co-starred Bruce Dern and Casey Kasem, but film roles were almost non-existent after that. Pat finally retired from acting in the 1980s but still attends many of the nostalgic conventions and Munsters revivals around the country. At last report, she was restoring and selling homes in Idaho, where she had lived for over 20 years. Married twice, she has two sons: Pierce and Lance Jensen.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpousesFrederick Hansing(December 5, 1981 - present)Pierce Andrew Jensen Jr.(August 20, 1955 - March 4, 1967) (divorced, 2 children)
- ParentsRoy Priest
- Auditioned for the role of Mary Ann Summers on Gilligan's Island (1964), which went to Dawn Wells.
- As of July 2010 was an antique dealer, along with her sister, at a shop in Boise, ID. She has just finished maintenance treatments for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and is in remission.
- Selected as one of the Capitol's "Ten Most Beautiful Women" while living in Washington, D.C. with her mother, United States Treasurer Ivy Baker Priest, whose signature appeared on United States currency from 1953-1961.
- Best known for playing Marilyn Munster on the television series The Munsters (1964); however, she took over the role after Beverley Owen left the series to get married. Priest stayed with the series until its cancellation in 1966.
- When she was a young girl, her family moved from Salt Lake City to Bountiful, Utah. Although Bountiful is a small town, she was exposed to entertainment work through her mother, Ivy Baker Priest, who often wrote, directed and produced road shows for the Mormon church.
- [on The Munsters (1964)] I tested for the part on a Wednesday, they called me on Thursday, I signed the contracts on a Friday and started working on Monday. That was my big break.
- [on her reaction to being asked to provide an autograph] I was really taken by surprise! I couldn't understand why anyone would want my autograph. I was only doing a television show and felt I wasn't very important. I was very pleased, but also a little embarrassed by the moment.
- I think the most gratifying thing has been the many stories people tell me about watching The Munsters (1964) as a family and what these times have meant to them. When you work on a show, you never really know the impact you've had on people, until you do an autograph show, where they get to tell you how they feel.
- I have had very good feelings, and dealings with professional collectors. They are some of my best customers. I think they provide a wonderful service to fans and memorabilia collectors because a lot of the time these people would not be able to find out about or get in touch with those stars whose autographs they would love to possess.
- The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971) - $5,000
- The Munsters (1964) - $750 /week
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