Leslie Parrish
Leslie Parrish (c. 1962)
Born	Marjorie Hellen[1] (1935-03-13)March 13, 1935 (age 90)[2] Melrose, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	Philadelphia Conservatory of Music
Occupations	Actress activist writer producer
Years active	1955–1978
Known for	The Manchurian Candidate The Giant Spider Invasion Batman Who Mourns for Adonais?
Spouses	Ric Marlow ​ ​ (m. 1955; div. 1961)​ Richard Bach ​ ​ (m. 1981; div. 1999)​

Leslie Parrish (bornMarjorie Hellen; March 13, 1935)^[2] is an American actress, activist,environmentalist, writer, and producer. She worked under her birth name for six years before changing it in 1959.

As a child, Parrish lived in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. At the age of 10, her family finally settled inUpper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania. At the age of 14, Parrish was a talented and promising piano and composition student at thePhiladelphia Conservatory of Music.^[3] At the age of 16, Parrish earned money for her tuition by working as a maid and a waitress, and by teaching piano. At the age of 18, to earn enough money to continue her education at the Conservatory, her mother persuaded her to become a model for one year.^[4][3]

In April 1954, as a 19-year-old model with the Conover Agency in New York City, Parrish was under contract toNBC-TV as "Miss Color TV" (she was used during broadcasts as a human test pattern to check accuracy of skin tones).^[5][3] She was quickly discovered and signed withTwentieth Century Fox in Hollywood. In 1956, she was put under contract toMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer.^[6] Because acting allowed her to help her family financially,^[7] she remained in Hollywood and gave up her career in music.

Parrish co-starred/guest-starred in numerous films and television shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She gained wide attention in her first starring role as Daisy Mae in the movie version ofLi'l Abner (1959), where she changed her name from Marjorie Hellen to Leslie Parrish at the director's request.^[8] She appeared in the filmThe Manchurian Candidate (1962), playingLaurence Harvey's on-screen fiancée, Jocelyn Jordan. Other film credits include starring oppositeKirk Douglas inFor Love or Money (1963) andJerry Lewis inThree on a Couch (1966), among others.^[9]

Parrish amassed an extensive résumé of television credits.^[9] Among many other credits, Parrish appeared in guest starring roles on episodes ofThe Wild Wild West,My Three Sons,Perry Mason,Family Affair,Bat Masterson,The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,Adam-12,Good Morning World,Police Story,Batman andMcCloud.^[9] In 1967, she guest-starred on theStar Trek episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?", portraying Lt. Carolyn Palamas, the love interest of the character Apollo.^[10][9] In February 1968, she played oppositePeter Breck in the episode "A Bounty on a Barkley" ofThe Big Valley.^[9] The following month, Parrish made her first guest appearance onMannix in the episode "The Girl in the Frame".^[11][12]

Parrish served as associate producer on the film version ofJonathan Livingston Seagull (1973). Among other things, she hired the director of photographyJack Couffer – who later received an Academy Award nomination for his efforts – and she was responsible for the care of the film's real-life seagulls, which she kept inside a room at aHoliday Inn inCarmel-by-the-Sea, California for the duration of the shoot. When the relationship between authorRichard Bach and directorHall Bartlett disintegrated and a lawsuit followed, Parrish was appointed as the mediator between the two men, but the mediation failed. Ultimately, the film was released in theaters with Bach's name taken off the screenwriting credits, while Bartlett demoted Parrish's credit in the finished film from associate producer to researcher.^[13]

In 1975, Parrish appeared in the low budgetB-MovieThe Giant Spider Invasionwhich is now regarded as acult film.^{[citation needed]}

While acting provided financial stability, her main interest was in social causes including the anti-war and civil rights movements^[14] and, as far back as the mid 1950s, the environment.

Parrish's interests and activities in social movements and politics grew to become her main work. She was a vocal opponent of theVietnam War, and a member of theJeannette Rankin Brigade, a group of notable women who fought against the war and for civil rights.^[15] Parrish founded "STOP" (Speakers and Talent Organized for Peace), an anti-war organization that trained speakers to engage the public.^[16][17]

In 1969, Parrish joined many in an effort to remove Los Angeles mayorSam Yorty from office. She supported and campaigned for a former police lieutenant namedTom Bradley, who was then the city's first black city councilman. Despite high polling numbers prior to the election, Bradley lost to Yorty, giving rise to what was later known as "The Bradley Effect."^[18] Next day, he decided to run again, and over the next four years Parrish worked with him closely to help secure his victory in the next mayoral election. In 1973, Bradley became Los Angeles's first black mayor. Parrish was one of forty activist citizens who served on Bradley's Blue Ribbon Commission to choose new Los Angeles Commissioners.^[19] Parrish and Tom Bradley remained friends for many years.

The lack of media coverage during the Century City riots in 1967 prompted Parrish to think of a new way to cover such events live to prevent suppression and/or manipulation of the news. In 1969, she began to create a television station that would devote itself to covering public events and provide in-depth analysis and discussions of important developments in the world. In 1974,KVST-TV^[20] (Viewer Sponsored Television, Channel 68, Los Angeles) went on the air as part of thePBS system of stations. Film notables, business people and local activists formed the board of directors and provided support for the unique station. After a difficult start, KVST was receiving positive reviews in Los Angeles and nationwide attention. However, by 1976, internal dissension on the board of directors led to the demise of the station;^[21] the signal was turned off and the licence turned in.^[22]

Parrish's concern for the environment dates back to the 1950s when Los Angeles’ severe smog, and the reason for it, worried her. In 1979, she and her then-husband,Richard Bach, built an experimental home in southwest Oregon using 100%solar power with no cooling or heating systems, in order to prove it could be done.^{[citation needed]}

While living in Oregon, Parrish saw devastated forests managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and decided to protest a local timber sale.^[23] With two neighbors, she and Bach established an organization called "Threatened and Endangered: Little Applegate Valley" (TELAV). They worked for two years researching and writing a 600-page legal and scientific protest of BLM's logging of forests which would not regenerate, which was illegal.^[24][25][26] The BLM assistant state director eventually agreed, telling theMedfordMail Tribune that ..."The sale involves enough improprieties in BLM rules and procedures that it can’t be legally awarded. In order to comply with our own procedures we had no choice but to withdraw the sale and reject all bids." The TELAV protest document served as the basis for many future timber sale protests in the U.S. and Canada. TELAV continues to fight for the environment to this day and the Little Applegate Valley has never been logged.^[27]

In 1999, Parrish created a 240-acre (97 ha) wildlife sanctuary onOrcas Island (in the San Juan Islands, Washington State) to save it from normal development techniques which include logging. She named it the "Spring Hill Wildlife Sanctuary".^[28]For seventeen years, she carefully developed the ridge-top property by creating nearly a dozen small, hidden home sites on 25% of the land while preserving the remainder in perpetuity within theSan Juan Preservation Trust. While the property is now fully developed there are no breaks in the heavily forested ridge line. The developed land is invisible from the island community and the forest is intact.^{[citation needed]}

Parrish married songwriterRic Marlow in 1955; the couple divorced in 1961.^[29] In 1981, she marriedRichard Bach,^[30][31] the author of the 1970 bookJonathan Livingston Seagull, whom she met during the making of the 1973 movieof the same name. She was a major element in two of his subsequent books—The Bridge Across Forever (1984) andOne (1988)—which primarily focused on their relationship and Bach's concept ofsoulmates.^[32][29] They divorced in 1999.

* credited as Marjorie Hellen

• The International Leslie Parrish Website - The Official Site /Full Biography page
• Cushman, Marc (2014).These are the Voyages - Star Trek TOS, Season Two. Jacob Brown Media Group.ISBN 978-1199573766.
• Duncan, David Douglas (1969).Self-Portrait: U.S.A.. Harry N. Abrams.ISBN 978-0989238151.
• Armstrong, David (1981).A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Media in America. South End Press.ISBN 978-0896081932.
• Wagner, Eleanor Klein (1977).Independent Political Coalitions, Electoral, Legislative and Community: Oral History Transcript. Forgotten Books.ISBN 978-1176537408.
• Bach, Richard (1984).The Bridge Across Forever. Pan Publishing.ISBN 9780440108269.
• Green, Paul (2007).Pete Duel: A Biography. McFarland.ISBN 978-0786430628.
• Who's Who in America 1978-1979 - Volume 2 (40th ed.). Marquis Who's Who. 1978. p. 2504.ISBN 9780837901404.

• Official website
• Leslie Parrish atIMDb 

• 1935 births
• Actresses from Pennsylvania
• American film actresses
• American television actresses
• Living people
• Actors from Bucks County, Pennsylvania
• People from Melrose, Massachusetts
• University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni
• 20th-century American actresses
• 21st-century American women

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• Short description matches Wikidata
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• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2023