IIt is with great sadness that last night I read that the Hollywood star Pat Crowley passed away in Los Angeles at 91 just three days before the 92nd birthday.

Patricia Margaret Crowley was born on September 17, 1933 in Olyphant, Pennsylvania. As a teenager she worked on Broadway and in television appearing in A Date with Judy TV adaptation in 1950. She started her Hollywood career when she was selected to appear with Ginger Rogers and William Holden in Forever Female. More than 500 girls had tested for the role (including Kathryn Grant) of a 19-year-old actress that competes with a middle-aged Broadway star (played by Rogers) for a part in a play and for the heart of its writer (Holden). Paramount billed her as “Paramount’s future star Pat Crowley” She also appeared in Martin and Lewis’s Money from Home. For these performances, she received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of 1953. She immediately started to work on many films and she starred with Rosemary Clooney in the musical Red Garters, with Audie Murphy in Walk the Proud Land, with Tony Curtis in The Square Jungle, with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray in There’s Always Tomorrow, she demonstrated her musical talents singing two songs with Martin and Lewis in Hollywood or Bust (the last Martin and Lewis film) in 1956 and in films such as Key Witness, To Trap a Spy and The Biscuit Eater.
 
Later she transitioned to television appearing in the most prestigious early TV anthologies like Kraft Television Theater, The Philco Television Playhouse, Alfred Hitchcock Hour and General Electric Theater. She earned new fame when she starred in the popular TV series Please Don’t Eat the Daisies in 1965.She appeared as a guest or recurring character in series like Dynasty, Friends, Charlie’s Angels, The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, Maverick, Bronco, Columbo, Happy Days, Police Woman, Hawaii 5-0, Generations and The Bold and The Beautifull among others. Pat Crowley starred in the Untouchables pilot and more recently in port Charles, She appeared in over 500 episodes of television series and TV movies across more than 100 different programs before retiring in 2012 after the film Mont Reve.

She appeared in many Dean Martin Specials singing with him and in other TV programs as herself.
 
Pat Crowley was one of the last actresses of the Hollywood Golden Age, she was one of the last to receive the typical star trimming of the studio system but Paramount and the system was already collapsing from the rapid transformation of the entire industry.

Pat Crowley made her debut in television in 1950 and did her last appearance in 2013 appearing in the Pioneers of Television, 63 years after, one of the longest TV careers on record.
 
She was a very talented performer that she spent her life sharing her talent with her grateful audience.
When Pat Crowley started working in Paramount Bing Crosby was the star of the studio and they interacted in the lot. 
 In My Last Years With Bing (Page 363) Kathryn Crosby remebered a dinner with Pat Crowley in 1976.

“…on January 9th (1976), I dined with Pat Crowley, formerly a girlfriend of Bing’s and fellow starlet of mine, now safely married to Ed Hookstratten. Old Values die hard. “You got that great part in Forever Female that I tested for at Paramount”, I reminded her indignantly. “Indeed I did”, she (Crowley) signed. “But you got the man”
 

Last edited by Pantelis Kavouras (02/10/2025 4:00 pm)