Celebrity Nooz: Pat Priest

Pat Priest

Updated: 10/17/22

Name: Pat Priest

Birth Name: Patricia Ann Priest

Born: August 15, 1936 in Bountiful, Utah, USA

Claim To Fame: Pat Priest is a semi-retired American actress known best for portraying the second Marilyn Munster on the television show The Munsters (1964-1966) after the original actress, Beverley Owen, left after 13 episodes.

Family Life: Priest has been married twice. First was to Pierce Andrew Jensen Jr. from 1955 to 1967, together they had two sons - Pierce Andrew III and Lance. She then wed Frederick Hansing in 1981.

Info: Her father, Roy Priest, and her mother, Ivy Baker Priest, was the United States Treasurer from 1953-1961.

Graduated from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia in 1954.

She is also a graduate of Marjorie Webster Junior College.

Served as a page girl at the 1952 Republican National Convention.

In 1954, she was crowned as the first International Azalea Festival Queen in Norfolk, Virginia.

In the 2000s, she was living in Hailey, ID, where she restored and resold houses.

In 2001, Priest was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She was treated at St. Luke's Mountain States Tumor Institute and was later in remission.

In 2010, was an antique dealer, along with her sister, at a shop in Boise, ID.

Trivia: Early on, Priest worked as a singer and actress on local television stations, including WTTG in Washington, D.C.

In the late 1950s, she acted in stage productions, including Bus Stop and The Tender Trap.

Auditioned for the role of Mary Ann Summers on Gilligan's Island (1964), which went to Dawn Wells.

Priest's big break came when she replaced actress Beverley Owen on the television sitcom The Munsters. Owen departed the series after the first 13 episodes in order to get married. Marilyn's character was a running gag, as she was a beautiful blonde treated as the ugly member of a family composed of classic monsters (vampire, werewolf, and Frankenstein's Monster).

In a move which angered fans, Universal Pictures decided to use starlet Debbie Watson (12 years Priest's junior) in the role of Marilyn Munster in the 1966 feature Munster, Go Home! (1966) instead of Priest.

After the series ended, Priest appeared on episodes of television programs such as Bewitched, Perry Mason, Death Valley Days and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Priest's film roles included Easy Come, Easy Go (1967) with the King of Rock 'N' Roll - Elvis Presley.

In the 1980s, Priest retired from acting but continued to attend some of the nostalgia conventions and Munsters revivals around the country.

Where Are They Now: Even though Priest has been retired from acting for some time she did return to the screen for two Munsters movies - TV Movie Here Come the Munsters (1995) and more recently Rob Zombie's The Munsters (2022).

View other 'Where Are They Now' celebrities

Read the latest issue of Celebrity Nooz

Subscribe!