Yvonne De Carlo died of natural causes on Monday at the age of 84. The name isn’t familiar to you? Remember the quirky matriarch of the Munsters clan, Lily Munster? De Carlo breathed life into that television character–the serenely smiling mother to Eddie and wife to the bumbling, loveable, big-hearted Frankenstein-ian monster, Herman.

Though only on for two seasons in the early 1960s, “The Munsters” became part of television pop culture with its endless reruns and two Munsters movies. Its endearing quality came from the eccentric characters who were just trying to be part of the neighborhood (well, perhaps Grandpa wasn’t trying to fit in).

Lily Munster, played with such ease by De Carlo, was the ultimate mother–always there for her family, smoothing the way, picking up the pieces, making everything all better. Though it made her a star, Lily Munster was a job that De Carlo took for money, as she was fighting to pay huge medical bills for her stuntsman husband Bob Morgan, who had lost his leg in an accident on set.

De Carlo will always be remembered for Lily Munster, but the accomplished actress had a number of movie roles under her belt, the most famous of which was playing wife to Charlton Heston’s Moses in “The Ten Commandments.”

That’s right. Before she was Lily Munster, De Carlo was Sephora, the noble, beautiful, supportive wife of Moses.

So she will live on, in Munsters syndication (it’s on television somewhere in the world right now, I’m sure), and every Easter when “The Ten Commandments” is shown in primetime.

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