Pat Crowley, the prolific actress with more than 100 credits to her name who starred as Joan Nash on the 1960s sitcom, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, has died. She was 91.
Crowley died of natural causes on Sunday, two days before her 92nd birthday, her son, Jon Hookstratten, who is the executive vice president of administration and operations at Sony Pictures Entertainment, confirmed to Entertainment Weekly.
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Born Patricia Crowley on Sept. 17, 1933, in Olyphant, Pa., the future actress left her hometown for New York as a teenager, tagging along with her elder sister Ann. Both girls found success — Ann landed a gig in the chorus of Oklahoma! on Broadway and later played lead roles in Paint Your Wagon and Seventeen. Meanwhile, Pat made her Broadway debut as a high school senior, playing the lead in Southern Exposure in 1950.
She then broke into film with Paramount’s Forever Female in 1953, starring alongside Ginger Rogers and William Holden as a young actress who wants the lead role in a play. That same year, she starred in Money From Home with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and won the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year for her performances.
Though she would go on to accrue more than 100 screen credits, guest starring on various TV shows throughout her career, Crowley is best known for leading Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, the 1965-67 NBC series based on the 1960 movie starring Doris Day. Crowley played mother of four Joan Nash, who blew past traditional housewife tropes and worked as a freelance newspaper columnist.
The show, which also starred Mark Miller as Jim Nash, did not immediately find its audience. It spanned just 58 episodes across two seasons. But Please Don’t Eat the Daisies later achieved popularity in the 1970s, thanks to reruns. Prior to the sitcom, Crowley guested on TV series, including The Untouchables, Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Maverick. She also co-starred with Burgess Meredith and Robert Sterling in “Printer’s Devil,” a 1963 episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone.
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After Daisies, she continued appearing on popular TV shows well into the 2000s, with roles on Columbo, Friends, Hawaii Five-O, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, Frasier, Charmed and Murder, She Wrote. Crowley later played Mary Scanlon in more than 250 episodes of the daytime drama and General Hospital spinoff, Port Charles. She also appeared on soaps including Generations, The Bold and the Beautiful, and Falcon Crest. She later had a recurring role in the sixth season of Dynasty, playing Emily Fallmont, the wife of Senator Buck Fallmont.
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On the big screen, Crowley was active throughout the ’50s and ’60s, with credits including Red Garters (1954), The Square Jungle (1955), There’s Always Tomorrow (1956), Hollywood or Bust (1956), Key Witness (1960) and The Wheeler Dealers (1963). Her final film role was in 2012’s Mont Reve.
Along with her son, Crowley is survived by her husband, television producer and executive Andy Friendly, whom she wed in 1986. Prior to that, Crowley was married to the late Ed Hookstratten, the powerful entertainment attorney who represented the likes of Johnny Carson, Elvis Presley, and Vin Scully. Crowley is also survived by her daughter, Ann; son-in-law Robert; daughter-in-law Marion; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
