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Patricia Crowley, a movie actress who became a warmly remembered TV mom for her work on the ’60s series “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” died Sunday at 91.
Her son confirmed her death to THR.
Based on the 1957 book by Jean Kerr about her hectic life as the mother of four boys, the series followed a hit Doris Day movie adaptation. The cast was headed up by Crowley and Mark Miller (father of actress Penelope Ann Miller), and rounded out by a lovable sheepdog, Ladadog.
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Though remembered vividly enough by TV fans, the show lasted only 58 episodes and two seasons (1965-1967). The similarly themed “The Brady Bunch” came later, but Crowley’s character made the cut on a famous 1995 episode of “Roseanne,” which brought together TV moms Crowley, Isabel Sanford of “The Jeffersons,” Barbara Billingsley of “Leave It to Beaver,” Alley Mills of “The Wonder Years,” and June Lockhart of both “Lassie” and “Lost in Space.”
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Crowley was born September 17, 1933, in Olyphant, Pennsylvania. As a teen, she moved to NYC to seek an acting career, immediately joining the chorus of the iconic Broadway musical “Oklahoma!” while attending high school.
She made her proper debut in the 1950 show “Southern Exposure,” and immediately began making TV appearances on dramatic anthology series, and on the 1951 show “A Date with Judy.”
In 1953, she made her feature-film debut in “Forever Female,” in which “an aging actress” played by Ginger Rogers resisted giving up the ingénue part — Rogers was 42.
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She worked in “Money from Home” (1953) with Martin & Lewis and in the Oscar-nominated “Red Garters” (1954). Also in 1954, she landed on the cover of Life magazine.
Among the top-notch series she graced were “The Loretta Young Show” (1957-1959), “Maverick” (1959), “Cheyenne” (1959), “Rawhide” (1963), “The Fugitive” (1963), “The Twilight Zone” (1963), “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” (1964), and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” (1964).
In the ’70s and ’80s, Crowley never slowed down, portraying an adulterous wife who finds herself the victim of murder on “Columbo” (1971), a feminist ally to Angie Dickinson’s Pepper Anderson on “Police Woman” (1976), and upper-crust Emily Fallmont on Season 6 of “Dynasty” (1986).
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Crowley was in the orbit of “Charlie’s Angels” twice (1979 & 1981), set sail on “The Love Boat” three times (1978-1982), twice took her chances on “Fantasy Island” (1978 & 1983), and secured recurring roles on the soaps “Generations” (1989) and “Port Charles” (1997-2001).
In 2001, she played Roger Maris’ widow in the Billy Crystal-directed “61*.”
As her career wound down, she worked less frequently, making her last two guest spots on “The Closer” (2006) and “Cold Case” (2009), and her final feature, “Mont Reve,” in 2012.
Crowley is survived by her second husband, her son, her daughter, five grandkids and four great-grandkids.
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