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Patricia Crowley offered a delightful and engaging glimpse into 1950s cinema and 1960s television, effortlessly brightening every scene with her warm charm and youthful appeal, qualities she retains to this day. At the height of her career, she reached top TV fame in the mid-1960s portraying the beleaguered wife and mother on the popular series Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965), effortlessly making the original Doris Day film role her own. Alongside TV husband Mark Miller, the attractive duo deserved a longer run than the show's brief two seasons, though shifting audience preferences amid the rise of the counterculture era likely contributed to its early cancellation.
Born September 17, 1933 (with some sources mistakenly citing 1929) in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, to Vincent, a coal mining foreman, and Helen (Swartz) Crowley, Patricia’s interest in performing was sparked by her older sister Ann Crowley (born October 17, 1929). At ten, Patricia earned a walk-on part during Ann’s Chicago musical production. Ann went on to a promising musical career, appearing in late 1940s and early 1950s New York shows including Carousel, Oklahoma!, and Paint Your Wagon. By age 11, Patricia was working as a photographic model and later attended New York’s High School of Performing Arts. Shortly after high school, she won her first significant TV role, poised to become a leading teen star as the bobbysoxer lead in the Saturday morning series A Date with Judy (1951), adapted from the popular 1940s radio show. However, when the series transitioned to prime time, another actress replaced her.
Like her sister, Patricia had musical talents and appeared in several musical stage productions such as Tovarich and Kiss Me Kate (as Bianca). Credited as "Pat Crowley," she made a promising Broadway debut in the brief comedy Southern Exposure in 1950, earning the 1951 Theatre World Award for "promising personality." She followed this with a one-day run in the comedy Four Twelves Are 48.
After various early 1950s TV roles, Pat was brought to Hollywood to co-star opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their typical slapstick film Money from Home (1953), playing a spirited lady veterinarian. She then shined in the show business comedy Forever Female (1953) alongside William Holden and Ginger Rogers. As a young hopeful competing with Rogers for a coveted Broadway ingénue role, Pat made a strong impression, earning a Golden Globe for "best promising female newcomer." She next took the second female lead in the musical Red Garters (1954), where headliners Rosemary Clooney and Guy Mitchell performed most songs, though Pat had a dance number opposite Mitchell to "Meet a Happy Guy."
While much of her work came from dramatic TV roles, Pat continued with film roles including playing Tony Curtis’s girlfriend in the boxing drama The Square Jungle (1955), the ingénue in the soap opera There's Always Tomorrow (1956) alongside Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, and Joan Bennett, and reuniting with Martin & Lewis in their final film together, Hollywood or Bust (1956), before their professional split.
As her film career waned in the late 1950s—though she appeared effectively with Jeffrey Hunter in the crime drama Key Witness (1960) as a couple terrorized by Dennis Hopper—Pat found steadier work on television, guest-starring on popular shows such as Bonanza (1959), Cheyenne (1955), The Twilight Zone (1959), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), and occasional comedies like The Tab Hunter Show (1960). Her greatest success came in sitcoms when cast as Joan Nash, the unconventional, overwhelmed wife and columnist of an English professor, whose four clever sons and large sheepdog added to the chaos in Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965). Based on Jean Kerr’s bestselling book, the role suited Pat (now billed as Patricia) perfectly and made her a household name.
Since then, Patricia has maintained a strong presence on television, though she did not receive star-making film opportunities again. She is best known to later audiences for regular roles on daytime dramas Generations (1989-1990), Port Charles (1997-2003), and The Bold and the Beautiful (2005). Guest appearances on sitcoms such as Frasier (1993), Roseanne (1988), and Friends (1994), along with recurring roles on Joe Forrester (1975), Dynasty (1981), and Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), showcased her versatility. More recently, she appeared in episodes of The Closer and Cold Case and featured in the film Mont Reve (2012).
In 1958, Patricia married Ed Hookstratten, a successful attorney representing top entertainment and sports figures. They had two children, a son Jon and a daughter Ann, named after her sister. After their marriage ended two decades later, she married producer Andy Friendly in 1986. While many believe Patricia Crowley deserved greater recognition in Hollywood, especially in film, she has nonetheless proven to be a charming, vibrant, and enduring presence.
