Celebrity Deaths
‘The Manchurian Candidate’ Actress Leslie Parrish Dies Aged 90
Leslie Parrish has passed away at the age of 90.
She is best known for appearing in movies like The Manchurian Candidate and Li’l Abner.
Although The Hollywood Reporter first reported news of Parrish’s death on Sunday, Aug. 23, her stepdaughter Erica Berdan confirmed that the former actress died in Washington in late 2025, per People.
Parrish was born in Massachusetts in 1973 and was raised in Pennsylvania before moving to New York in 1953. Although she started her career using her birth name, Marjorie Hellen, she changed it in 1959.
The actress is best-known for appearing in 1962’s The Manchurian Candidate, in which she portrayed the love interest of Laurence Harvey‘s character. Her other notable credits include For Love or Money, Sex and the Single Girl, Three on a Couch and The Money Jungle. On television in the 60’s Parrish also appeared in Batman, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Star Trek.
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Outside of the screen, Parrish was passionate about social causes and took part in protests against the Democratic National Convention in 1968, according to her official website. Her website biography notes that she helped create an organization called STOP! (Speakers and Talent Organized for Peace), produced rock concerts and events to raise money for the peace movement, and campaigned for Tom Bradley in his first two runs for Los Angeles mayor in 1969 and ’73.
She was involved in the launch of KVST-TV, a Los Angeles forerunner of C-SPAN. In recent years, Parrish created a 240-acre wildlife sanctuary on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington to preserve its natural habitats.
According to Parrish’s website, she was wed to lyricist Ric Marlow from 1955 to 1961 before marrying Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull author, in 1977. The couple divorced in 1999. Her and Bach had a daughter together, Erica Berdan.
In recent years, Parrish vowed “to stay out of public view as much as possible,” but at the time of her death she was writing an autobiography about her life.
