A respectful HE salute to L’il Abner and The Manchurian Candidate costar Leslie Parrish, who passed late last year at age 90.
Parrish would have been 91 if she’d lived past her most recent birthday (3.18.26), which is neither here nor there although she did pass roughly eight or nine months ago.
I’ve been wanting to say the following about The Manchurian Candidate for decades:
Midway into John Frankenheimer‘s 1962 classic Jocelyn Jordan (Parrish) slips into a “fascist rally” costume party thrown by Senator John Iselin (James Gregory).
But when she appears before the brainwashed Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) in a private room, Jocelyn is wearing a Queen of Diamonds outfit — a huge “whoa!” because Dr. Yen Lo (Khigh Dhiegh) has implanted this image into Raymond’s brain as a compliance trigger. Except Jocelyn is not part of any long-gestating commie plot to assassinate a presidential candidate and install Iselin in the White House — she’s quite ignorant of the plot and simply loves Raymond, etc.
So why in the hell is Jocelyn wearing that costume? Did John’s evil wife Eleanor (Angela Lansbury) urge her to wear it? Okay, but why would Lansbury do that? And why would Jocelyn comply? She surely understand how much Raymond hates her.
This was a huge error on Frankenheimer’s part. For the film falls completely apart when she appears in that get-up, and it doesn’t recover for several minutes.
As noted, Parris died eight or nine months ago at age 90, according to THR‘s Mike Barnes. The announcement was recently confirmed by Erica Berdan, a daughter of Parrish’s second husband, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” author Richard Bach (still with us, also 90).
Berdan to self immediately after Parrish’s passing in late ’25: “Well, we’re all sorry but she certainly led a full life. Yes, Leslie costarred in one of the great paranoid political thrillers of all time, but somehow I don’t feel compelled to share this sad news with the world at this very moment. I’ll get around to it in two or three weeks. Certainly by year’s end.”
Berdan to self in March ’26: “Yeah, I kinda forgot to announce Leslie’s passing but I haven’t forgotten my duty. I’m a mature, vigilant person and I fully appreciate that fans of L’il Abner or The Manchurian Candidate will want to hear the sad news about Leslie having left the earth…uhm, three or four months ago. I’ll definitely send out a press release of some kind or, you know, call one of the trades by the end of this month. I got this.”
Berdan to self in early June ’26: “God, I can’t believe my lack of discipline! I still haven’t broken the news, and now it’s almost become a sick joke. I mean, people might raise their eyebrows or even make fun of me for dropping the ball for…what’s it been now, seven months? Can somebody else in the family handle this? I don’t want to become a figure of derision.”
Berdan to self in late August ’26: “I can’t even look at myself in the mirror now. Leslie left us eight or nine months ago and here I am, still plotzing, still dilly-dallying. I have to do this today…right now. Okay, no later than tomorrow. Certainly by Friday.”