Beloved ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Batman’ Actress Dies at 90, Leaving an Extraordinary Legacy

Leslie Parrish, the actress known for her appearances in some of the most iconic films and television series of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, has died at age at age 90 in Washington state. Although she died in late 2025, news of it remained largely known until August 2026, when Erica Berdan, stepdaughter Erica Berdan, whose father was Parrish’s second husband, writer Richard Bach, verified the news for The Hollywood Reporter. Parrish lived largely out of the Hollywood spotlight for many years at the time, making the delayed announcement consistent with the private life she chose after leaving acting. Nevertheless, her career remained familiar to generations through films such as Li'l Abner and The Manchurian Candidate, as well as television appearances in Batman, Star Trek, Perry Mason and many other programs. Her story reached far beyond the entertainment industry to include anti-war activism, civic engagement as well as protecting land. Born Marjorie Hellen in Melrose, Massachusetts, on March 18, 1935, Parrish had an early childhood far removed from the glamorous Hollywood existence she would later experience.

Ultimately, she passed key adolescent years around Upper Black Eddy in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Parrish later remembered how the mountainous landscape surrounding the community contributed to an unusually isolated upbringing compared to children raised closer to larger cities. Philadelphia was not particularly geographically remote, but modern entertainment and communications did not always seem to be within reach. These circumstances contributed to music becoming one of the main interests of her youth. Before acting became an option, Parrish seriously considered becoming a concert pianist. As a young musician, she showed enough talent for piano and composition studies and formed a teenage connection with the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. However, music required not only talent but also money, and formal training could be difficult to maintain. When she was young, Parrish worked and tried to finance her education, but financial constraints ultimately thwarted those ambitions.

Even after it became more difficult to continue her professional piano studies, music remained a part of her life and accounts of her early years record that she also gave piano lessons. Her path from music to modeling doesn't seem to have been carefully planned since childhood. Friends and people she met while working encouraged Parrish to consider modeling. She eventually made her way to New York and began to find work in that field. This decision proved to be important because her work as a model introduced her to people in the entertainment industry when the major studios still had large talent systems. A young woman who had originally envisioned a future centered around the piano suddenly found herself in a completely different career. Parrish was discovered in the 1950s and entered the Hollywood studio system. She began appearing in films in 1955 and racked up several credits that year alone. Among her early credits were roles in A Man Called Peter, along with the Fred Astaire–Leslie Caron musical Daddy Long Legs.

Although none of these roles yet defined her or made her broadly famous decades later, but they placed her in major productions at a time when the American film industry was undergoing significant change. Television became increasingly important and there were more and more opportunities for actors to move from film to the growing television industry. She initially worked professionally under her birth name Marjorie Hellen before becoming known as Leslie Parrish. The name change came at a time when studios and artists often used pseudonyms intended to be memorable to audiences. By 1959, Leslie Parrish had become the professional identity by which she would be known throughout the rest of her professional life. The new name coincided with one of the roles that helped expand her profile beyond small screen appearances. That role was that of Daisy Mae in the 1959 musical Li'l Abner, an adaptation of Al Capp's long-running comic strip and the Broadway musical based on it. Parrish's performance gave her one of the standout parts of her early movie career.

Audiences already knew Daisy Mae, and her appearance in a major studio musical gave Parrish the opportunity to demonstrate a different type of screen presence than some of her previous work. The film has become one of the most frequently mentioned titles in later retrospectives of her career. Parrish continued to transition from films to television throughout the 1960s. Her movie credits grew to encompass Portrait of a Mobster and For Love or Money; later entries included Sex and the Single Girl and Three on a Couch, along with other projects. Those roles brought her alongside leading artists of her time and allowed her to appear in comedy, drama, thriller, science fiction and crime projects. This flexibility became particularly important as television increasingly dominated popular entertainment. One of her most enduring film roles was as the part of Jocelyn Jordan in The Manchurian Candidate, John Frankenheimer’s 1962 political thriller. Parrish portrayed the daughter of an influential political figure and the fiancée of Raymond Shaw, played by Laurence Harvey.

The film, starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, became one of the most discussed political thrillers of its time. Parrish's character was closely linked to the personal and political tragedy that defines the film's later scenes. “The Manchurian Candidate” has made a name for itself far beyond its original theatrical release. Its combination of Cold War fears, political manipulation, assassination and psychological conditioning helped make it a distinctively American thriller. Subsequent generations continued to discover the film through television, home videos and retrospectives, meaning that Parrish's role remained visible long after she retired from acting. For many film fans, Jocelyn Jordan has become one of the roles most closely associated with the Parrish name. Her television career was even more extensive. At a time when network television produced a large number of westerns, crime series, dramas, comedies and adventure programs, Parrish became one of the actors whose face could appear in many different series.

Her résumé featured Perry Mason and Bat Masterson, followed by The Man From U.N.C.L.E., plus The Wild Wild West, Adam-12, McCloud and Police Story and Logan’s Run, among many more. The diversity of these programs shows how frequently active actors of the time switched from one genre to another. Parrish's connection to Batman became particularly memorable due to the series' enduring popularity. Adam West's colorful version of Batman became a major television phenomenon in the 1960s and subsequently developed a strong nostalgic following. Parrish appeared as Glacia Glaze, alongside the villain Mr. Freeze, and became part of the series' vast roster of memorable guest figures. Batman’s exaggerated visual universe contrasted sharply with The Manchurian Candidate’s political gravity, further illustrating the range of projects Parrish accepted. Another significant television appearance was on the original Star Trek. She portrayed Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas in ‘Who Mourns for Adonais?’ a second-season episode first aired on September 22, 1967.

Palamas was part of the crew of the USS Enterprise and took part in the landing mission, where they met a powerful being claiming to be Apollo, the figure worshiped as a god in ancient Greek tradition. Parrish's character became the focus of the story because Apollo developed a fascination with her and tried to convince her to stay with him. Because of its mix of classic mythology and science fiction, the episode remained memorable for Star Trek audiences. Captain Kirk and his crew discover that the being calling itself Apollo belongs to a race advanced either technologically or biologically, possibly the source behind ancient Greek mythology. Palamas, whose expertise also includes ancient cultures, is particularly important in communicating with him. Parrish's appearance therefore took on more than just a decorative cameo role in the episode's narrative. The episode is sometimes misidentified as "The Apple" in later online accounts. That is not correct. “Who mourns for Adonais?” was the second episode of the second season of Star Trek and starred Leslie Parrish and Michael Forest as Apollo.

The costume Parrish wore in the episode became a recognizable artifact of Star Trek memorabilia and was later included in collector auctions. The continued interest in this one TV appearance demonstrates the original Star Trek’s exceptional cultural staying power. When Parrish recorded the installment, no one involved could have imagined that fans would still be analyzing the costumes, characters, and individual scenes decades later. Her performance therefore became part of a wider legacy that went far beyond the normal lifespan of a television guest role. Parrish also had professional connections to comedy. She appeared alongside Jerry Lewis in Three on a Couch in 1966. The film was part of Lewis' highly productive years as a performer and director, giving Parrish another chance to enter a genre quite distant from television thrillers and Western programs. Parrish also took a role in Sex and the Single Girl, the Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood comedy. In the 1970s, Parrish's film work continued, but gradually became less important in her life.

She appeared in the 1975 science fiction and horror cult film “The Giant Spider Invasion,” which made a name for itself among fans of low-budget genre cinema. Its tone and production style were a far cry from studio films like The Manchurian Candidate, illustrating once again how diverse her filmography has become. Her last acting work was in 1978. One of her last appearances was in “No Margin for Error,” a feature film based on the TV series ‘Police Story.’ Parrish portrayed Georgie Hayes in that production, broadcast on April 30, 1978. Following this period, Parrish effectively ended the acting career that had begun more than two decades earlier. Parrish’s departure from Hollywood did not mean she retreated from public concern. Long before her last acting role, she became increasingly politically involved, particularly in the resistance against the Vietnam War. Her involvement developed at a time when the war had become one of the most contentious issues in American public life.

Parrish became involved in anti-war organizations and joined with the Jeannette Rankin Brigade, an anti-war women's movement named after the first female member of the U.S. Congress. Parrish additionally established Speakers and Talent Organized for Peace, commonly known as STOP. The organization used speakers and people from the entertainment world to express their opposition to the Vietnam War. Her political work is therefore not limited to mentioning her name in a public statement. She helped organize others and devoted much of her time to activism while working as an actress. Any modern depiction of this activism benefits from historical context. Parrish's anti-war work was part of the social and political movements of the 1960s and early 1970s and was not a commentary on the current political conflict. Her participation reflected her own opinions and documented activities during this historical period. The description of these activities does not require the adoption or promotion of the positions she held; they simply form part of her documented life. Her public-service engagement also extended to Los Angeles politics.

Parrish supported Tom Bradley, a Los Angeles city councilman who would become the city's first Black mayor. Bradley first unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Mayor Sam Yorty in 1969 and ran again four years later. Parrish remained involved in his political efforts throughout the period leading up through his victorious 1973 campaign. Once Bradley won, Parrish was appointed to a blue ribbon commission tasked with helping select municipal service commissioners in Los Angeles. This role reflected a level of civic engagement that went beyond celebrity endorsement. It also showed how far her concerns had grown far beyond acting by the early 1970s. Bradley’s election carried historic importance: he became the first black mayor of Los Angeles and remained in office for twenty years. Parrish's connection to her campaigns became another example of her decision to use her time and visibility outside of the entertainment industry for causes she personally believed were important. Once again, these events belong more to the historical record than to contemporary political advocacy.

Over the years, protecting the environment has become a growing priority for Parrish. Her second husband was Richard Bach, the writer celebrated chiefly for Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Parrish and Bach bonded not only personally, but also through property and conservation efforts in Washington's San Juan Islands. Their relationship eventually ended, but the land conservation work associated with them continued. On Orcas Island, Parrish became closely associated with the Spring Hill Wildlife Sanctuary. The estate occupied a large area on Mount Woolard and included woodland habitats and a picturesque hill. Instead of allowing conventional development on the entire property, Parrish worked with conservation organizations to permanently protect significant portions of it. The San Juan Preservation Trust documents conservation efforts related to Spring Hill over several years: 1993, 1994, 1995 and 2003. Through those agreements, 168 acres of forest and wildlife habitat ultimately gained protection. The broader Spring Hill property was larger, with the Preservation Trust describing the preserve as covering approximately 230 acres.

This distinction is important because some reports incorrectly indicate that the entire sanctuary spanned exactly 168 acres. The 168-acre figure specifically refers to land protected by conservation easements. Conservation easements are legal instruments for the long-term protection of specific land features. Depending on the agreement, they may restrict development, subdivision, logging or other activities even though the property itself stays in private hands. At Spring Hill, the goal was to preserve much of the forest landscape and wildlife habitat while allowing for carefully planned residential lots outside the reserve. Parrish has explicitly expressed her desire for conservation work to extend far beyond her own life. She linked her environmental philosophy to ideas she had encountered in the writings of the physician and humanist Albert Schweitzer, particularly the concept of respect for life, explaining that she tried to imagine the coming centuries whenever she made decisions concerning the land. Her comments on Spring Hill show how much her priorities have changed post-Hollywood.

She said the conservation project was one of the things she was most proud of and she hoped it would last longer than her other achievements. For someone whose image has appeared in major films and television shows, this statement offers important insight into evaluating her own legacy. The protected area continues to provide habitat for forests and wildlife, showing why Parrish viewed conservation as different from action. A television episode or film may survive culturally, but a conservation action can physically influence what happens to the land decades or even centuries later. For Parrish, this consistency seems to have been particularly meaningful. Her life was therefore far less conventional than a simple Hollywood biography would suggest. She started with youthful ambitions in classical piano, moved into modeling, entered the studio system, established herself as an actress, and then gradually directed much of her energy toward political activism and environmental conservation. The acting career itself was important.

IMDb lists 78 acting appearances, while her official career lists include appearances in films, scripted television shows, variety programs, and other formats. Numbers alone can't determine the importance of a career, but they show that Parrish wasn't just someone remembered from a movie. She worked continuously for over twenty years. Her career also illustrates the reality of working in television in the 1960s. Actors often moved from one successful series to the next in guest roles instead of exclusively identifying with a single show. Parrish could appear in a Western a year, another legal drama, a sci-fi series later, and a colorful superhero comedy soon after. This flexibility helped make her a recognizable face even to viewers who might not immediately remember her name. Batman fans knew Glacia Glaze. Star Trek viewers knew Carolyn Palamas. The cinema audience remembered Jocelyn Jordan or Daisy Mae. Those characters belonged to sharply different genres, but Parrish connected them through a single career.

Her work has also undergone one of the most significant changes in entertainment history. It began at a time when Hollywood studios still had enormous control over the development of actors and the production of feature films. When her acting career concluded during 1978, TV had become the leading medium while the traditional studio system had mostly vanished. Parrish survived long enough to witness all of these performances survive in formats that no one could have predicted at the time of their creation. Television reruns, cable channels, VHS, DVDs, streaming, online clips and fan conventions have continually introduced new viewers to old shows. Guest roles that aired once on a single night could become available permanently. This cultural protection is particularly clear in Star Trek and Batman. Both shows reached audiences across generations and became major franchises. Parrish appeared in these worlds before anyone knew how permanent they would become. The Manchurian candidate achieved longevity through a different route. It did not grow into a TV franchise; instead, it came to be closely studied as Cold War filmmaking. The film’s political ideas, dream sequences, and performances have helped ensure that critics and film historians continue to discuss it. Parrish's Jocelyn exists at the emotional center of some of the film's most important events, and her character lends human feeling to a narrative otherwise shaped by manipulation, political ambition and psychological control. This is one reason why Parrish's photographs from the film continued to appear in retrospectives decades later. Her early musical ambitions never completely disappeared from her life story. The contrast between an aspiring concert pianist and a Hollywood actress shows how careers can change due to economic circumstances and unexpected opportunities. Parrish didn't come to California intending from childhood to become famous through science fiction or political thrillers. Her working identity took shape little by little, and that pattern repeated itself later when activism and conservation replaced action as the dominant priorities. Parrish didn't seem to view leaving Hollywood as the end of meaningful work.

She turned her attention to activities whose consequences she felt might extend beyond entertainment. An example of this is her anti-war organization. During the Vietnam era, artists who spoke publicly about politics were sometimes criticized, and the topic was deeply polarizing. Nevertheless, Parrish openly participated in organized opposition to the war. Historical descriptions of this work must acknowledge both her work and the controversial environment in which she did it, without turning a biography into a current political belief. Her work with Tom Bradley also fits into the history of Los Angeles political life in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Bradley's campaigns focused on issues of race, city government, policing, and urban political coalitions. Parrish supported her and later served on a commission after her victory, but an accurate biography need not tell contemporary readers what political conclusions to draw from this story. Environmental work may be easier to evaluate based on tangible results.

San Juan Preservation Trust records show 168 acres in Spring Hill are protected. This legal protection remains a measurable result, regardless of others' opinions about Parrish's acting career or political positions. Parrish herself believed that the land project could ultimately become the longest-lasting achievement. There is some logic to her prediction. Films and television rely on continued preservation and interest, but protected areas remain physically present in the form of forests and habitats. Her personal life included two marriages. She was initially married to songwriter Ric Marlow. She later married Richard Bach, whose literary fame was largely due to Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The relationship with Bach eventually ended in divorce, but their shared conservation story remained tied to the Spring Hill property. Bach's daughter Erica Berdan was ultimately the individual who verified Parrish’s passing for The Hollywood Reporter. The fact that the confirmation came months after Parrish's death explains why many fans were surprised when obituaries appeared in August 2026 for a death in 2025.

Parrish reportedly lived in Washington state and died there in late 2025 at the age of 90. Public reports related to the announcement did not provide a specific date of death or a detailed medical cause. A responsible obituary should therefore avoid inventing one thing or another. This is particularly important for late obituaries. Online articles sometimes fill gaps with speculation or inadvertently turn general statements like “late last year” into concrete data that was never actually reported. In Parrish's case, verified information shows her age, Washington state as her place of residence, and late 2025 as her time of death. The public did not learn of her death until August 2026. Entertainment media subsequently revisited the scope of her career, emphasizing both her famous film appearances and the activism that formed much of her later life. Entertainment Weekly described her as both a prolific film actress and an antiwar and environmental advocate. This combination sets Parrish apart from many celebrity obituaries that focus primarily on appearances.

The last few decades have not been an easy retirement for them. Her conservation efforts and civic engagement represented conscious work that she believed was important. In particular, the Spring Hill project creates a connection between the public and private phases of life. Hollywood fame depended on visibility. Land protection often occurs quietly through legal agreements, nonprofit organizations, and long-term management. Parrish moved from one form of inheritance to another. Her personal philosophy toward the country also suggests that she thought in generational rather than immediate terms. She brought up the idea of ​​imagining what the property might look like hundreds of years from now. Such long delays are unusual in the entertainment industry, where success is often measured by weekend box office or season ratings. For Parrish, the change appears to have been significant. Her own description of conservation efforts as something she was most proud of shows that she did not automatically prioritize fame over other achievements. Yet Hollywood remains the reason millions recognize her today.

Film and television preserve faces and performances in a way that few professions can. A viewer watching “Li’l Abner” or “The Manchurian Candidate” today will see Parrish the same age she was decades ago when the camera caught her. There is a special contrast every time a classic Hollywood artist dies. Her real life continued to age, change and move away from the original role, while her younger on-screen image remained permanently available. Parrish has lived almost half a century since her last acting role. Her last appearance was in 1978, while her death occurred in 2025. This means that the part of her life spent outside of active cinema was considerably longer than her Hollywood career itself. The description of her as exclusively a former actress has been particularly misleading in recent decades. She was also an activist, environmentalist and participant in civic affairs. The size of this life explains why different viewers may remember completely different versions of Leslie Parrish. Fans of classic musicals will immediately think of Daisy Mae. Fans of political thrillers may remember Jocelyn Jordan.

Batman viewers may remember Glacia Glaze. Star Trek fans can imagine Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas standing opposite Apollo. Environmental organizations in Washington may instead remember the woman linked to protecting the Orcas Island forest. All of these identities belong to the same person. Her death at age 90 caps a life that intersected several major chapters of 20th-century American culture: the studio era, the rapid expansion of television, Cold War cinema, the Vietnam War protest movement, the evolution of urban policy, and the growth of private land conservation. Not every aspect of Parrish's life will be equally important to every reader. It's natural. A person’s legacy is rarely a single thing. For spectators, surviving performances provide a direct route to her work. Historians can use her activism to understand links between Hollywood figures and political movements of the 1960s. For environmentalists, Spring Hill's protected acreage constitutes a tangible environmental legacy. And for those who knew her personally, public records can only capture part of the woman behind these accomplishments.

Her story also challenges the idea that leaving a highly visible career is tantamount to disappearing. Compared to artists who continue into their 70s or 80s, Parrish stopped performing at a relatively young age. Nevertheless, she spent the next decades working on issues that she considered significant. The decision feels less like a withdrawal from life and more like a change in priorities. Fame gave her a public identity. Activism gave her a different form of engagement. Conservation gave her a physical heritage tied to the land. Taken together, these chapters provide a much more complete picture than any individual TV episode or film reel. There is also something appropriate about the intimacy surrounding the end of life. After decades away from Hollywood, Parrish's death was not immediately accompanied by a major public announcement. It was months before the entertainment media learned what had happened. When this news finally became public in August 2026, the reaction offered a chance to look again at a career that had quietly remained part of popular culture through reruns and classic films.

Of course, obituary headlines mentioned Batman, Star Trek, Li'l Abner and The Manchurian Candidate. These titles provide readers with recognizable entry points. But the fullest story goes far beyond them. Leslie Parrish came into the entertainment industry after a music-oriented youth. She became a model. She entered Hollywood. She has performed in dozens of projects, then entered political activism during one of the most turbulent periods in modern American history. She was active in civic affairs in Los Angeles. She left acting. And she has put a lot of energy into conserving forests and wildlife habitats. The 168 protected acres at Spring Hill may prove particularly important in understanding how she wanted to be remembered. The San Juan Preservation Trust report makes clear that the land was protected over a period of years through multiple conservation agreements rather than a single symbolic gesture. This required planning and a desire to limit future development of valuable real estate.

Conservation easements are specifically designed to endure through ownership changes and give Parrish's project the long-term quality she desires. The forest is therefore not merely a private sanctuary. It embodies a choice about what ought to endure once the individual who made that decision leaves. Parrish once suggested that this work might take longer than anything she had done before. Her death now gives these statement greater weight. Hollywood viewers can keep seeing her through surviving performances. Star Trek viewers will always come across Carolyn Palamas. Film students will continue to watch “The Manchurian Candidate.” Fans of classic television will still find her in Batman and Perry Mason. In the meantime, Orcas Island's protected forest will continue to exist off-screen. This combination represents a legacy of unusual magnitude. Leslie Parrish was 90 years old when she died in late 2025 in Washington state. Months later, in August 2026, the public learned of her death. There was no need to exaggerate the announcement or invent circumstances for it.

Her documented life already contained enough notable turning points. From an isolated childhood and her ambitions as a pianist, she found herself in Hollywood studios and internationally acclaimed films. She then left Hollywood to pursue activism and conservation. And in her later years she had largely moved away from the celebrity attention that had made her famous. For anyone who only remembers Leslie Parrish from an old TV episode, looking back at her entire life reveals a much bigger story. She was an actress in the formative decades of television. She was part of films that remained culturally significant. She has used her public visibility for historical political causes. And it has helped permanently protect a significant portion of Washington's forests. Her death represents the loss of another direct link to mid-century Hollywood, but the memory she left behind is more than just nostalgia. Her work has survived in cinema. Her political commitment is recorded in historical reports. And its ecological legacy lives on in protected areas.

This is perhaps the most fitting way to remember Leslie Parrish: not just another familiar face from Hollywood's past, but a woman whose interests and priorities continued to evolve long after the cameras stopped rolling.