Actress Leslie Parrish, known for 'Li’l Abner' and 'The Manchurian Candidate', dies at 90

Leslie Parrish, born Marjorie Hellen in 1935, died at 90 in Washington state, a detail. She rose to fame as Daisy Mae in Paramount Pictures' 1959 musical Li’l Abner and later portrayed Jocelyn Jordan in John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate, a role she cited as her favorite. Her screen work included parts with Vic Morrow, Kirk Douglas, and guest spots on Star Trek and Batman, while television appearances covered shows such as Perry Mason and The Wild Wild West.

In the 1960s she became an outspoken anti-war activist, helping found the peace group STOP! and supporting the short-lived KVST-TV, an early public-affairs channel. Parrish also served as associate producer on the 1973 film Jonathan Livingston Seagull, though a dispute left her credited only as a researcher. She married spiritual author Richard Bach in 1981, inspired two of his books, and after their 1999 divorce retained the rights to his works, later donating land for conservation in Washington.