julie parrish

Julie Parrish
Paradise, Hawaiian Style, 1966

Real Name: Ruby Joyce Wilbar
Born: October 21, 1940 in Middlesboro, KY.

Died (62) October 1, 2003

Julie's professional acting career began a a result of winning a national contest for "Young Model of The Year" at a modeling school chain. First prize was an appearance in Jerry Lewis' It's Only Money (1962), billed as "Joyce Wilbar". She changed her name to Julie Parrish before making her second film, The Nutty Professor, again with Jerry Lewis, in 1963. She made many guest appearances on TV series, including "Dobie Gillis", before taking a copter ride with Elvis in Paradise, Hawaiian Style. Julie played Joanna, the girl who works at the Kahala Hilton. She also had the distinction of being in the scene where Elvis sings "A Dog's Life" (photo above right). Definitely gets my vote as "silliest movie song". (From listening to some of the out-takes, I think Elvis agreed; he can hardly make it through without laughing.) Julie went on to appear as Miss Piper in the episode of Star Trek, "The Menagerie", which used footage from the original un-aired pilot episode, "The Cage". More recently, Julie played Maggie Brady in the TV series, Capitol (photo above left).

More recently, Julie had the recurring role of Joan Diamond on the TV series, Beverly Hills 90210. Until recently,
Julie had been a full-time counselor at Haven Hills shelter for battered women and their children. Currently,
Julie speaks out against domestic violence whenever she can, especially to teens.
Julie was the first of the actresses that I was able to correspond with directly about these pages, and she's been a tremendous help,
not only with info for this page, but in helping to get me in touch with some of the other actresses, as well.

Folks, it's with sadness I have to pass on the news that Julie passed away on October 1st. Julie was the first of the actresses on this site to correspond with me personally, and she was quite a special lady!. The family asks, in lieu of flowers, that donations be given to the cause of aiding battered women and their children. For more information visit her official website. Donations are also encouraged for the Julie Parrish Scholarship Fund for the Performing Arts, c/o United Bank and Trust, 205 E. Chicago Blvd., Tecumseh, Michicgan 49286. Some other sites have tribute pages, like the Elvisly Yours site, and Julie's niece Dana has a nice tribute to Aunt Julie! Do yourself a favor, visit these sites and Julie's official site, and get to know a great lady! Julie, we'll miss ya!

Julie Parrish died October 1, 2003 of complications following an endoscopy for gastric reflux disease, aged 62, and was survived by two sisters and two brothers. She had gallantly fought ovarian cancer in her 50s.

Julie Parrish IMDB