Lee Meriwether: Not Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger turned 100 today, and I was one of the millions bemoaning the fact that death has taken Tina Turnerand not that repulsive old baby murderer. I was going to do a post today on all the comedians who played him in movies and comedy sketches but why do him even that homage? The decision not to did leave me in a pickle, however, as I’d already written about all the folks born on this day who interest me, or so I thought: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Cilla Black, Willie Best,Knute Erickson, Wally Vernon, Steve Franken, Al Bernie, Wild Bill Hickok, and others.

In the end, I was able to trade one sort of bombshell for another, however. For I was reminded that there was plenty that was interesting about Lee Meriwether (botd 1935) and so we undertake to celebrate her. The high points:

She was Miss America 1955. For decades, Meriwether was the most successful Miss America in show business, prior to the advent of Vanessa Williams. She attained greater fame than Phyllis George or Bess Myerson among the wider public, I am sure. Yet, she is but the third Miss America we have written about on Travalanche, the others having been Fay Lanphier, who was briefly in silent movies, and Vonda Kay Van Dyke, whose skill in the talent competition was ventriloquism. FYI, Meriwether recited a John Millington Synge monologue to help her win the crown. From here she became one of the first Today Show girls.

She is the third-best-remembered Catwoman onBatman(1966), after Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt. Internet image-shoppers beware: MANY of the Catwomen identified as Meriwether online are actually Newmar.

She guest starred in the 1969 Star Trek episode “That Which Survives”, playing the mysterious woman who says “I am for YOU” before killing crew members with her lethal touch.

She co-starred with Buddy Ebsen on Barnaby Jones (1973-80), earning an Emmy nomination.

She played Lily in the Munsters reboot (1988-1991).

Meriwether was also a regular on Irwin Allen’s Time Tunnel (1966-67) and The New Andy Griffith Show (1971). Her movies include True Grit: A Further Adventures (1978, with Warren Oates in the John Wayne role), The Undefeated (1969, with Wayne), and The Brothers O’Toole (1973) with John Astin. And she guest starred on dozens of shows like F Troop,My Three Sons,Family Affair, Love American Style,The Love Boat,Fantasy Island, and Murder She Wrote. She was in over 60 editions of Match Game, and over 50 of The $10,000 Pyramid. Later work includes a long recurring part on All My Children (1996-2011) and a guest shot on Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23. Her most recent screen credit is in 2019.

In a world which also has aLee Grant and a Lee Remick, several other Catwomen, a previous Lily Munster, and 100 other Miss Americas, this we salute Lee Meriwether for above all today: she is not Henry Kissinger. And who else can we say that about, I mean, really?