| Birth Name: | Celeste Jeanne Yarnall |
| Birth Date: | 1944 7, mf=y |
| Birth Place: | Long Beach, California, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Westlake Village, California, U.S. |
| Yearsactive: | 1962–2018 |
| Children: | 1 |
Celeste Jeanne Yarnall (July 26, 1944 – October 7, 2018) was an American actress primarily of the 1960s and 1970s. She started her career on television before moving to feature film roles.
A native of Long Beach, California, Yarnall was discovered by Ozzie Nelson and his son Ricky[1] and appeared on their show The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet. She was named Miss Rheingold 1964[2] (the last person to hold that title) while modeling and appearing in TV commercials. She made her film debut in The Nutty Professor (1963) and, after appearing at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, was spotted by producer Harry Alan Towers, who scouted her to appear as the central character in his film Eve. She also appeared as a "Scream Queen" who is terrorized by a headless monster in the horror film Beast of Blood (1971).
Yarnall was known for her role as Yeoman Martha Landon in the episode "The Apple" (1967), a character she would return to in the fan-made film (2006). She was cast in a small role opposite Elvis Presley in Live a Little, Love a Little (1968), as a party-goer wearing a glittery silver mini-dress and briefly a white fur coat, who captures Presley's attention and prompts him to sing "A Little Less Conversation". After she attended the Cannes Film Festival in 1968, the National Association of Theatre Owners named her "Most Promising New Star" for 1968, and the Foreign Press Corps named her "Most Photogenic Beauty of the Year".[1] In 1971, she starred as the titular vampire in Stephanie Rothman's low-budget film The Velvet Vampire, of which Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader said, "Given the genre (horror) and the budget (extremely low), it may seem perverse to say that Stephanie Rothman's 1971 film is among the best women's films ever made, but so it is."[3]
From 1964 until 1970, Yarnall was married to Sheldon Silverstein,[4] with whom she had her only child, a daughter, Camilla Yarnall, born in 1970. She was married from 1979 until 1990 to Robert Colman[4] [5] and, from 2010 until her death, to British artist Nazim Nazim.[6]
When her acting career diminished, Yarnall began to work in real estate. Despite warnings about limited opportunities for success, she earned a six-figure income in her first year with a real-estate firm. By 1982, she owned Celeste Yarnall & Associates, which a syndicated columnist described as "one of L.A.'s top office real-estate firms."[7]
In 1998, Yarnall achieved a doctorate in nutrition, following which she taught nutrition at Pacific Western University. She also became a breeder of Tonkinese cats and wrote two books: Natural Dog Care: A Complete Guide to Holistic Care for Dogs and Natural Cat Care: A Complete Guide to Holistic Care for Cats.[8] Yarnall attended Star Trek conventions where she signed autographs for fans.[9]
Yarnall died at her home in Westlake Village, California on October 7, 2018, aged 74, from ovarian cancer, which she had been diagnosed with in 2014.[10] [11] [12] She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[13]
| Film | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
| 1963 | The Nutty Professor | College Student | Uncredited | |
| 1963 | A New Kind of Love | Uncredited | ||
| 1963 | Under the Yum Yum Tree | College Girl | Uncredited | |
| 1966 | Around the World Under the Sea | Secretary | ||
| 1968 | Eve | Eve | ||
| 1968 | Live a Little, Love a Little | Ellen | ||
| 1969 | Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice | Susan | ||
| 1970 | Beast of Blood | Myra J. Russell | ||
| 1971 | The Velvet Vampire | Diane LeFanu | ||
| 1972 | The Mechanic | The Mark's Girl | ||
| 1973 | Scorpio | Helen Thomas | ||
| 1987 | Fatal Beauty | Laura | ||
| 1990 | Shattered Dreams | Madge | ||
| 1990 | Funny About Love | Madge | ||
| 1991 | Driving Me Crazy | Volvo Boss | ||
| 1991 | Driving Me Crazy | Beverly Hills Shopper | ||
| 1993 | Born Yesterday | Mrs. Hedges | ||
| 1993 | Midnight Kiss | Sheila | ||
| 2003 | Shrink Rap | Gloria | ||
| 2005 | Skinwalker: Curse of the Shaman | Gwynn Stevens | Video | |
| 2007 | The Two Sisters | Nurse Louise Brennan | ||
| 2007 | Special Wedding Guest | Video | ||
| 2012 | Elvis Found Alive | Celeste Yarnall | ||
| 2018 | Unbelievable! | |||
| Television | ||||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
| 1962 | The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet | Girl | Episode: "Rick and the Maid of Honor" | |
| 1962-1963 | My Three Sons | Ginny Stewart | 2 episodes | |
| 1966 | The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | Andrea Fouchet | Episode: "The Monks of St. Thomas Affair" | |
| 1966 | Bewitched | Student Nurse | Episode: "And Then There Were Three" | |
| 1967 | Yeoman Martha Landon | Episode: "The Apple" | ||
| 1968 | It Takes a Thief | Ilsa | Episode: "Locked in the Cradle of the Keep" | |
| 1968 | The F.B.I. | Julie | Episode: "The Mercenary" | |
| 1968 | Hogan's Heroes | Nanny / Wilhelmina | 2 episodes | |
| 1968 | Land of the Giants | Marna Whelan | Episode: "The Golden Cage" | |
| 1968 | Bonanza | Katie Kelly | Episode: "Queen High" | |
| 1969 | Mannix | Tawny | Episode: "Eagles Sometimes Can’t Fly" | |
| 1969 | The Survivors | Episode: "Chapter One" | ||
| 1969 | In Name Only | Anne | Television film | |
| 1969 | Ethel Miller | Episode: "Draw a Straight Man" | ||
| 1971 | Ransom for a Dead Man | Gloria | Television film Ransom for a Dead Man | |
| 1971 | Insight | Viola (as Celeste Yarnell) | Episode: "Bird on the Mast" | |
| 1972 | The Judge and Jake Wyler | Ballerina | Television film | |
| 1972 | McMillan & Wife | Miss Jones | Episode: "Terror Times Two" | |
| 1973 | Love, American Style | Florence (segment "Love and the Postal Meeter" | Episode: "Love and the End of the Line / Love and the Growing Romance / Love and the Postal Meeter" | |
| 1990 | Knots Landing | Caroline Craig | Episode: "My First Born" | |
| 1991 | Daughters of Privilege | Beautiful Woman | Television film | |
| 1993 | Civil Wars | Gwendolyn | Epispde "Split Ends" | |
| 1994 | Sisters | Rita Zaylor | Episode: "Chemical Reactions" | |
| 1995 | Melrose Place | Mrs. Pemberton | Episode: "Oy! to the World" | |
| 1998 | Melrose Place | Mrs. Huntington | Episode: "Amanda's Back" | |