Sharon Farrell, star of ‘Marlowe’, ‘It’s Alive’, passes away at 82
Los Angeles, Aug 6 : Sharon Farrell, who starred in many films in her long career in Hollywood, including opposite James Garner and Steve McQueen in the 1969 films ‘Marlowe’ and ‘The Reivers’ respectively, has died. She was 82.
Farrell died on May 15 of natural causes at a hospital in Orange County. Her death was only recently discovered by relatives, who posted the news to Facebook, but they were unsure of the cause, as per Deadline.
Farrell had an extensive resume, but is best remembered for the film ‘It’s Alive’, in which she played the mother of a murderous deformed infant.
She also had roles in the films ‘The Stunt Man’, ‘Lone Wolf McQuade’, and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ (1987).
In the horror thriller ‘It’s Alive’ (1974), written and directed by Larry Cohen and featuring special effects make-up from Rick Baker, Farrell’s Lenore Davis tries to protect the hideously deformed child she just had, even though the infant has escaped from the hospital and is killing people around town, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
In ‘Marlowe’ she plays a Kansas woman named Orfamay Quest, who hires private eye Philip Marlowe (Garner) to find her brother, while in ‘The Reivers’ she played the love interest of McQueen’s Boon Hogganbeck.
She made her film debut alongside Elaine Stritch in ‘Kiss Her Goodbye’ (1959), then danced on Broadway in 1960 in Josh Logan’s ‘There Was a Little Girl’, starring Jane Fonda and Dean Jones.
In 1962, Farrell starred alongside Nick Adams on the short-lived NBC newspaper drama ‘Saints and Sinners’ and appeared with Tony Curtis and Suzanne Pleshette in the comedy film ’40 Pounds of Trouble’.
She had many guest-starring roles over the decades, showing up on ‘My Favorite Martian’, ‘Wagon Train’, ‘Gunsmoke’, ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’, ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ and ‘The Wild Wild West’ to ‘The F.B.I’.
In the 2018 book ‘Bruce Lee: A Life’, author Matthew Polly notes that the martial arts legend and McQueen were involved in “a love triangle” with Farrell that resulted in Lee and McQueen not doing a movie together, THR said.
Farrell also had relationships with actors Andrew Prine and John F. Boyer, producer Ron DeBlasio and director Dale Trevillion, but she never married them or anyone else, her son noted. “That’s something they do in Hollywood, to say that they’re married,” he said.
