Early life

Born Francine Yerich to Frank and Sophie Yerich in the small mining town of Aurora, Minnesota, she was the elder of two sisters. In 1941, her family moved to Cleveland, Ohio where she began to write short stories and take an interest in acting. At the age of nine, she appeared in the Hodge Grammar School production of Cinderella as "Griselda", at which point she decided she wished to become an actress. At the age of twelve, her family moved back to Aurora, where she continued performing in class plays. She wrote, produced, directed, and starred in a three-act play called Keen Teens or Campus Quarantine, charging five cents admission to the show that the whole town turned out for. While studying journalism and drama at Aurora High School, she worked as the feature editor of her school newspaper, and she won all of the school's declamation contests with her dramatic readings. She was a baton-twirling majorette for the school band and active in the 4-H club, where she won several blue ribbons for cooking in both county and state fairs.

Model and showgirl

At age 17, she won the local Miss Eveleth beauty contest and became a runner-up in the Miss Minnesota contest. Moving to Minneapolis, she got a job modeling sweaters for New York-based Jane Richards Sportswear, and began travelling throughout the U. S. She then moved to San Francisco and took a modeling course at the House of Charm agency, which helped her begin a successful modeling career for all of the major department stores, including Macy's. Her modeling got the attention of the producers of the Miss San Francisco beauty pageant,. She entered the contest and was voted runner-up, but ended up taking over the title after the winner became too ill to participate. Francine soon got a job as a showgirl at San Francisco’s Bimbo’s nightclub. Bimbo’s headliner, Mary Meade French, brought Francine to Hollywood and helped get her signed with an agent.

Francine worked as a showgirl at Frank Sennes' Moulin Rouge, a popular Hollywood nightclub on Sunset Blvd., where she performed in three shows a night, seven nights a week, for six months. Tired of sharing a stage with elephants, pigeons, and horses, she began taking acting classes with actor/teacher Jeff Corey. A theatrical producer cast her in a play called Whisper In God's Ear at the Circle Theatre, and she was also cast in her first movie, Secret File: Hollywood, a film about the day-to-day operations of a sleazy Hollywood tabloid.

Film career

York's first big break came when Jerry Lewis cast her in his film, It's Only Money, in which she played a tantalizing sexpot, a role which brought her much publicity. This led to Lewis hiring her for five more of his films, including The Nutty Professor, The Patsy, The Disorderly Orderly, The Family Jewels, and Cracking Up, in which she portrayed a fifteenth-century marquise. Other notable film appearances include Bedtime Story (with Marlon Brando and David Niven), Tickle Me (with Elvis Presley), Cannon for Cordoba (with George Peppard), and science fiction cult films Curse of the Swamp Creature, Mutiny in Outer Space, and Space Probe Taurus. Her most popular film was The Doll Squad (1973), in which she played Sabrina Kincaid, leader of an elite team of gorgeous female assassins who attempt to stop a diabolical madman from destroying the world with a deadly plague virus. She portrayed Marilyn Monroe in Marilyn: Alive and Behind Bars, and in 2000 she played Nicolas Cage's mother-in-law in The Family Man.

Television work

York played the English actress Lily Langtree with Peter Whitney as Judge Roy Bean in the 1965 episode "A Picture of a Lady" of the syndicated series, Death Valley Days, with Ronald W. Reagan as the host. Paul Fix played Bean's friend, Doc Lathrop.

York made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of co-defendant Bobbi Dane in the 1966 episode, "The Case of the Sausalito Sunrise." She appeared in five episodes of Burke's Law in 1964-1965. She also appeared in Route 66; Hawaiian Eye; 77 Sunset Strip; My Favorite Martian; Slattery's People; Batman (episodes 29-30 "The Bookworm Turns/While Gotham City Burns") - as Lydia Limpet; Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.; Lost In Space; It Takes A Thief; Green Acres; The Wild Wild West; The F.B.I.; Ironside; I Dream Of Jeannie; Love American Style; Mannix; Bewitched; Adam-12; Mission: Impossible; Kojak; Columbo; Matlock; The King of Queens; and Las Vegas.

Recent and other work

York continues to act in films and on television, with two recent TV appearances including Hot In Cleveland (as British matriarch Lady Natalie), and Bucket and Skinner's Epic Adventures (as Aunt Bitsy). She has also done work as a fitness/nutrition expert and a gourmet cook, making many appearances on television demonstrating her culinary skills. Many of her recipes and exercise programs have been published in national health magazines.

Personal life

York has never married. She once said, "Like Cinderella, I always wanted to marry the handsome prince...but they don't make glass slippers in size ten!"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]