Eddie Munster is all grown up
LOREN BENOIT/Press Butch Patrick, who played the child werewolf Eddie Munster on the comedy TV series “The Munsters” from 1964 to 1966, speaks with The Press last week about his career.
Courtesy photo Butch Patrick, as child werewolf Eddie Munster in “The Munsters.” He is thankful to be on the road after battling cancer and drug and alcohol addictions.
LOREN BENOIT/PressButch Patrick signed a Munsters book for Coeur d'Alene's Sue Jones that she rescued from a throw-away pile from an area library.
By BRIAN WALKER
Staff Writer
COEUR d'ALENE — To Tracii Trammell, watching "The Munsters" was an escape.
So when Trammell had the opportunity last week in Coeur d'Alene to meet Butch Patrick, who played the child werewolf Eddie Munster on the comedy TV series from 1964 to 1966, she was ecstatic.
"I felt odd as a child but when I watched the show I wasn't any odder than Eddie," the Coeur d'Alene woman said. "It made me feel good about myself."
Patrick was between guest appearances
when he stopped in Coeur d'Alene to visit his cousin, Kathy Pierce, who invited some of Patrick's fan club to her home to meet the star.
Patrick signed a Munsters book for Coeur d'Alene's Sue Jones, one she rescued from a throw-away pile at an area library.
"I have a lot of childhood memories watching him," Jones said.
Born Patrick Lilley, Patrick began his acting career in 1961 at 7. His feature-film debut was in "Meat and Potatoes." He also had roles in several TV series, including "Ben Casey," "Project MC2," "Bonanza," "My Favorite Martian," "Mister Ed," "Rawhide," "The Real McCoys," "Gunsmoke," "I Dream of Jeannie," and "General Hospital."
Since Patrick spent his childhood working in an adult world, he said he made up for it by being a hell-raiser in the mid-’70s. He left acting, money ran short and he formed his own band, "Eddie and the Monsters."
"I was out there with the best of them throwing parties," he said. "Bad behavior was acceptable in Hollywood back then. Everybody was drinking and smoking weed. It was just society."
Along with his music, Patrick returned to occasional film and TV work in 2002. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011.
"Thankfully I was sober enough to address my cancer issue," Patrick said. "I went 41 years trying to kill myself."
He said his "light-bulb moment" came seven years ago when he was admitted into a drug and alcohol treatment center.
"I got sober and haven't done anything since," he said. "It allowed me to do what I'm doing now (Munster guest appearances at car shows, festivals, races and other events)."
The 5-foot-7 Patrick, who is still boyish in the face and dresses casually in T-shirts and Chuck Taylor sneakers, shares that testimony on the road.
"Address the issue and seek help," he said of addictions. "Don't get into your grandparents' or parents' medicine chest. If you know you have a problem, you're not alone. There's help out there, and one person can make a difference."
Pierce said she and Patrick lived different lives growing up, but she's stayed more in touch with him in recent years and is proud of his turnaround.
"He was in the Hollywood scene, while I lived a quiet life and moved to Coeur d'Alene in 1968," she said. "He's completely different now that he's clean and sober. I admire him for pulling himself up by the bootstraps.
"You can carry on a conversation with him, and he's interested in people. I hope he keeps on the straight and narrow."
The Munster Events business Patrick and his wife of one year, Leila, operate has generated a fan club that's approaching 14,000.
Patrick, 64, has, as he puts it, "grown up." He and Leila have a home in Orlando. They purchased an 1875 Victorian home in Macon, Mo., that was formerly owned by Patrick's grandmother.
"I saved it from the wrecking ball, and it happens to be haunted," Patrick said. "I didn't know that when I bought it."
Patrick said he plans to convert the home into a destination haunted attraction for Munster fans in the next year.
"We're restoring the roof but want to keep it rough and ghostlike for the fans," said Patrick, a self-described "hustler."
"I do know the haunt business."
Patrick said these days he counts his blessings after being raised from the depths of desperation. What Eddie Munster meant to people has also come into focus. At one time bothered by even talking about the werewolf boy, Patrick makes his living off it today.
"I'm very blessed to be a part of something that people are still watching today more than 50 years later," he said. "That's the best part. There's not a lot of shows like that."