Beloved TV icon stuns fans by coming out as MAGA supporter after posing with Sarah Sanders

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

A beloved TV icon who found fame in the 1960s sitcom The Munsters has stunned fans by coming out as a MAGA supporter.
Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster, shared a smiling photo of himself and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders to his Instagram overnight after the pair were introduced at a party.
The actor, whose real name is Patrick Alan Lilley, says Trump 's former White House Press Secretary was 'nice' and 'surprisingly she said I looked familiar'.
'I think I'll send her a Munster goodie,' he added, before revealing: 'I like living in Arkansas. Friendly folks.'
But woke keyboard critics did not take well to the photograph and quickly launched their attacks on the 71-year-old star.
'Yuck,' one fan simply wrote, as another baselessly blasted: 'Eeeewwwww you brush elbows with Nazis? That's gross Butch.'
Some of Patrick's fans, however, said it was a 'great picture' and applauded him for the 'super cool' opportunity to meet his state's Republican leader.
Patrick, who is rarely seen in public, is heading out on a summer tour that will see him make live appearances at drive-ins as they screen his film Munster, Go Home!.
Patrick began his acting career in 1962 in the TV sitcom the McCoys before he was cast in The Munsters in 1964.
Patrick was 11 years old when he began playing Eddie Munster, a young werewolf who was the son of Frankenstein monster Herman, played by Fred Gwynne, and his vampire wife, Lily, portrayed by Yvonne De Carlo.
The show ran for 70 episodes from 1964 to 1966 and sent up the picture-perfect all-American family by replacing them with good-natured monsters.
Eddie's pet was no family dog, he was a fire-breathing dragon.
The beloved comedy fantasy show was cancelled after its second season's ratings plummeted, although it later became a cult hit and remains embedded in the public consciousness thanks to frequent re-runs.
But Patrick told Fox News in a 2019 interview that the reason the show's popularity dropped was due to its rival Batman.
'I think Batman was to blame,' Patrick said. 'Batman just came along and took our ratings away.'
His next hit would be the ABC children's show Lidsville which ran from 1971 to 1973.
Patrick starred alongside veteran actors Billie Hayes and Charles Nelson Reilly as Mark - a boy lost in a strange land where humanoid hats walked, talked and sang.
Patrick reprised the role of Eddie - who is a werewolf child - in the 1966 film Munster, Go Home and again in a 1999 episode of The Simpsons.
He also appeared in a string of other shows throughout the 1960s including My Favorite Martian, I Dream Of Jeannie, My Three Sons and The Monkees.
As an adult however his career was less successful, and he struggled with alcohol and drug problems before entering rehab in late 2010.
In 2021, the actor testified in court in Wisconsin after a woman charged with murdering her husband claimed five other people – including Patrick – were actually behind the shooting death.
The case took 15 years to come to court and Patrick maintained his innocence saying he had met the couple at the Monster Hall Raceway in 2006 but didn't know he had been accused of murder until six years after the incident.
'I was in the process of booking an event when someone says, "Have you seen the National Enquirer today?" I said, "No," and when I looked it up I noticed I was on the cover with the headline that says "Munster Murder Bombshell at Monster Hall" and that's how I found out about my... supposedly my involvement in it,' Patrick said during his testimony.
Crime lab witnesses did not find any evidence of Patrick or the four other suspects inside the couples' home, nor any DNA evidence linking him to the crime.
Eventually the wife, Cindy Schulz-Juedes was found guilty. She was in the process of appealing the verdict when she was killed by her cellmate in Taycheedah Correctional Institution in July 2023.
Prior to this bombshell case, Patrick revealed in 2011 that he had been battling prostate cancer. This was only a year after he entered a rehab to combat his years of drug and alcohol abuse that plagued him throughout his adult years.
Fortunately, his disease was caught early by a doctor in the facility he stayed in and he was able to remove the small mass shortly after. The star attributed his push to get sober as the reason he's still alive today.
Patrick is one of the few surviving cast members of The Munsters, along with Pat Priest, who played his onscreen sister Marilyn and who is now retired from acting.
Gwynne, who played his screen father Herman, died in 1993, while Al Lewis passed away in 2006 and Yvonne de Carlo in 2007.