{{Short description|American model and actress (1941–1997)}} {{Infobox Playboy Playmate | name = Merle Pertile | image = Merle pertile.jpg | caption = | issue = January 1962 | birth_name = | birth_place = Whittier, California, U.S. | birth_date = {{birth date|1941|11|23}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1997|11|28|1941|11|23}}<ref name=TPB/> | death_place = Lake Arrowhead, California, U.S. | height = 5 ft 5 in | preceded = Lynn Karrol | succeeded = Kari Knudsen }}
'''Merle Pertile''' (November 23, 1941 – November 28, 1997)<ref name=TPB/> was an American model and actress. She was ''Playboy'' magazine's Playmate of the Month for its January 1962 issue.<ref name=jankingly>{{cite web|url=http://wekinglypigs.com/cgi-bin/nand/search/pmstat?browse=%3A%3ACONFIG%3A%3Amodelbrowse&key=pertile%2C+merle&limit=0|title=January 1962 Playmate Data|access-date=March 11, 2018}}</ref>
==Biography== Pertile was born on November 23, 1941, in Whittier, California, and grew up in Indiana and Illinois. She attended and graduated from Hammond High School, Hammond, Indiana in 1959.<ref name=HHS>{{cite web |url=http://hhs59.com/merle_pertile.htm |title=Merle Pertile Profile |website=Hammond High School |access-date=March 11, 2018}}</ref> Following graduation, she moved to Los Angeles, where she became a contract player with Universal Pictures and had guest spots on several TV shows. During the second season of the ''Playboy's Penthouse'' TV series (1960–61), Pertile became a regular cast member. It was there that she first met Hugh Hefner.{{cn|date=June 2023}}
She was married to Jed S. Levitt, with whom she had a son, Krishna Joseph Levitt,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0506227/bio|title=Krishna Levitt|website=IMDb}}</ref>{{Better source|reason=IMDb is not sufficient source as freely edited by users w/o refs, see WP:RSP and WP:Citing IMDb|date=June 2023}} and a daughter, Kenya Johanna Levitt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1306162/bio|title=Kenya Pertile-Levitt|website=IMDb }}</ref>{{Better source|reason=IMDb is not sufficient source as freely edited by users w/o refs, see WP:RSP & WP:Citing IMDb|date=June 2023}} She also had a daughter, Christi, by actor Peter Brown.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aaker |first=Everett |title=Television Western Players, 1960-1975: A Biographical Dictionary |url={{Google books|yXAkDwAAQBAJ|page=1844|plainurl=yes}} |year=2017 |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=978-1476662503 |page=70}}</ref> According to ''The Playmate Book'', Pertile died on November 28, 1997, aged 56,<ref name=TPB>{{cite book |first=Gretchen |last=Edgren |title=The Playmate Book: Six Decades of Centerfolds |publisher=Taschen |year=2005 |isbn=978-3822848241}}</ref> in Lake Arrowhead, California, from complications following heart surgery.<ref name=HHS/>
==See also== * List of people in Playboy 1960–1969
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{playmate|merle-pertile}} * {{IMDb name|id=1150455}}
{{playmates of 1962}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pertile, Merle}} Category:1941 births Category:1997 deaths Category:1960s Playboy Playmates Category:Actresses from Whittier, California Category:20th-century American people