Merle Pertile

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. 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.

She was married to Jed S. Levitt, with whom she had a son, Krishna Joseph Levitt, and a daughter, Kenya Johanna Levitt. She also had a daughter, Christi, by actor Peter Brown. According to The Playmate Book, Pertile died on November 28, 1997, aged 56, in Lake Arrowhead, California, from complications following heart surgery.