Elinor Donahue
Elinor Donahue
| Elinor Donahue | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Mary Eleanor Donahue April 19, 1937 Tacoma, Washington, U.S.A. |
| Occupation | actor |
| Years active | 1942–present |
Elinor Donahue (born April 19, 1937, as Mary Eleanor Donahue in Tacoma, Washington, USA, North America) is an American actress. The naturally red-headed Donahue is best known for her early role as Robert Young's eldest/popular daughter, Betty Anderson, on the popular 1950s cult sitcom, Father Knows Best, and for her nearly 30-year marriage to producer Harry Ackerman, whom she met on the set of that series.
Biography
Early life and career
Donahue's mother was a theatrical costumer, who moonlighted as a department store saleswoman in order to pay for her daughter's dancing lessons. Appearing in dancing-chorus film roles from the age of five, Donahue was at one point a ballet-school classmate of future Fred Astaire partner Barrie Chase.
Donahue was a child actor working in vaudeville and had several bit parts in movies as a teenager, including Love is Better Than Ever (1952), starring a young Elizabeth Taylor.
Father Knows Best
She achieved stardom for her role as the elder daughter, Betty, on the popular television family series Father Knows Best (1954 - 1960).
Donahue has had roles on many TV shows, including Miriam Welby, Tony Randall's love interest on TV's The Odd Couple, compassionate working mother, Jane Mulligan on Mulligan's Stew, and Hunnicut, the evil nurse on Days of our Lives. Donahue was also featured in several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show as pharmacist Ellie Walker, even getting a mention in the famous opening credits. Walker was intended to be a love interest for Andy Taylor, but was dropped from the cast after Griffith and the producers decided they had no romantic chemistry, and appears only during the first season (1960 - 1961).
In the 1964-1965 season, Donahue costarred as Joan Randall, the daughter of Waltern Burnley, played by John McGiver, on the CBS sitcom Many Happy Returns about the complaint department of a fictitious Los Angeles department store. Mark Goddard played her husband, Bob Randall.
She also appeared in numerous other television shows as a guest actress which included Star Trek's second-season episode "Metamorphosis" in 1967. She played Commisioner Nancy Hedford along side Glenn Corbett as Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of the warp drive. as well as in such motion pictures as Pretty Woman (1990).
1990s and later
Donahue played Gladys, the mother of Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott), on the sitcom Get A Life! (1990-1992), and had a recurring role on the CBS drama series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
In 1998, Donahue published a memoir entitled In the Kitchen with Elinor Donahue, in which she relived some of her memories of Hollywood along with providing more than 150 of her top-grade recipes.[1]
Family
Donahue was married to the late TV executive producer Harry Ackerman. His list of credits included Leave It to Beaver, Bewitched and Gidget. A mother of four sons, Elinor has been living with her third husband, contractor Louis Genevrino, whom she married in 1992 in California.
References
- ↑ Donahue, E. (1998). In the Kitchen with Elinor Donahue. ISBN 1-88895-292-X
External links
- Elinor Donahue article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
- Elinor Donahue at the Internet Movie Database
History
View article history
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