Came across this researching Joan Anderson, from the GLmanny Blog
The Stars Who Remain in Our Hearts
May 1, 2019
I’ve been going back through an old soap magazine from the 25th Anniversary of TV soaps (which sounds kind of strange to me, but that’s what they said). One article is focused on stars who had passed away in the 10 years previous to 1975. Since the earlier the time, the worse the records, I wanted to get this out here. The original included headshots of many of people described. I’ve bolded any real person’s name that has both a first and a last name. I let first names, as in “and a wife Wilma” alone. The [Blog Ed. Note: ]s are mine. There are many old radio shows listed. I have only tagged the ones that I know are considered soaps. There might be more I missed.
The Stars Who Remain in Our Hearts
“The Stars Who Remain in Our Hearts: Major Daytime Actors Who Passed Away in the Last Ten Years.” Daytime TV Super Special, vol. 1, no. 2, 1975, pp. 57-61.
Peggy Allensby was a familiar voice to thousands of radio listeners in such serials as Mr. District Attorney, Little Women, and David Harum, throughout the 30s, 40s, and 50s. She also was in such Broadway shows as Maytime, The Bad Men, The Schemers, and Death of a Salesman. Then, in 1956, she joined a new TV serial, Edge of Night, playing Mattie. She was with the show until her death, after a brief illness, in 1966, at age 65. She left her husband of 34 years, actor John McGovern, and their children, Elanor and John, Jr.
Joan Anderson, British born actress, lost her gallant eight-year struggle with cancer in May 1974. Divorced from actor Craig Huebing, she was known for her roles as Nora Hansen on The Doctors and as Mary Mitchell on As the World Turns. She also did several episodes on the nighttime series, Daktari. Talented and dedicated, she inspired all who knew her.
Curtis Arnall was the voice of Pepper Young on the Pepper Young Family radio show from 1936 to 1942. He also performed in such popular serials as Just Plain Bill, One Man’s Family, and Buck Rogers. But he made national headlines in 1942, when, as Chief Boatswain’s Mate in real life, he was among 8 Coast Guardsmen who were lost for 21 days in the Atlantic on the yawl Zalda. Arnall was in command of that little boat as it was buffeted by hurricanes, gales, sickness and starvation. He guided it 3,000 nautical miles until the eventual rescue and was an overnight celebrity for that feat. He died on September 23, 1964, after a long illness, in Laurel, Maryland, at age 65.
Cliff Arquette, famed talk show guest and Hollywood Squares regular, succumbed on Sept. 23, 1974, in Los Angeles to a heart ailment that had dogged him for two years. An educated, urbane man whose hobby was Civil War history, he developed his lovable hayseed character Charlie Weaver that captured the hearts of millions of TV viewers. His first big break came when he became a frequent guest on the old Jack Paar Show in the late 1950s. Prior to that he had been on the Myrt and Marge radio show. A two-time victim of broken marriages, Cliff was getting set for his third try when a second, and fatal, heart attack struck him down.
Ed Begley was one of America’s best, though little-known actors, during his distinguished forty-year career. [Blog Ed. Note: This is Ed Begley, Sr. in pop culture today his son Ed Begley, Jr. is much better known as both an actor and as an environmental activist. He also did a cameo as himself at one of Liam Spencer’s ecologist conferences on The Bold and the Beautiful.] He began in the early 1930s playing Charlie Chan on Charlie Chan, Sgt O’Hara on The Fat Man, and Dr. Mildermaul on Joy Jordan, Girl Intern, and would up winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1962 for Sweet Bird of Youth. Born in Hartford, CT in 1901, Begley was a runaway child who dropped out of school at the 5th grade and worked his way around the country doing carnivals and fairs. He was a fine stage actor, who stunned critics when he played BOTH leading roles in Inherit the Wind on successive nights on Broadway. He died on April 29, 1970, of a heart attack, at 69.
Alan Bunce became famous in his role as Albert in the domestic comedy series Ethel and Albert, which he played on both radio and TV. An actor since his boyhood, Alan was the original Malone on Young Dr. Malone, and a star on the legitimate stage as well. He did 35 Broadway plays, including the Theater Guild’s Valley Forge, Kind Lady, and Mary, Mary. A resident of Stamford, CT, he died in April 1965, at 61.
Liza Chapman, who played Janet Matthews on Another World, died tragically 8 years ago when her car crashed on the Connecticut Turnpike. A graduate of Yale Drama School, she costarred with Peter Falk in Equity Library productions in New York and did Shakespeare and off-Broadway shows as well. Although she played an unmarried career girl on her daytime serial, she was a happily married mother of 3 when the fatal accident occurred. She was 37.
Les Damon‘s 21 year career in radio and TV serials made him one of the best loved actors around. He got his first job in Chicago in 1938 playing in the road company production, Of Mice and Men. It was also in Chicago that he met his future wife, serial actress Ginger Jones. For the 6 years before his sudden death in 1960, he was a regular on The Edge of Night and loved it.
Ethel Everett died in April, 1973, at the age of 63. A well-known radio actress in New York, she had over 10,000 performances to her credit. Her daytime dramas included The Guiding Light, Valiant Lady, and her last, As the World Turns, in which she portrayed Mrs. Brando. She also appeared on such TV shows as Studio One, The Robert Montgomery Show, and was the first woman to record Talking Books for the Blind back in the 1930s. She is survived by her mother, Sadie Leventhal, and her brother Alexender.
Ginger Gerlach‘s suicide on December 28, 1971, shocked and saddened everyone who knew her. A pretty russet-haired actress, with credits including Edge of Night, Guiding Light, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, and The Doctors, she seemed to have a bright future ahead of her. She is survived by her family.
John Gibson started out in Hollywood in a silent cowboy film in 1924. He was in films frequently after that, in addition to hundreds of plays and thousands of radio broadcasts, including Crime Photography and Terry and the Pirates. He was married to the former Alice Deshon of Philadelphia and owned a collection of 30 films from the silent era. During the early 1960s he played Joe Pallock on Edge of Night. He died in 1971.
Theo Goetz was a deeply respected and loved member of The Guiding Light since he began his long running role as Papa Bauer on the show’s radio version in 1949. A native of Vienna, Austria, he came to the U.S. in 1940 was a distinguished acting career behind him. Without a knowledge of English, he won stage roles simply by learning his lines phonetically. When he celebrated his 20th season on GL, he received thousands of congratulatory letters. In 1973 he took ill with a heart ailment and died Dec. 31 in New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital. He left a sister, Rose Henu.
Walter Greaza, veteran of films, stage, radio and TV, died June 1, 1973 at 76. Walter played Winston Gimsley in The Edge of Night and was the series only original cast member on EON which began on April 2, 1956. Born in St. Paul, MN, he majored in political science and business law at the U of Minnesota. During the 1920s he toured as a leading man, singer, and dance, making his Broadway debut in 1929. His TV credits ran the gamut from the U.S. Steel Hour to The Phil Silvers Show.
Stacy Harris‘ death came as a shock to his fellow performers on Return to Peyton Place on which he played Mr. Harrington. He was 54 when death came on March 13, 1973. Born in Seattle, WA, he was one of those actors you always recognize, but never knew their name. Harris started his career as a Broadway actor and won the Critics Award. An athlete, he excelled in boxing, archery, swimming, skiing. He was felled by a heart attack in his home.
Bess Johnson, one of the true “daytime queens,” passed away last January 3, 1975. Fondly remembered for her many excellent portrayals on radio serials in the 1930s and 1940s, she appeared as Joanne Barron’s mother-in-law, Irene Barron on Search for Tomorrow in 1951-51. When her role ended on Search she took the trip around the world had given up to do Search. She settled down in London, where her married daughter, Jane, lives. She died there of heart failure at 73.
Muriel Kirkland‘s career was long and distinguished. She is best remembered by serial fans for her portrayal of the title role of Mary Marlin, the woman Senator, on the CBS radio network’s daytime drama in 1943-1944. But her first starring role occurred in 1929 when she did the stage comedy, Strictly Dishonorable, on Broadway. She was in several Broadway hits after that and went on to do motion pictures and TV as well. Married to actor Staats Cotsworth for almost 35 years, she died on Sept. 26, 1981.
Richard Kollmar‘s show biz history reads like a Who’s Who of radio serials. He played Boston Blackie on Boston Blackie, Michael West on Bright Horizon, and Claudia‘s David Naught and had the John Perry role on John’s Other Wife. A man of many interest, he sang, dance, produced musical and was an amateur hypnotist. His man friends mourned his passing in January 1971. He was married to Dorothy Kilgallen.
John Larkin‘s squared-jawed, clean-cut features gave him the perfect look to play Edge of Night‘s tough lawyer, Mike Karr. On radio serials, listeners recognized him as the voice of characters on Ma Perkins, Pepper Young, Road of Life, and Perry Mason. A native of Kansas, he hoped originally to be a baseball player or reporter, only to wind up in so many different professions during his serial career. He was portraying Maj. Gen. Wiley Crowe on TV’s Twelve O’clock High when he died of a heart attack at 52 in February, 1965.
Athena Lorde made her New York stage debut in Bruno and Sidney and went on to find fame on scores of radio shows, including March of Time, Gangbusters, and Young Widder Brown. She made appearances on numerous TV shows and in such motion pictures as Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte and Fuzz. In May, 1973, her long bout with cancer ended and she left her widower, actor Jim Boles; a son, actor Eric, and two daughters, Barbara and Sue. Her home had been in Hollywood.
Frank Lovejoy passed away at 50, on October 2, 1962, the cause of death being a coronary thrombosis. At the time he was performing in the play The Best Man in Chicago. He played more than 4,000 parts in radio, television, and in the legitimate theatre. He was a regular on Gangbusters, This is Your FBI, Mr. District Attorney, and in several stage premiere dramas. He is survived by his wife Joan and two children, Judith and Stephen.
Agnes Moorehead died at the age of 67 on May 1, 1974 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Her best known television role was as Endora the witch on Bewitched. She loved the role but did not really want to be known as a witch. We knew her versatility in radio, IV, on Broadway and in the movies. She played Eleanor Roosevelt in The March of Time, and also the wife of the famous Shadow [Blog Ed. Note: Margo Lane was the Shadow’s girlfriend, not wife]. She was a strong character actress and was nominated five times for Academy Awards. Married and divorced two time she is survived by her adopted son, Sean.
Claudia Morgan, Brooklyn born, died September 18, 1974 in New York City. She was 62. Theater was a natural for her, comedian Frank Morgan was her uncle. She began her career as Nora Charles in the 1940s popular radio show, The Thin Man. Television audience will remember her in The Secret Storm and The Edge of Night. Her fourth husband, Kenneth Leone, is her only immediate survivor. [Blog Ed’s Note: Frank Morgan is best known as the person who played multiple roles including the wizard and the fake psychic in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz.]
Conrad Nagel, a veteran stage actor, died in 1970. Well known for his leading Broadway and movie roles, he also appeared as a judge in the serial, Love is a Many Splendored Thing. Nagel was a respected and loved character actor who most often played ministers, lawyers, doctors, and judges.
Frank Overton‘s greatest successes came in various military roles during his long career. He first gained recognition when he succeeded John Ireland in the 1943 war drama, Counterattack, and he was playing Major Frank Stovall on TV’s Twelve O’clock High, when he died of a heart attack on April 25, 1967 at 49. He also was Search for Tomorrow‘s Nathan Walsh in 1959. He left his wife, actress Phyllis Hill, and a daughter, Jill.
Irna Phillips died at 72 in her native Chicago. The youngest of 10 children she made her mark on families across the United States by writing radio and television serials. She wrote as many as five a day, juggling at least 60 characters. Among her best known are Road of Life, The Right to Happiness, Young Doctor Malone, Another World, Days of Our Lives, The Guiding Light, and As the World Turns. Never married, she left an adopted son and daughter.
Ed Platt, an original cast member of General Hospital (as Dr. Miller), died of natural causes at age 54 in his California apartment. He had returned to GH in 1974 to play Mr. Chamberlain and he died on March 20, 1974, the first date after his last GH performance. A native New Yorker, Platt sang from Whiteman’s band and acted on the Broadway stage in Silver Whistle, Stalag 17, The Strike, and many others. He was the chief on the TV series Get Smart, from 1965 through 1970 and is survived by his widow, Suzanne, his daughter Anne, and their two sons, Jeff and Robert.
Melba Rae, a Utah-born actress, passed away at 40, on December 29, 1971. She began her career in radio on the West Coast, then moved to Broadway where she appeared in Janie, Happily Ever After, and Days of Our Youth. She was Marge Bergman on Search for Tomorrow and also played many other dramatic roles on TV. She left her husband, Gilbert Shaw, and their son, Eric.
Ann Sheridan‘s long, successful career began in her hometown of Denton, Texas, where she was going to North Texas State Teachers College. Her sister entered her photograph in Paramount Studio’s “Search for Beauty” contest, and shortly after, in 1933, she went to Hollywood. Her film career spanned 200 films, climaxing with her best known performance as Cary Grant‘s wife in I Was a Male War Bride in 1949. During the next decade, the titan-haired actress became a familiar face on TV on such dramatic series as Climax, Playhouse 90, and U.S. Steel Hour. In 1966, she took the role of Katherine Corning in Another World for several months and then switched to the situation comedy Pistols’n’Petticoats. She kept the fact that she was gravely ill secret from everyone except her closest friends, and on January 23, 1967, she died of cancer at 51.
Roy Shuman, known for his role as villainous Dr. Shea on As the World Turns, died of a heart attack in New York, July 30, 1973. He was 48. Shuman also played Sam Reynolds in Search for Tomorrow and Tom Walsh in A World Apart. Sioux Falls-born, Shuman was highly praised for his Broadway roles in A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler. Surviving are his widow, Alice, and his mother, Anne Shuman.
Fred Stewart died at 63 of a heart attack on December 5, 1970. He was jovially spoofing On the Waterfront with another actor when he died instantly. He played in The Girls in Room 509 and as a regular Love of Life as the retired pharmacist, Alex Caldwell. Stewart had a reputation in the theater world as a great character actor. A member of the Actors Studio since its inception, he served as actor, director and producer without pay.
Frank Sutton, who played the tough Marine Corps sergeant in the Gomer Pyle series, died at age 51, in Shreveport, Louisiana, on June 28, 1974. He suffered a heart attack just before he was to go on stage for a performance of Luv. Born in Clarksville, Tennessee, he started acting in high school. His first Hollywood success was in the movie, Marty. Sutton also starred in Love of Life and Secret Storm and was known on Broadway for his excellent role in the Andersonville Trial. He is survived by his wife Toby, a daughter Amanda and a son Joseph.
Luis Van Rooten died at 66 on June 17, 1974, in Chatham, Mass. His career as an actor spanned move than 35 years in the theater, motion pictures, radio and television. Born in Mexico City and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania as an architect, he was on Broadway and appeared in 30 films and over 9,000 radio broadcasts, including County Seat, I Love a Mystery, John’s Other Wife, and Stella Dallas. He also made several guest appearances on TV. He retired in 1970 to a home he designed for his family and left his wife Catherine Gaylord Kelly; a son, Courtlandt, a daughter, Mrs. Joel Efrein, and one granddaughter.
Arlene Walker was a gifted actress whose diverse roles in some 1,500 radio programs and 500 TV shows included portrayals on Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, and Kitty Foyle. She had an interesting career, which encompassed real-life duties as an Army Air Force Captain in World War II, ending with a job as a casting director for Young and Rubicam advertising agency. She died in April 15, 1973 at her home in New York, survived by a sister. She was 54.
George Welbes, who played Dr. Tony de Angelo on the afternoon serial, How to Survive a Marriage, died of a stroke in October 1974. He is survived by his son, Michael, and two sisters.
Nancy Wickwire, died of cancer in San Francisco, at 48. Miss Wickwire, a member of the American Conservatory Theatre, the Yale Repertory Theatre, and the Tyroone Guthrie Theatre, studied acting at Carnegie Tech and at the Old Vic in London. She starred in many Broadway shows, including Saint Joan and Under Milkwood. On television she appeared in almost all the leading dramatic series such as Kraft Theatre, Camera Three, Studio One, and the Dupont Show of the Month. Her last serial role was as Phyllis Anderson on Days of Our Lives.
Eugene R. Wood left many friends and admiring colleagues when he passed in 1971, the same year he played Mr. Blankenship on Love is a Many Splendored Thing. He had appeared in many distinguished Broadway plays, the Look Homeward Angel, Porgy and Bess and The Great White Hope. He was also a film actor and chairman of the Drama Department of Ithaca College in New York.
Ed Zimmermann, best known as Dr. Joe Werner on Guiding Light, died suddenly of a heart attack in York, Maine, in 1972. A New Yorker, who graduated from Columbia U. with a Master’s Degree in English, he was a TV, Broadway, and movie actor, as well as author of Love in the Afternoon, a novel about the backstage life of a daytime serial. His wife Jeannette, and a daughter, Sandy, survive.
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