Oh, no, not Fred McMurray’s wife! I swear, that was my first reaction when I heard today that actress Beverly Garland had died. And then of course I came to my senses: She wasn’t really McMurray’s wife, she just played that role on My Three Sons, a show that I watched in my childhood. Garland also appeared in a surprising number of other television shows, among them many crime dramas, including Judd, for the Defense, Mannix, Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, The New Perry Mason, Magnum, P.I., and Lanigan’s Rabbi. She played the mothers of two different TV detectives in the 1980s, Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) on Remington Steele and Amanda King (Kate Jackson) on Scarecrow and Mrs. King. And in fact, Garland made her film debut in the 1950 noir classic D.O.A. Her last role was in 2004, on TV’s 7th Heaven.
Garland was 82 years old.
READ MORE: “Beverly Garland,” by Lee Goldberg (A Writer’s Life).
Saturday, December 06, 2008
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3 comments:
Let's not forget the tv series that she starred in, Decoy. Lasted for 39 episodes in 1957-1958. She played the first woman police officer on a series tv show.
Thank you for bringing Decoy to my attention. I'd never heard of the series before, but Wikipedia has some more information, available here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoy_(TV_series)
According to Wikipedia,
"The series starred Beverly Garland as Casey Jones, a female police officer who is often assigned to work undercover (hence becoming the 'decoy' of the title). The cast changed each week with Garland the only main continuing character, although there were several recurring characters, mostly her commanding officer and immediate colleagues.
"The series was inspired by Jack Webb's Dragnet and used a similar format to that series, with Jones being portrayed as a serious, by-the-book, yet sympathetic cop with no personal life outside of her job."
I hope someday to see episodes of Decoy on DVD.
Cheers,
Jeff
Many of the Decoy episodes are available on dvd through amazon.com and other online retail sellers. At least three separate companies have compilations of the episodes on dvd. I've seen some of the shows and Beverly Garland looks really great.
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