Beverly Garland, whose long and varied acting career ranged from B-movie cult stardom in the 1950s portraying gutsy characters in movies including “Not of This Earth” and “It Conquered the World” to playing Fred MacMurray’s wife on the sitcom “My Three Sons,” has died. She was 82.
Garland, who also was an involved owner of her namesake hotel in North Hollywood, died Friday evening after a lengthy illness at her Hollywood Hills home, said son-in-law Packy Smith.
In a 50-plus year career that began with her film debut in a supporting role in the 1950 film noir classic “D.O.A.,” Garland appeared in about 40 films and scores of television shows.
“Not only was she a terrific actress, she was one of those special gals who was fun to work with,” said Mike Connors, who appeared with Garland in director Roger Corman’s low-budget 1955 film “Swamp Women” and later worked with her when she made guest appearances on his TV detective series “Mannix.”
“She had a great sense of humor, she was very thoughtful and had a great laugh,” Connors said. “You couldn’t help but laugh with her when she laughed.”
Despite her reputation for doing heavy drama — including being nominated for an Emmy Award in 1955 for her performance as a leukemia patient in the pilot of the medical drama “Medic” — Garland was best known to many people for her comedy turn in “My Three Sons.” She played the second wife of MacMurray’s widower Steve Douglas during the last three seasons of the popular series that aired from 1960 to 1972.
“The only thing that bothers me is that everybody loves this character so much,” Garland told the Los Angeles Times in 1969. “I don’t remember anybody loving me all that much.”
Garland was mother to Stephanie Zimbalist in the 1980s in “Remington Steele,” Kate Jackson in the 1980s in “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” and Teri Hatcher in the 1990s in “Lois &Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” Garland also had roles in the TV shows “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “7th Heaven” and the ABC soap opera “Port Charles.”
‘Sunny’ von Bulow dies
Martha “Sunny” von Bulow, an heiress who spent the last 28 years of her life in oblivion after what prosecutors alleged in a pair of sensational trials were two murder attempts by her husband, died Saturday at age 76.
She died at a nursing home in New York, her children said in a statement issued by family spokeswoman Maureen Connelly.
Martha von Bulow was a personification of romantic notions about high society — a stunning heiress who brought her American millions to marriages with men who gave her honored old European names.
But she ended her days in a coma, showing no sign of awareness as she was visited by her children and tended around the clock by nurses.
In the 1980s, she was the offstage presence that haunted her husband’s two sensational trials in Newport and Providence, R.I.
At the first trial, in 1982, Claus von Bulow was convicted of trying twice to kill her by injecting her with insulin at their estate in Newport, R.I. That verdict was thrown out on appeal, and he was acquitted in 1985.
The murder case was later made into a film, “Reversal of Fortune,” starring Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons.
— From Herald news services
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