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Elizabeth Hendon MacRae (born February 22, 1936) is an American actress who performed in dozens of television series and in nine feature films, working predominantly in productions released between 1958 and the late 1980s. Among her more widely recognized roles is her recurring character as Lou-Ann Poovie on the situation comedy Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., which was originally broadcast on CBS from 1964 to 1969.[4]

For the New Zealand actress, see Elizabeth McRae.

Elizabeth MacRae
MacRae in 1967
Born
Elizabeth Hendon MacRae[1]

(1936-02-22) February 22, 1936 (age 86)
Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.
Years active1958–2011
Spouse(s)Charles Day Halsey, Jr.[2]
(1969–present)
Nedrick Young[3]
(1965–1968; his death)
Amos Morehead Stack, Jr.[1]
(1955–?)

Early life and drama training


Born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1936, Elizabeth MacRae is the middle child of three children of Alabama native Dorothy (née Hendon) and James C. MacRae of North Carolina.[1][5] Her father, an attorney, relocated the family prior to April 1940 to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he opened a law practice and later served as a superior court judge.[6][7] Growing up in Fayetteville, Elizabeth received her primary schooling there, although her parents sent her to Washington, D.C. to finish her secondary education at Holton-Arms, an independent college-preparatory school for girls.[7]

Following her graduation from Holton-Arms, MacRae decided to pursue an acting career and in 1956 traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to audition for a part in director Otto Preminger's production Saint Joan.[8] She failed to be cast in the film, but in a 1959 newspaper interview with syndicated Hollywood columnist Joe Hyams, MacRae credited Preminger for encouraging her not to abandon her career plans and instead to seek intensive, professional performance training. "'Mr. Preminger'", she recounted to Hyams, "'told me then to keep in touch with him and advised me to go to New York and study, because I had intuitive talent'".[8] Heeding Preminger's advice, MacRae in October 1956 relocated to New York City, where for two years she studied with Uta Hagen at the Herbert Berghof Studio and gained stage experience playing assorted characters in off-Broadway and summer-stock productions. She also resumed her artistic training, attending classes on drawing and painting at the Art Students League in Manhattan.[7][9]


"Actress and artist"


During her childhood and throughout her teenage years, MacRae was encouraged by her mother to develop and refine her artistic talents, especially in drawing and painting portraits.[10] Later, when she was in New York studying acting, the aspiring stage performer supported herself with money she earned through commissions for her artwork. Earl Wilson, another syndicated newspaper columnist, recounted MacRae's early interest in art after interviewing her in October 1958 for a profile titled "Fayetteville Girl Has Dual Career As Actress, Artist":

NEW YORK— North Carolina's Elizabeth MaCRae owes her dual professional life–as an actress and artist–to her mother and movie producer Otto Preminger...For several years she's supported herself by doing children's portraits. She played leads in summer stock and next month she plays her first TV role on the CBS show, "The Verdict Is Yours." "I really first started drawing," Elizabeth recalled, "because my older brother did. I always did everything he did...I started taking lessons when I was six, and I've been taking them ever since."
Elizabeth found that people would buy her drawings when she did some for a church bazaar in Fayetteville. "Our church bazaar was coming up and I was wondering what I could do for it. I thought to myself, 'I can't bake or sew. I can only draw.' Then it occurred to me, 'Why not do some portraits for the bazaar?' I did and when people saw them there they commissioned me to draw their children. Since then I've had as much business as I could handle."[10]


Television


By the latter half of 1958, MacRae was in Los Angeles, California and auditioning again for a film role as well as in television productions.[8][7] There she also continued her studies in theatre at the California Institute of the Arts and resumed her training in drawing and painting by attending classes at the Otis College of Art and Design.[2] She tested again with Otto Preminger for the role of Mary Pilant in Columbia Pictures' crime film Anatomy of a Murder (1959). Kathryn Grant was ultimately chosen for that part by Preminger; but, as noted by newspaper columnist Earl Wilson, MacRae was soon cast in her first television role, playing a witness in the CBS courtroom series The Verdict is Yours.[8][11] Over the next several years, MacRae began to perform increasingly in more substantive, credited roles in televised dramas and sitcoms, ultimately appearing in a wide variety of popular weekly series, most of which are productions from the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the programs from that period include 77 Sunset Strip; Hawaiian Eye; Surfside 6; Harrigan and Son; Burke's Law; Dr. Kildare; The Andy Griffith Show; The Untouchables; Death Valley Days; Rawhide; General Hospital; Gunsmoke; The Fugitive; Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.; I Dream of Jeannie; The Virginian; Rhoda; Barnaby Jones; Kojak; Mannix; and Petrocelli.[7][12]

MacRae continued to perform on television through the 1980s, although by then in parts almost exclusively on other daytime soap operas, such as All My Children (1980), Guiding Light (1983), and Another World (1980, 1989).[7][13]


Multiple appearances on series


During MacRae's many years working on television, there are six series in which she performed in three or more episodes. She was cast as different characters in four episodes of the adventure crime drama Route 66 and in three episodes of Surfside 6, another crime drama about a Miami-based detective agency.[7] MacRae was also cast multiple times on the long-running Western Gunsmoke, appearing once in the role of Fanny in the 1962 episode "Half-Straight" and then, between 1962 and 1965, appearing four times as April, the girlfriend of Festus Haggen, one of the series' main characters.[12] MacRae performed too in numerous installments of two daytime soap operas: as two characters–Barbara Randolph and Phyllis Anderson–over 13 episodes of Days of Our Lives in 1976 and 1977 and as Jozie in 11 episodes on Search for Tomorrow in 1985.[11] In her television career, however, MacRae gained her widest recognition among audiences for her performances as the recurring character on the 1960s sitcom Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.[7][11]


Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C

From 1966 to 1969, MacRae was repeatedly cast on the sitcom Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C in the role of Lou-Ann Poovie, the girlfriend of the series' title character. Her first of 15 appearances on that show is in the 1966 episode "Love's Old Sweet Song". Hal Humphrey, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, featured MacRae in his 1968 article about Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C in which he describes why the actress originally got the part and continued to appear on the series:

Elizabeth MacRae, who plays Gomer Pyle's girlfriend Lou-Ann Poovie...auditioned for the role last season as a torch singer, and Gomer saw her and took pity on her. Elizabeth got the role for that one episode because she couldn't sing well either, and also because she has a genuine southern accent (Elizabeth is from Fayetteville, N.C.) which jibed nicely with Gomer's. In fact, she and Gomer got along so famously that it was decided to make her more or less permanent girl friend, and this season Elizabeth has been in several episodes. Some viewers may recognize her from Gunsmoke, where she had a semi-regular role as the girl friend of Festus Haggen some time ago. She's also appeared in other TV series and quite a few movies and is married to a screenwriter named Nedrick Young.[3]


Films


Although the great majority of MacRae's acting work was on television, she was also cast in nine feature films. Her earliest credited screen role is in the "teen" comedy Love in a Goldfish Bowl, which was released by Paramount Pictures in the summer of 1961 and co-stars two young singing idols at that time, Tommy Sands and Fabian.[14] MacRae later that year performed as a supporting character in Everything's Ducky, a screenplay about a talking duck produced by Columbia Pictures and starring Mickey Rooney.[15] Described in 1961 by Los Angeles Times critic Geoffrey Warren as a "nonsense comedy", MacRae plays Susie Penrose. Then, from 1962 through 1964, while her television career continued to develop, MacRae acted in four more Hollywood films: The Wild Westerners, Wild Is My Love, For Love or Money, and in the live-action animated comedy The Incredible Mr. Limpet.[16] In the latter film, starring Don Knotts, she provided the voice of the character Ladyfish.[16]

After MacRae's voice work for The Incredible Mr. Limpet, a decade passed before she performed in another motion picture, until the mystery thriller The Conversation, which was released in April 1974.[17] The production, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, proved to be the most critically acclaimed picture of her career.[17] It won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, received two British Academy Film Awards, and was nominated for three Academy Awards.[18][19] MacRae's association with The Conversation in her role as Meredith drew considerable attention to the veteran actress from moviegoers and critics. Film stills of her scenes with Hackman are featured prominently in 1974 previews and in other contemporary coverage of the drama by The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and other major American newspapers.[20] In a 2002 newspaper interview for The Fayetteville Observer, MacRae reflected on her involvement in the award-winning production. She described Coppola as an "intense" director but also one who was "kind and open to actors' building their characters".[9] She shared too her experiences traveling to France to attend the ceremonies in Cannes, where she and other members of the cast were being "treated like royalty".[9]

Following her performance in The Conversation, MacRae continued to work predominantly in television, while she was cast in only two more feature films over the next 15 years. She portrays Mrs. Lumquist in the 1978 anthology horror film The House of the Dead and a news reporter in the 1989 production Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!.[21][22]


Career records


In 1999 and 2002, MacRae donated to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assorted records relating to her acting career. Those items are preserved on campus in the Southern Historical Collection at the Louis Round Wilson Library and include letters, scrapbooks with newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, audio and videotapes, as well as her working scripts from various films, television series, and stage productions in which she performed.[7]


Personal life


On August 12 1955, MacRae married Amos Morehead Stack, Jr. in Fayetteville, N.C. The duration of their marriage and the circumstances of its dissolution are undetermined by available official records.[1] She married for the second time in 1965, then to Hollywood actor and screenwriter Nedrick Young.[3][23] The couple remained together until 54-year-old Young died of a "heart ailment" just three years later.[24] The following year, in 1969, MacRae wed Wells Fargo executive Charles Day Halsey, Jr. in Palm Springs, California.[2][9]


Return to North Carolina and the stage


During the 1990s, MacRae devoted much of her time to what she described as her "'second career'", providing support and counseling individuals suffering from alcohol and drug abuse.[9] Then, in 1998, she and her husband Charles retired and moved to western North Carolina, where they settled initially in the small mountain town of Cashiers.[9] MacRae still remained involved in various organizations, sharing her acting knowledge and experiences working in stage, television, and film productions. In November 2000, for example, she was a guest panelist at the Asheville Film Festival (now the Western North Carolina Film Festival) in Asheville, North Carolina, appearing with fellow professional actors Julie Parrish, Pat Priest, Pamela Sue Martin, Rhodes Reason, and Soupy Sales.[25] She also appeared periodically at other special events and in televised programs, such as in the CMT: The Greatest – 20 Greatest Country Comedy Shows, which was hosted by actor John Schneider and originally broadcast on Country Music Television on May 27, 2006.[26][27]

The couple moved again in August 2001, relocating farther east in North Carolina, back to Elizabeth's childhood neighborhood of Haymount in Fayetteville. In March 2002, only seven months after returning to Fayetteville, MacRae co-starred in a stage production of Picnic at the local Cape Fear Regional Theatre. Her performances in that play as the schoolteacher Rosemary marked the first time in nearly four decades that MacRae had performed in live theatre.[9]

After living in Fayetteville for several years, Elizabeth and her husband moved once again, returning to North Carolina's mountain region, to the town of Glenville, which is situated only a few miles north of their previous home in Cashiers. There, in Glenville, the couple reside today.[7]


Filmography



Film appearances



Television appearances



Other appearances



References


  1. "North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979", database with digital image of original marriage license and certificate, Amos Morehead Stack, Jr. and Elizabeth Hendon MacRae, August 12, 1955; Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina; microfilm copy (FHL 540,286) from the North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh. Retrieved via FamilySearch archives, Salt Lake City, Utah, July 18, 2022.
  2. "Actress Wed to C. D. Halsey Jr. in Palm Springs", Los Angeles Times, December 21, 1969, p. G16. Retrieved via ProQuest Historical Newspapers (Ann Arbor, Michigan), July 20, 2022.
  3. Humphrey, Hal (1968). "Gomer's girl friend, Poovie", Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1968, p. O2. Retrieved via ProQuest, July 22, 2022.
  4. Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. pp. 402–403. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
  5. "Certificate of Death", Dorothy Hendon MacRae (1910–1981), North Carolina Department of Human Resources, Division of Health Services, Raleigh, N.C.; microfilm image of original document, death date February 2, 1981, issued in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, N.C. Retrieved via FamilySearch, August 4, 2022.
  6. "Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940", digital image of original enumeration page, "Elizabeth H" in household of James and Dorothy MacRae, Cross Creek Township, Fayetteville City Ward 7, Cumberland County, North Carolina. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790–2007, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C. Retrieved via FamilySearch, July 19, 2022.
  7. "Collection Number: 04952 / Collection Title: Elizabeth MacRae Papers, 1958-1989", finding aid with biographical profile, Southern Historical Collection, Special Collections, Louis Round Wilson Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  8. Hyams, Joe. "Elizabeth MacRae Has No Regrets", syndicated column, New York Herald Tribune, April 9, 1959, p. 17. Retrieved via ProQuest, July 20, 2022.
  9. Peterson, Stacy (2002). "Full circle", transcription of newspaper article originally published in The Fayetteville Observer, March 12, 2002, "Life-Family" section, no page number. Retrieved via public library subscription to NewsBank, Inc., August 10, 2022.
  10. Wilson, Earl (1958). "Fayetteville Girl Has Dual Career As Actress, Artist", syndicated column published in The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), November 2, 1958, p. 4–IV. Retrieved via NewsBank|NewsBank, August 10, 2022.
  11. "Elizabeth MacRae", filmography, Internet Movie Database (IMDb), subsidiary of Amazon, Seattle, Washington. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  12. Barabas, SuzAnne and Barabas, Gabor (1990). Gunsmoke: A Complete History and Analysis of the Legendary Broadcast Series. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 1990; MacRae cited in five episodes.
  13. Several annotated scripts used by MacRae in episodes of the cited soap operas are preserved in the Southern Historical Collection at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library. Refer to "Career records" on this page.
  14. "Love in a Goldfish Bowl (1961)", catalog, American Film Institute (AFI), Los Angeles, California. Retrieved via August 9, 2022.
  15. "'Mysterious Island' and 'Everything's Ducky'", reviews, New York Herald Tribune (Manhattan), December 21, 1961, p. 15. Retrieved via ProQuest, August 9, 2022.
  16. "The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)"), catalog, AFI. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
  17. "The Conversation (1974)", catalog, AFI. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  18. "THE CONVERSATION". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  19. "The 47th Academy Awards (1975) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  20. "Americans Winning at Cannes", The Washington Post, May 25, 1974, p. D7; "Elizabeth MacRae uses her wiles on Gene Hackman...", Chicago Tribune, June 8, 1974, p. B18. Retrieved through subscription via ProQuest Historical Newspapers, August 8, 2022.
  21. Willis, Donald C. (1984). Horror and Science Fiction Films III. Scarecrow Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0810817234. The House of the Dead (1978) was also distributed and marketed at the time under an alternate title, Alien Zone.
  22. "Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! (1989)", cast credits and special appearances, Elizabeth MacRae, catalog, AFI. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  23. Beale, Lewis (July 9, 2015). "'Defiant One' sheds light on Hollywood blacklists". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  24. "Nedrick Young, 54, Defied Blacklist", obituary, The New York Times, September 18, 1968, p. 44. Retrieved via ProQuest, August 18, 2022.
  25. "Asheville Film Festival Celebrity Panel, 2000, with Moderator Tim Neeley", video of discussions by MacRae (misspelled "Macray" in the given description of event), and other cited actors, originally posted on YouTube (San Bruno, California) by St. Louis Flashback on May 18, 2020. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  26. CMT: The Greatest – 20 Greatest Country Comedy Shows, IMDb. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
  27. "CMT Counts Down The Most Hilarious Country TV Shows Of All Time In '20 Greatest Country Comedy Shows'", press release, May 2, 2006, Country Music Television, Viacom Entertainment Group, MTV Networks. Retrieved August 16, 2022.




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