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Jeff Donnell

 
Actor: Jeff Donnell
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Jul 10, 1921 in South Windham, Maine
  • Died: Apr 11, 1988 in Hollywood, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '40s-'70s
  • Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
  • Career Highlights: In a Lonely Place, The Blue Gardenia, Tars and Spars
  • First Major Screen Credit: A Night to Remember (1942)

Biography

Miss Jeff Donnell, as she was often billed, was signed by Columbia Pictures almost immediately after her graduation from Yale Drama School. Though likeable and talented enough for leading roles, the toothy, frizzy-haired Ms. Donnell was most often seen as the heroine's best friend or as kooky comedy relief. Columbia certainly kept her busy during her ten-year stay at that studio, casting her in such "A" pictures as My Sister Eileen (1942) and In a Lonely Place (1952) and "B"s like The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942) and Thief of Damascus (1952); she is particularly amusing in the latter film as Scheherezade, garrulously insisting upon telling her Arabian Nights stories to a villainous caliph whether he likes it or not. From 1954 through 1956, Jeff was married to another longtime Columbia contractee, Aldo Ray. On television, Jeff spent four years on The George Gobel Show as Gobel's wife, "Spooky Old Alice." Jeff Donnell's last regular TV work was the recurring role of Sheila Fields on the daytime soap opera General Hospital. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Jeff Donnell
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Jeff Donnell
Born Jean Marie Donnell
July 10, 1921(1921-07-10)
Windham, Maine, U.S.
Died April 11, 1988 (aged 66)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Years active 1942 - 1988
Spouse(s) William Anderson (1940-1953)
Aldo Ray (1954-1956)
John Bricker (1958-1963)
Radcliffe Bealey (1974-1975)

Jeff Donnell (July 10, 1921 – April 11, 1988) was an American film and television actress. Born Jean Marie Donnell, she grew up at an all-male reformatory in South Windham, Maine. As a child, she adopted the nickname Jeff after the character in her favorite comic strip, Mutt and Jeff.[1]

Donnell graduated from Towson High School, Towson, Maryland, in 1938 and attended the Leland Powers Drama School in Boston, Massachusetts. Later, she studied at the Yale School of Drama.[1] She was signed to a contract by Columbia Pictures in 1942 and made her film debut in My Sister Eileen. She later had roles in some RKO films.

She was not a major star, but she did have a lengthy film and television career in various supporting roles, including the role of Gidget's mother, "Dorothy Lawrence", opposite Carl Reiner in the 1961 movie Gidget Goes Hawaiian.

Her other notable appearances in movies and television include:

Jean "Jeff" Donnell died of a heart attack on April 11, 1988. Her sudden absence from General Hospital, on which she had a recurring role as the Quartermaines' housekeeper at the time of her death, was explained by the writers as her having won the lottery and quit her job.

References

  1. ^ a b Wade Ballard, "The Jeff Donnell Story"

External links


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