Reta Shaw

Reta Shaw
Reta Shaw (right) with Hermione Baddeley in Mary Poppins
Born	September 13, 1912(1912-09-13) South Paris, Maine, U.S.
Died	January 8, 1982(1982-01-08) (aged 69) Encino, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1952–1975
Spouse	William A. Forester (divorced) 1 child

Reta Shaw (September 13, 1912 – January 8, 1982) was an American character actress known for playing authoritative women, housekeepers, and domineering wives, especially on television. She was a graduate of the Leland Powers School of the Theater in Boston, Massachusetts.^[1]

Career

The zaftig actress appeared on Broadway in her comic role as Mabel in the original production of The Pajama Game in 1952, as well as in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Picnic and Annie Get Your Gun, the last on tour with Mary Martin.

She had featured roles in several motion pictures, including Picnic, The Pajama Game, Mary Poppins, Pollyanna, The Ghost And Mr. Chicken, Bachelor in Paradise (with Bob Hope) & Escape to Witch Mountain.

On television, she was seen with Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Patty Duke, and Andy Griffith and appeared on Wally Cox's Mr. Peepers series, Armstrong Circle Theater, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Millionaire. She also appeared on The Dick Van Dyke Show as an unemployment office worker.

She is best remembered as the housekeeper on TV's The Ghost & Mrs. Muir. She appeared in the first season (1958–1959) of CBS's The Ann Sothern Show in the role of Flora Macauley, the overbearing wife of the gentlemanly hotel owner Jason Macauley (played by Ernest Truex). In the 1960-1961 television season, she played the housekeeper, Thelma, to Tab Hunter's character Paul Morgan, a young cartoonist, in NBC's The Tab Hunter Show. Shaw again played a housekeeper in the 1961-1962 CBS series Ichabod and Me, starring Robert Sterling and George Chandler as active and retired newspapermen in a small New England town.

In 1962, Shaw appeared in the NBC Western series The Outlaws with Barton MacLane. Thereafter, she guest starred in the CBS anthology series The Lloyd Bridges Show. She also appeared in the Western series Wagon Train in 1964, in the episode "The Richard Bloodgood Story," as the bar hostess Tenney.

Shaw's character of Bertha/Hagatha, a matronly witch, was a recurring role on TV's Bewitched. She also appeared as Miss Gormley in an episode of NBC's The Brian Keith Show. She played escaped convict Big Maud Tyler in an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, entitled "Convicts at Large". She appeared again in season four as Eleanora Poultice, the educated voice teacher of the legendary Barney Fife. In TV's The Odd Couple she appeared as a housekeeper who was a former army Colonel. Shaw also appeared in an episode in season 4 of "I Dream of Jeannie" entitled "Jeannie and the Wild Pipchicks" where she played a strict dietician who has her innermost inhibition released (in her case a beautiful butterfly).

In 1973 she played a country nurse, Ozella Peterson, in the Emergency! episode "Snakebite."

Death

Shaw died of emphysema in Encino, California, on January 8, 1982.^[1]She was 69 years old. Shaw was cremated and her remains are interred in a niche in the Columbarium of Remembrance at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery.

Personal

Shaw married William Forester, an actor and had one daughter, Kathryn Anne Forester.^[1]

References

External links

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Reta Shaw

• Reta Shaw at the Internet Movie Database
• Reta Shaw at the Internet Broadway Database
• Reta Shaw at Find a Grave