Donna Reed dies
NZPA Beverly Hills Donna Reed, who won an Oscar portraying a prostitute in “From Here To Eternity” but gained her greatest fame as the ideal wife and mother on television’s Donna Reed Show, has died at her home in Beverly Hills, California. She had been in hospital for treatment for cancer, but had spent Christmas at home.
Donna Reed’s last major performance was as Miss Ellie on the top-rated soap opera, “Dallas” during the 1984-85 season, a role she took over after the actress Barbara Bel Geddes withdrew because of heart surgery. However, the producers rehired Bel Geddes for the current season, and Donna Reed sued.
She won the Academy Award in 1953 as Best Supporting Actress for her role in “From Here To Eternity” and appeared in many other films, including the 1946 Frank Capra classic, “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
Beginnng in 1958, Donna Reed starred in the U.S. in her own show. She was rarely seen on television after that, but she starred in 1978 in the movie, “The Best Place To Be,” and in 1979 was a guest star in a twohour “Love Boat” episode filmed in Hong Kong. Last year Donna Reed filed a ?U57.5 million (?NZ14.77 million) lawsuit against Lorimar Productions, producers of “Dallas,” to regain her role as the matriarch of the Ewing family. In August, she accepted a SUSI million (JNZI.97 million) settlement of the suit. Her other films included “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” “Green Dolphin Street,” “The Last Time I
Saw Paris” and “The Benny Goodman Story.” Born Donna Mullenger on a farm in lowa, on January 27, 1921, Donna Reed made her film debut in “The Getaway” at the age of 20 after winnng a screen test in a beauty pageant. She played mostly wicked stepdaughters and other unsympathetic characters in
her early films. Her career reached its peak in 1953 when she won an Oscar for playing a Honolulu prostitute with a heart like a cash register in “From Here to Eternity.” ■ A lifelong Republican, she was a leader of the Another Mother for Peace Movement against the Vietnam War.
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Press, 16 January 1986, Page 15
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354Donna Reed dies Press, 16 January 1986, Page 15
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