BEVERLY GARLAND

'Beverly Garland' (born 'Beverly Lucy Fessenden' on October 17, 1926 in Santa Cruz, California) is a veteran American film, character and television actress with a half-century of credits, from cult 1950s B movies, is primarily known for her roles in film, soap operas and television.
The naturally blonde-headed Garland achieved fame in the 1960s, where she gained prominence for her role as Fred MacMurray's second wife, 'Barbara Harper Douglas', in the long-running 1960s sitcom ''My Three Sons'' (a role she played from 1969 to its ending in 1972), before in the 1980s, she co-starred as Kate Jackson's widowed mother, 'Dotty West', in the 1980s television series ''Scarecrow and Mrs. King''. She also had a recurring role on the hit WB series ''7th Heaven''.

Contents

Early career

Successful career

Personal life

Filmography

External Links

Early career

Garland's 1950s roles tended to be tough women who could handle themselves in violent situations. In 1956 alone, she played a female sheriff in the Western ''Gunslinger'', a prison escapee in ''Swamp Women'' and a scientist's wife who battles an alien in ''It Conquered the World''. (All three movies were spoofed in the 1990s by ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''.) Garland then starred as undercover police officer Casey Jones in the syndicated TV series ''Decoy'' (1957), the first police series on American television built around a female protagonist.

Successful career

Garland is best known, however, for playing suburban moms on two later TV series. She played Barbara Harper Douglas, second wife of Steve Douglas (Fred MacMurray), on the final three seasons of the sitcom ''My Three Sons'' (1969-72); and she played Dotty West, mother to Mrs. King (Kate Jackson), on all four seasons of the lighthearted espionage drama ''Scarecrow and Mrs. King'' (1983-87). She also had a recurring role as Laura Holt's mother during the first season of ''Remington Steele'' in 1982-83.
Her many TV guest appearances include the first-season ''Twilight Zone'' episode "The Four of Us Are Dying," about a con artist with a thousand faces (1960), and the long-running family drama ''7th Heaven'', in which she has a recurring role as Ginger Jackson.
She also appeared on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, as a woman dating Lou Grant, during his estrangement from his wife Edie. She wanted a "favor" from Lou, which she did not describe to him until they were ordering dinner in a fancy restaurant. She said that she wanted to borrow money from Lou so her boyfriend could get his trombone out of hock and go with Garland to Las Vegas--the musician's wife wouldn't give him the money. Lou was disgusted with this scam and poured a fancy ice-cream dish all over Garland's expensive hairdo!

Personal life

In 1999 her husband of 39 years died, and since then she has combined her acting career with an increased devotion to the hotel he built and named after her, the 255-room resort style Beverly Garland Holiday Inn and Conference Center in ''North Hollywood'', ''California''.
Garland has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Garland's daughter is actress Carrington Garland, known for her portrayal of the third Kelly Capwell on the American soap opera ''Santa Barbara''.

Filmography

★ ''D.O.A.'' (1950)

★ ''A Life of Her Own'' (1950)

★ ''Strictly Dishonorable'' (1951)

★ ''Fearless Fagan'' (1952)

★ ''Problem Girls'' (1953)

★ ''The Neanderthal Man'' (1953)

★ ''The Glass Web'' (1953)

★ ''Bitter Creek'' (1954)

★ ''The Rocket Man'' (1954)

★ ''The Miami Story'' (1954)

★ ''The Desperado'' (1954)

★ ''Killer Leopard'' (1954)

★ ''Two Guns and a Badge'' (1954)

★ ''Swamp Women'' (1955)

★ ''New Orleans Uncensored'' (1955)

★ ''The Desperate Hours'' (1955)

★ ''Sudden Danger'' (1955)

★ ''The Go-Getter'' (1956)

★ ''The Steel Jungle'' (1956)

★ ''Gunslinger'' (1956)

★ ''It Conquered the World'' (1956)

★ ''Curucu, Beast of the Amazon'' (1956)

★ ''Naked Paradise'' (1957)

★ ''Not of This Earth'' (1957)

★ ''Badlands of Montana'' (1957)

★ ''Chicago Confidential'' (1957)

★ ''The Joker Is Wild'' (1957)

★ ''The Saga of Hemp Brown'' (1958)

★ ''Gundown at Sandoval'' (1959)

★ ''The Alligator People'' (1959)

★ ''Stark Fear'' (1962)

★ ''Twice-Told Tales'' (1963)

★ ''Salome '73'' (1965)

★ ''Pretty Poison'' (1968)

★ ''The Mad Room'' (1969)

★ ''Where the Red Fern Grows'' (1974)

★ ''Airport 1975'' (1974)

★ ''Sixth and Main'' (1977)

★ ''Roller Boogie'' (1979)

★ ''It's My Turn'' (1980)

★ ''Gamble on Love'' (1982)

★ ''Death Falls'' (1991)

★ ''Drive-in Movie Memories'' (2001) (documentary)

★ ''If'' (2003)

External Links

★

★ The Official Beverly Garland Homepage