Elizabeth MacRae, the famed Hollywood actress known for her television roles in the 1960s and ’70s, died Monday at age 88.
MacRae, best known for her stints on “Gomer Pyle, USMC” and “General Hospital,” passed away in her hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina, Deadline reported.
She began her acting journey in 1956, moving to New York City after high school and taking classes with legendary teacher Uta Hagen at the Herbert Berghof Studio.
The blond, blue-eyed ingenue would get her start in off-Broadway productions before landing her first television role in 1958, on the CBS show “The Verdict Is Yours,” as a courtroom witness.
In the following decades, MacRae would star in numerous shows, including “Bonanza,” “Route 66,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Andy Griffith Show” and “I Dream of Jeannie.”
MacRae also joined several daytime soaps, starring as Meg Baldwin in “General Hospital” from 1969 to 1973, and appearing in “Days of Our Lives,” “Guiding Light,” and “Search for Tomorrow.”
She is best remembered for her role as Lou-Ann Poovie, Gomer’s girlfriend, in “Gomer Pyle, USMC,” acting opposite Jim Nabors.
“I loved him to pieces,” MacRae told The Fayetteville Observer, when Nabors died at age 87 in 2017.
Her film credits include Frances Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation,” “Everything’s Ducky,” “The Incredible Mr. Limpet,” and her final role in 1989’s “Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!”
MacRae is survived by her five stepchildren: Peter Halsey, Terry Halsey, Cate Halsey, Hugh Halsey and Alex Halsey Topper.
___
© 2024 New York Daily News
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
