Mary Grace Canfield

Mary Grace Canfield (September 3, 1924[1] – February 15, 2014) was an American theatre, film and television actress.

Mary Grace Canfield
Born(1924-09-03)September 3, 1924
Rochester, New York, U.S.
DiedFebruary 15, 2014(2014-02-15) (aged 89)
Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1950–1993
Spouse(s)Charles Carey (divorced; 2 children)
John Bischof (1984–2014; her death)

Early life and career

Mary Grace Canfield was born in Rochester, New York,[2] the second child of Hildegard (née Jacobson) and Hubert Canfield. She grew up in Pittsford, New York. She had a sister, Constance, who was two years older than her.[3]

Acting mostly in small theatre companies and regional theatre between 1952 and 1964, she appeared in several Broadway plays, but most ran for no more than a month. Her Broadway credits include The Waltz of the Toreadors and The Frogs of Spring.[4][5]

Canfield's first credited performance on television was in March 1954 when she portrayed Frances in the episode "Native Dancer" on Goodyear Playhouse. After making additional television appearances, she played housekeeper Amanda Allison on the sitcom The Hathaways during the 1961-1962 season. As Thelma Lou's "ugly" cousin in an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, she had an arranged blind date with Gomer Pyle, played by Jim Nabors. Her name on this episode was her actual name, Mary Grace. The episode was originally scheduled to air on November 25, 1963, but it was preempted by the coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy three days earlier.

Green Acres

Canfield was best known for her recurring role on the hit comedy series Green Acres as Ralph Monroe, the all-thumbs carpenter who greeted her fellow Hootervillians with her signature "Howdy Doody!" She appeared in more than 40 episodes of the show during its six-season run from 1965 to 1971.[2] She reprised the role in the 1990 TV movie Return to Green Acres.[4] Recalling the Ralph character in a 2006 interview, she said "To be remembered for Ralph kind of upsets me—only in the sense that it was so easy and undemanding." She added "It's being known for something easy to do instead of something you worked hard to achieve."[6]

Other roles

She guest starred on The Eleventh Hour. In 1966, Canfield played Abner Kravitz's sister Harriet on four episodes of Bewitched. Actress Alice Pearce, who played Abner's wife, Gladys Kravitz, had died from ovarian cancer, and her successor as Mrs. Kravitz (Sandra Gould) had yet to be hired. During the early 1970s, Canfield and actress Lucille Wall shared the role of Lucille March on General Hospital. Canfield appeared in feature films such as Pollyanna (as "Angelica"),[7] The St. Valentine's Day Massacre[8] and Something Wicked This Way Comes.[9]

Later life and death

Canfield made her last public appearance in 2005 when she attended Eddie Albert's funeral with Green Acres co-stars Sid Melton and Frank Cady. Canfield died at age 89 from lung cancer on February 15, 2014 in Santa Barbara, California.[10]

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1959 That Kind of Woman WAC on Train Uncredited
1960 Pollyanna Angelica
1962 The Interns Pharmacy Nurse Uncredited
1963 Come Blow Your Horn Mildred - Looking for JFK at Party Uncredited
1967 Don't Make Waves Seamstress
1967 The St. Valentine's Day Massacre Mrs. Doody Uncredited
1975 Half a House Thelma
1983 Something Wicked This Way Comes Miss Foley
1988 South of Reno Motel Manager
1993 Young Goodman Brown Goody Cloyse (final film role)

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1954 Goodyear Television Playhouse Frances Episode: "Native Dancer"
1955 The Best of Broadway Liesl Episode: "The Guardsman"
1956 Robert Montgomery Presents Abigail Lewis Episode: "Goodbye, Grey Flannel"
1959 The Play of the Week Sidonia Episode: "The Waltz of the Toreadors"
1961 Thriller Celia Perry Episode: "A Good Imagination"
1961–1962 The Hathaways Amanda Allison Episodes: "Elinor's Guilt", "TV or Not TV", "The Paint Job", "A Man for Amanda"
1962 Thriller Ally Rose Episode: "The Hollow Watcher"
1962 Hazel Miss Simmons Episode: "Rock-A-Bye Baby"
1962 Poor Mr. Campbell Grindl TV movie
1963 The Joey Bishop Show Mrs. Bennett Episode: "The Baby Formula"
1963 The Eleventh Hour Mrs. Dobkin Episode: "The Middle Child Gets All the Aches"
1963 The Andy Griffith Show Mary Grace Gossage Episode: "A Date for Gomer"
1964 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Juliet Episode: "Wake Up, Darling"
1965–1971 Green Acres Ralph Monroe Recurring role (41 episodes)
1966 The Farmer's Daughter Alice Goodall Episode: "Twelve Angry Women"
1966 Bewitched Harriet Kravitz Episodes: "Follow That Witch: Parts 1 & 2", "A Bum Raps", "Man's Best Friend"
1967 Vacation Playhouse Mildred Episode: "Heaven Help Us"
1970 Adam-12 Susie Fisher Episode: "Log 135: Arson"
1973 Love, American Style Bridgette Episode: "Love and the Games People Play"
1973 General Hospital Lucille March TV series, replacement for Lucille Wall
1976 Family Mrs. Hanley Episodes: "Coming Apart", "Home Movie"
1978 Tabitha Dr. Morrison Episode: "Paul Goes to New York"
1984 Burning Rage Nettie McFadden TV movie
1985 Alice Ruthie Episode: "The Night They Raided Debbie's"
1990 Return to Green Acres Ralph Monroe TV movie
1993 The Jackie Thomas Show Jane Episode: "Aloha, Io-wahu"
gollark: OpenRC on Alpine, Runit on Void.
gollark: I've used both and I don't really like the user experience.
gollark: I think you could reasonably make a nicer service manager which just reads INI files, manages processes, communicates with some logging backend, and has an API for firing events/managing services. But nobody seems to have done this.
gollark: Also declarative unit files.
gollark: I don't really like it as much as grudgingly tolerate it because Arch uses it, and because systemctl/journalctl *are* extremely convenient.

References
  1. Was born in 1924 not 1926 as per Intelius and the 1930 US census Year of birth per ancestry.com; accessed February 20, 2014.
  2. The People of Hooterville
  3. Hubert H Canfield, "United States Census, 1930"
  4. Funny Ladies - Michael Karol - Google Books
  5. Mary Grace Canfield Theatre Credits
  6. "Mary Grace Canfield dies at 89; character actress was on 'Green Acres'", Los Angeles Times
  7. Nissen, Axel (2013). The Films of Agnes Moorehead. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0810891371. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  8. Naha, Ed; Corman, Roger (1982). The Films of Roger Corman: Brilliance on a Budget. Arco Pub. ISBN 978-0668053082. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  9. Muir, John Kenneth (2013). Horror Films of the 1980s. McFarland. p. 258. ISBN 978-0786455010. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  10. "Actress Mary Grace Canfield Dies", abcnews.go.com; accessed February 18, 2014.
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