Meg Wyllie

Margaret Gillespie "Meg" Wyllie (February 15, 1917 – January 1, 2002) was an American actress who appeared primarily on television.

Meg Wyllie
Wyllie in a "The Golden Girls" episode from 1991
Born
Margaret Gillespie Wyllie

(1917-02-15)February 15, 1917
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
DiedJanuary 1, 2002(2002-01-01) (aged 84)
Glendale, California, U.S.
Other namesMeg Wylie
OccupationActress
Years active1952-1995

Early years

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, she grew up in the Philippines, where her father worked as an engineer in sugar plantations on Negros Island near Bacolod. She attended the Brent School in Baguio for grammar school and high school then moved to New York City in the 1940s.[1][2]

Stage

Wyllie acted with the Pasadena Playhouse, in Visit to a Small Planet (1958),[3] Two on an Island (1940)[4] and All the Comforts of Home (1941).[5] She had previously appeared in Dear Brutus and Morning Glory there.[4]

She was in The Glass Menagerie's original production.[2] On Broadway, she played in The First Gentleman.[6]

Television

Wyllie "appeared on nearly every popular TV series of the late 1950s and much of the 1960s."[2]

In 1960, Wyllie appeared as a grandmother in the "Bullets and Ballet" episode of Tightrope![7] and in The Twilight Zone episode "The Night of the Meek".[8] That same year, she was cast as Mrs. Shafer in the episode "The Captain's Dilemma" of the CBS military sitcom/drama series, Hennesey, starring Jackie Cooper as a United States Navy physician and Abby Dalton as nurse Martha Hale.

Between 1962-1966 Wyllie made four guest appearances on Perry Mason. Her most substantial role of these was as Ninevah Stone in the episode, "The Case of the Nebulous Nephew"[9] (1963). She also played Marguerite Keith, the owner of a home in the path of a road, in the 1964 episode "The Case of the Ruinous Redhead".[10]

In the 1963-1964 season, Wyllie had a recurring role as Mrs. Kissel[11] in 18 episodes of ABC's family western series, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, starring child actor Kurt Russell in the title role. Mark Allen played Matt Kissel, her husband, in nineteen episodes. In nine episodes, four of The Osmonds were cast as the singing sons of the Kissel family, all with given names of books of the Old Testament, Micah, Deuteronomy, Lamentations, and Leviticus.[12] She played the first-ever villain in Star Trek, the Talosian "Keeper" in the pilot episode, "The Cage" (1964). Not broadcast in its original form for many years, this material was used in the two-parter, "The Menagerie" (1966). She also appeared in Batman alongside Tallulah Bankhead in one episode “Black Widow Strikes Again” (1967)

Wyllie appeared on ABC's General Hospital as three different characters-Nurse Doris Roach (1974) who revealed to Lesley Faulkner that her daughter (Laura Vining) was still alive; Antique shop proprietor Hester Frumpkin (1982) who worked for Laura's kidnapper, David Gray; and a brief replacement for Anna Lee as Lila Quartermaine (1994).[13] She also played several different characters on both The Golden Girls and Designing Women.

Death

Wyllie died on January 1, 2002, at the age of 84 in Glendale, California, from heart failure. She was survived by a cousin.[2]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1961The Flight That DisappearedHelen Cooper
1962Beauty and the BeastWoman
1964MarnieMrs. Turpin
1967FitzwillySaleswomanUncredited
1971Vanishing PointPolice DispatcherUncredited
1974Our TimeNurse
1976LipstickSister Margaret
1983Second ThoughtsMrs. Gardner
1983Cracking UpAnti-Smoking EnforcerUncredited
1984The Last StarfighterGranny Gordon
1986Nothing in CommonGrandma on Commercial Set
1987DragnetMrs. Gannon
1989Worth WinningGranny
gollark: So the teeth parts are still attached to the fabric fine. It's just that the slider thing has slipped off the teeth somehow.
gollark: Hold on while I look up zipper terminology.
gollark: I see.
gollark: I don't know how they work so reliably most of the time. Very sorcerous mechanical engineering.
gollark: One of the slider things on one of the zips on my bag has somehow detached itself from one of the track things.

References
  1. p. 140 in: Halsema, James J. Bishop Brent's Baguio School: The First 75 Years. Brent School, Baguio City, Philippines 247pp. OCLC 20331617
  2. Galloway, Doug (February 10, 2002). "Meg Wyllie". Variety. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  3. "Ticket Sale Begins at Playhouse". California, Covina. Covina Argus. September 18, 1958. p. 9. Retrieved April 28, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Elmer Rice Play To Open in Pasadena". California, Santa Ana. Santa Ana Register. October 28, 1940. p. 10. Retrieved April 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Comedy Will Be Chaffey Event". California, San Bernardino. The San Bernardino County Sun. March 15, 1941. p. 15. Retrieved April 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Meg Wyllie". Playbill. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  7. "(photo caption)". California, San Rafael. Daily Independent Journal. May 28, 1960. p. 33. Retrieved April 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "(photo caption)". California, San Rafael. Daily Independent Journal. December 17, 1960. p. 42. Retrieved April 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "(TV listing)". Ohio, Salem. The Salem News. August 27, 1966. p. 7. Retrieved April 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "TV Previews". Ohio, Dover. The Daily Reporter. December 31, 1964. p. 14. Retrieved April 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Indians Block Trail on Video Show". Utah, Provo. The Daily Herald. September 16, 1963. p. 17. Retrieved April 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963-1964)". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
  13. Reichardt, Nancy M. (September 25, 1994). "'General Hospital' Update: Lila's Back To Her Former Self". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
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