Elinor Donahue

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Elinor Donahue

Born	Mary Eleanor Donahue April 19, 1937 (1937-04-19) (age 71) Tacoma, Washington, U.S.A.
Occupation	actor
Years active	1942–present

Elinor Donahue (born April 19, 1937, as Mary Eleanor Donahue in Tacoma, Washington, USA, North America) is an American actress. The naturally red-headed Donahue is best known for her early role as Robert Young's eldest/popular daughter, Betty Anderson, on the popular 1950s cult sitcom, Father Knows Best, and for her nearly 30-year marriage to producer Harry Ackerman, whom she met on the set of that series.

[edit] Biography

Donahue's mother was a theatrical costumer, who moonlighted as a department store saleswoman in order to pay for her daughter's dancing lessons. Appearing in dancing-chorus film roles from the age of five, Donahue was at one point a ballet-school classmate of future Fred Astaire partner Barrie Chase.

Donahue was a child actor working in vaudeville and had several bit parts in movies as a teenager, including Love is Better Than Ever (1952), starring a young Elizabeth Taylor. She achieved stardom for her role as the elder daughter, Betty, on the popular television family series Father Knows Best (1954 - 1960). She also appeared in numerous other television shows as a guest actor, such as the Star Trek second-season episode "Metamorphosis", as well as in such motion pictures as Pretty Woman (1990).

Donahue has had roles on many TV shows, including Miriam Welby, Tony Randall's love interest on TV's The Odd Couple, compassionate working mother, Jane Mulligan on Mulligan's Stew, and Hunnicut, the evil nurse on Days of Our Lives. Donahue was also featured in several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show as pharmacist Ellie Walker, even getting a mention in the famous opening credits. Walker was intended to be a love interest for Andy Taylor, but was dropped from the cast after Griffith and the producers decided they had no romantic chemistry, and appears only during the first season (1960 - 1961).

In the 1964-1965 season, Donahue costarred as Joan Randall, the daughter of Waltern Burnley, played by John McGiver, on the CBS sitcom Many Happy Returns about the complaint department of a fictitious Los Angeles department store. Mark Goddard played her husband, Bob Randall.

Donahue played Gladys, the mother of Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott), on the cult sitcom Get A Life! (1990-1992), alongside Elliott's real-life father, comedian Bob Elliott.

Donahue was married to the late TV executive producer Harry Ackerman (who is 25 years her senior). His list of credits included Leave It to Beaver, Bewitched, and Gidget. A mother of four sons, Elinor has been living with her third husband, contractor Louis Genevrino, whom she married in 1992 in California.

In 1998, Donahue published a memoir entitled In the Kitchen with Elinor Donahue, in which she relived some of her memories of Hollywood along with providing more than 150 of her top-grade recipes.^[1]

Donahue played Commissioner Nancy Hedford in the Star Trek espisode "Metamorphosis" along side Glenn Corbett as Zefram Cochrane the inventor of warp drive.