Ghost And Mrs. Muir: Edward Mulhare and Hope Lange

The Ghost ANd Mrs. Muir aired from September 1968 until September 1970 on NBC and ABC.

Somewhere along a desolate stretch of New England coastline, overlooking Schooner Bay sat a quaint little home known as Gull Cottage . It was charming and comfortable except for one minor detail - it was haunted by the ghost of the previous owner, Capt. Daniel Gregg ( Edward Mulhare), a 19th Century sea Captain.

Every time his nephew Claymore( Charles Nelson Reilly), tried to rent the cottage out, the Captain would "appear" and scare them off. That is until an attractive widow named Carolyn Muir ( Hope Lange)moved into Gull Cottage with her two young children , Candice and Jonathan ( Kellie Flannigan, Harlan Carraher), their pet dog Scruffy and Martha ( Reta Shaw), their housekeeper. Of course, the Captain resented the invasion of his space - Carolyn was sleeping in his bedroom! Try as he may, Carolyn and her family were unshakable. After a time, they managed to establish a truce and even developed a fondness for each other.

The Ghost And Mrs. Muir was picked up by ABC for a second season after being canceled by NBC.

Based on the 1947 movie of the same name starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison.

Here is edward Mulhare's Obituary from The New York Times

Edward Mulhare, 74, an Actor Who Moved From Stage to TV

By WOLFGANG SAXON
Published: May 28, 1997

Edward Mulhare, an Irish-born actor who was a suave, handsome presence on the American stage and in films and television for four decades, died on Saturday at his home in Van Nuys, Calif. He was 74.

The cause was lung cancer, said Pegge Forrest, his publicist and friend.

Television audiences grew familiar with Mr. Mulhare's clipped British accent, the result of work in England, on the series ''The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' and ''Knight Rider.'' Onstage, he stepped into Rex Harrison's shoes as Professor Higgins in Lerner and Loewe's ''My Fair Lady'' and made the role his own, touring nationally and overseas.

Mr. Mulhare made his American debut in 1957 on Broadway as the testy Henry Higgins, subbing for the vacationing Harrison. But it was such a stormy debut that it threatened to derail not only the immensely successful ''My Fair Lady'' but to nip his own American career in the bud as well.

The musical and Mr. Mulhare got caught in the middle of a long-simmering dispute between Actors Equity and Broadway producers over the hiring of foreign actors. Although Mr. Mulhare was a star in Britain, the actors union termed him ''an Irish actor relatively unknown in this country'' and thus unfit to take an important role away from an American. With both sides digging in, the show's future seemed threatened until the labor negotiator Theodore W. Kheel found a technicality that both sides could live with.

Mr. Mulhare proved a worthy replacement who won ovations from the audience and raves from critics, and went on to play the part on Broadway for more than 1,000 performances between 1957 and 1960.

Alan Jay Lerner invited him to take the lead in the show's first overseas tour to Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev in 1960. With national tours in the late 1970's, summer theater, supper theaters and a spell in London, Mr. Mulhare's longevity as Higgins may well have surpassed Harrison's.

He also starred on Broadway in Dore Schary's ''Devil's Advocate'' (1960) and Jean Kerr's ''Mary, Mary'' (1961). He appeared in a revival of Shaw's ''Don Juan in Hell'' in 1973, after which he took the role on tour.

Mr. Mulhare, who was born in Cork, Ireland, was 19 when he first played professionally in ''Othello'' at the Cork Opera House in 1942. He moved to England to appear in repertory, learning the trade and perfecting his diction along the way.

By 1951 he became leading man of the Liverpool Repertory Company. His first appearance in London was in ''Othello,'' starring Orson Welles and directed by Laurence Olivier. It was there that Mr. Lerner and his producer, Herman Levin, signed him to spell Harrison as Higgins in New York.

On television, in ''The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' (1968-70), based on a 1947 movie with Harrison and Gene Tierney, he portrayed the irascible, ghostly Capt. Daniel Gregg sparring with Hope Lange as the widowed Mrs. Muir at Gull Cottage.

In ''Knight Rider,'' an adventure series that ran nearly four years in the 1980's, he co-starred with David Hasselhoff. Most recently he appeared with Mr. Hasselhoff, a close friend, in an episode of ''Baywatch Nights.''

He also played supporting parts in numerous films. His last role was in ''Out to Sea,'' with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, scheduled to open in July.

He is survived by two brothers, Thomas and John, both of County Cork.

Here is Hope Lange's Obituary from The New York Times

Hope Lange, Versatile Actress And Emmy Winner, Dies at 70

By LYDIA POLGREEN
Published: December 22, 2003

Hope Lange, a film, television and stage actress noted for a natural comedic style and intelligent portrayals of women in difficult circumstances, work that brought her two Emmy Awards and an Academy Award nomination, died at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., on Friday. She was 70 and lived in Los Angeles.

The cause was an intestinal infection brought on by a bout of diverticulitis, according to Ms. Lange's husband, Charles Hollerith Jr.

With her naturally blond hair, lithe dancer's figure and simple, straightforward style, Ms. Lange won praise for her first film role as a young woman who befriended a temptress played by Marilyn Monroe at a bus stop in the 1956 romantic comedy ''Bus Stop.'' It was her next role, in the controversial melodrama ''Peyton Place,'' based on the Grace Metalious book of the same name about the torrid lives led behind closed doors by the residents of a picturesque New England town, that made her a star in 1957.

In the film Ms. Lange played Selena Cross, a teenage girl living in a shack on the wrong side of town, who is raped by her stepfather and is later accused of murdering him. Her earnest portrayal of the troubled high school student earned her an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress. She went on to act alongside Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando in ''The Young Lions'' and starred with Joan Crawford in ''The Best of Everything.''

Ms. Lange was born in November 1933 in Connecticut to show business parents -- her father was a composer and arranger, and her mother was an actress. The family moved to Greenwich Village when Ms. Lange was a small child, and soon after Ms. Lange's father died, leaving her mother to support four children on her own. Her mother opened a restaurant, and Ms. Lange worked as a waitress. One day Eleanor Roosevelt, who had an apartment in the Village, walked by with Fala, her husband's beloved Scottish terrier, said Christopher Murray, Ms. Lange's son.

Fala was so entranced by the smell of the food cooking in the restaurant that he stood stock still, Mr. Murray said, until his mistress took him inside. Ms. Lange began walking Fala for Mrs. Roosevelt, Mr. Murray said, and was discovered when her picture appeared in the newspaper. She began modeling, which led to advertising work. Her first husband, the actor Don Murray, encouraged her to try acting, her son said, and Ms. Lange eventually began acting in films and later won two Emmy Awards for her portrayal of a widow in the television series ''The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.''

Ms. Lange's two previous marriages, to Mr. Murray and to Alan J. Pakula, the film director, ended in divorce. In addition to her husband, Ms. Lange is survived by her son, Christopher, of Malibu, Calif., and a daughter, Patricia Murray of Arroyo Grande, Calif.

Here is Charles Nelson Reilly's Obituary from the AP

Actor Charles Nelson Reilly dies at 76
Updated 5/28/2007

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charles Nelson Reilly, the Tony Award winner who later became known for his ribald appearances on the Tonight Show and various game shows, has died. He was 76.

Reilly died Friday in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia, his partner, Patrick Hughes, told the New York Times.

Reilly began his career in New York City, taking acting classes at a studio with Steve McQueen, Geraldine Page and Hal Holbrook. In 1962, he appeared on Broadway as Bud Frump in the original Broadway production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The role won him a Tony Award.

He was nominated for a Tony again for playing Cornelius in Hello, Dolly! In 1997 he received another nomination for directing Julie Harris and Charles Durning in a revival of The Gin Game.

After moving to Hollywood in the 1960s he appeared as the nervous Claymore Gregg on TV's The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and as a featured guest on The Dean Martin Show.

He gained fame by becoming what he described as a "game show fixture" in the 1970s and 80s. He was a regular on programs like Match Game and Hollywood Squares, often wearing giant glasses and loud suits with ascots.

His larger-than-life persona and affinity for double-entendres also landed him on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson more than 95 times.

Reilly ruefully admitted his wild game show appearances adversely affected his acting career. "You can't do anything else once you do game shows," he told The Advocate, the national gay magazine, in 2001. "You have no career."

His final work was an autobiographical one-man show, Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly, about his family life growing up in the Bronx. The title grew out of the fact that when he would act out as a child, his mother would often admonish him to "save it for the stage."

The stage show was made into the 2006 feature film called The Life of Reilly.

Reilly's openly gay television persona was ahead of its time, and sometimes stood in his way. He recalled a network executive telling him "they don't let queers on television."

Hughes, his only immediate survivor, said Reilly had been ill for more than a year.

No memorial plans had been announced.

To read some articles about The Ghost and Mrs. Muir go to http://www.google.com/archivesearch?as_user_ldate=1968&as_user_hdate=1970&q=ghost+and+mrs.+muir+hope+lange&scoring=a&q=ghost+and+mrs.+muir+hope+lange&lnav=od&btnG=Go

To watch some clips from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir go to http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ghost+and+mrs.+muir+hope+lange&aq=f

For a review of The Ghost And Mrs. Muir go to http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/muir.htm