Actress Merry Anders ("How to Marry a Millionaire") 1934-2012

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Merry A. Benedict died on October 28, 2012 in Encino, California. Most of us know her as television actress Merry Anders. She was 80.

Born Mary Anderson in Chicago on May 22, 1934, she wanted to be an actress from early childhood. By the late 1940s, she and her mother Helen had made their way to California, where Mary soon began taking acting and modeling lessons. While attending John Burroughs Junior High School in Los Angeles, she caught the eye of Rita LeRoy, owner of a small junior modeling agency, who convinced Helen to sign up her photogenic daughter for modeling lessons. She quickly became a top junior model, and replaced LeRoy's current top model, Tippi Hedren, who left for New York to do television modeling. The secretary of famed 20th Century-Fox talent scout Ivan Kahn spotted her in a Ben Bard production of Little Women and was impressed enough to invite her to meet Kahn, who, in turn, signed her to a seven-year contract.

Although Anders was under contract to 20th Century-Fox, her film career did not exactly flourish at the studio. During this time, she took several small roles in Fox films, but Fox dropped her contract in 1954. She had more luck on television, where she was featured in two television series: ‘The Stu Erwin Show’ (1954-1955) and ‘How to Marry a Millionaire’ (1957-1959). Interestingly, Anders had a small role in the film version of How to Marry a Millionaire while under contract at Fox. In 1955, Anders married casting director/producer John G. Stephens; the marriage lasted just a few months, but in the middle of the divorce, Anders learned that she was pregnant. Her daughter Tina Beth Paige Anders was born in 1956.

Without a studio contract, Anders began freelancing at other studios. She used this newfound freedom to her advantage, chalking up an amazing eight film releases in 1957 alone. Also, she began making numerous guest appearances on popular TV programs, including Cheyenne, Bronco, Perry Mason, and The Addams Family.

She was signed by Jack Webb to be a semi-regular on the hit show "Dragnet," where Webb insists on her changing from her usual platinum blonde to a less coiffured brunette. Webb starts showing up with her at the many civic engagements she routinely volunteers for in her Mission Hills neighborhood, much to the delight of surprised fans.

In 1968 her phone suddenly stopped ringing with offers as the television industry goes through a cultural change in the late Sixties. Desperate for work, she takes the job of a "glorified extra" in the movie Airport, while her name does not appear in the credits. She then took a job as a receptionist at Litton Industries, who allows her to take time off if she gets an acting assignment.

She does her last work in front of a camera with a guest shot on a two-part episode of "Gunsmoke." Co-starring with her is newcomer Ellen Burstyn and old friend Jeremy Slate. She also makes her swan song movie appearance in Legacy of Blood, a film that is filled with other fine Fifties performers who have fallen into neglect by the early Seventies.

In 1986 after remaining single for thirty-one years following her divorce from her first husband, producer John Stephens, she marries a Litton engineer named Richard Benedict. Ironically, she is introduced to Benedict by her former husband.

She retired from her job as a receptionist at Litton Industries in 1994. In her spare time she enjoyed doing calligraphy and making pin money on the side by doing small announcements and cards for people. Although she's become a very private person after her acting career, she's recognized from time to time, even being chastised by a total stranger once for being so mean as "Auntie Alice" on the short-lived daytime soap "Never Too Young."

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Merry Anders