Kathleen Nolan

Kathleen Nolan
Kathleen Nolan in 2007
President of the Screen Actors Guild
In office
1975–1979
Preceded by Dennis Weaver
Succeeded by William Schallert
Personal details
Born Jocelyn Schrum
(1933-09-27) September 27, 1933
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Spouse(s) Richard Steven Heckenkamp (1962-1965; divorced)
Children Spencer Garrett
Occupation Actress
Kathleen Nolan as "Wendy" in the original Broadway cast of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin (1954)

Kathleen Nolan (born Jocelyn Schrum, September 27, 1933) is an American actress. From 1957 to 1962, she played the role of Kate McCoy, a housewife in the Walter Brennan ABC television series The Real McCoys.

Early years

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Nolan first appeared on stage on the showboat Goldenrod when she was 13 months old.[1] She acted on the showboat for 12 years.[2] Her family acted in tent shows and had their own troupe, the Circle Stock Company.[1] She graduated from high school in St. Louis and sang on a radio station there.[3]

Political activities

Nolan served for two terms as the first female president of the Screen Actors Guild[4] (1975–79). She also served on SAG's board of directors for a dozen years.[5]

She is a life member of the Actors Studio[6] and a recipient of the Women in Film Crystal Award. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed Nolan to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.[7][8]

Stage

On Broadway, Nolan played Wendy in the original production of the Styne-Comden-Green musical version of Peter Pan (1954–1955),[9] starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard,[10] a role she repeated in both the 1955 and 1956 live NBC-TV broadcasts on Producers' Showcase.[11] She played Amy in Love in E-Flat (1967).[9]

Beyond Broadway, she "did major summer and winter theater ..."[5]

Television

Nolan spent most of her career on television, making her debut in an episode of The Philco Television Playhouse.[1] She had a regular role as the teenaged cousin Liz in the 1953-1954 ABC sitcom Jamie, starring Brandon deWilde in the title role.[11]

Nolan made other appearances over the years on such series as Gunsmoke, The Lloyd Bridges Show, The Untouchables, Breaking Point, Crossing Jordan, Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope, All My Children, Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, Murder, She Wrote (1991) episode "The Prodigal Father", Magnum, P.I. episodes "The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii" (1981) and "Double Jeopardy" (1982), this last one in which Larry Pennell co-guest starred, The Incredible Hulk, Quincy M.E., The Love Boat, Charlie's Angels, The Rockford Files, The Bionic Woman, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Love, American Style, Bewitched, The Big Valley, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Thriller, Burke's Law, Meet McGraw, and Ben Casey.[11]

Nolan appeared with fellow guest star Michael Landon in the 1958 episode "Rose of the Rio Bravo" on the ABC Western series Tombstone Territory, starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. She also appeared on the NBC interview program Here's Hollywood.

Nolan's best known television role was as a co-star on the popular sitcom The Real McCoys, playing Kate, the wife of Luke McCoy (Richard Crenna). On February 23, 1961, she was thrown from a horse and injured during the filming of an episode. She then missed four months of work and was "in and out of the hospital many times" before returning to the series to perform in the episode broadcast on June 15, 1961.[12] Nolan left The Real McCoys prior to its final season (1962-1963). At the time, the series also switched networks from ABC to CBS. The time slot for The Real McCoys changed as well in the switch to CBS, moving from Thursday evenings to Sunday evenings opposite NBC's Bonanza. In the revamped storyline for the series, Nolan's character was said to have died.[11]

Nolan subsequently appeared on McHale's Navy, which resulted in her own spin-off series, Broadside, in which she led a strong cast that included Edward Andrews, Dick Sargent, Sheila James (in her last regular television series role), Lois Roberts, Joan Staley, George Furth, Arnold Stang, and Jimmy Boyd. Broadside had good ratings, but Universal Studios dropped the series after a single season.

Beyond television, she appeared as Burt Reynold's true love Claudia in his critically acclaimed film The Last Movie Star in 2017. (Retrieved from The Last Movie Star (2017))

Awards

Nolan in 1980 received the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women, "who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry".[13]

In 1959, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Continuing Character) in a Comedy Series for her work in The Real McCoys.[14]

Personal life

Nolan married Richard Heckenkamp, a "personal manager for celebrities,"[15] November 4, 1962. They were divorced May 19, 1965.[16] They had a son, Spencer,[2] born September 19, 1963.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lassen, Kurt (August 30, 1968). "Kathleen Nolan Plans Breather From Television". The Oil City Derrick. p. 10. Retrieved October 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 Holloway, Tony (May 9, 1965). "Miss Nolan, Real McCoy, To Open Sullivan Season". The Pantagraph. p. 36. Retrieved October 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Doctor Couldn't Fix but She Gets Along". The Austin Daily Herald. May 10, 1958. p. 32. Retrieved October 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Isenberg, Barbara (October 24, 1976). "Actress Is Arts Super-Lobbyist". Albuquerque Journal. p. 41. Retrieved October 11, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 Sharbutt, Eve (December 17, 1972). "Actress seeks to change females' film image". The Post-Crescent. p. 35. Retrieved October 11, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ David Garfield (1980). "Appendix: Life Members of the Actors Studio as of January 1980". A Player's Place: The Story of the Actors Studio. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co, Inc. p. 279. ISBN 0-02-542650-8.
  7. ↑ http://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb/leadership/board
  8. ↑ https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal78-862-26430-1236161
  9. 1 2 "Kathleen Nolan". Playbill Vault. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  10. ↑ Kathleen Nolan at the Internet Broadway Database
  11. 1 2 3 4 Kathleen Nolan on IMDb
  12. ↑ Pearson, Howard (June 15, 1961). "Lippman Special, McCoys, Airport Show On TV". The Deseret News. p. D 11. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  13. ↑ "Past Recipients". Wif.org. Archived from the original on 2011-06-30. Retrieved 2012-12-15.
  14. ↑ "Awards Search: Kathy Nolan". Television Academy: Emmys. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  15. 1 2 "Actress Kathy Nolan Has Her First Child". Toledo Blade. September 20, 1963. p. 14. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  16. ↑ "Divorce to Actress Kathleen Nolan". The Kansas City Times. May 20, 1965. p. 2. Retrieved October 11, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
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