Lesley Woods

Lesley Woods
Lesley Woods
Born	August 22, 1910; Berwick, Iowa, U.S.
Died	August 2, 2003 (aged 92); Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1936–2001
Spouse	Richard McMurray
Children	Sam McMurray (stepson)

Lesley Woods (August 22, 1910 – August 2, 2003) was an American radio, stage and television actress. She was a graduate of the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago.^[1]

Personal life

Woods was married to actor Richard McMurray. Sam McMurray is her stepson.^[2]

Death

Woods died on August 2, 2003, 20 days before her 93rd birthday. ^[3]

Stage

Woods' acting on Broadway included being in Double Dummy (1936), Excursion (1937), Comes the Revelation (1942), The Assassin (1945), and A Case of Libel (1963–64).^[4] She was a member of Theatre West. A Billboard review of Comes the Revelation summarized Woods' acting as follows: "Small, blond and attractive, Miss Woods plays with an honesty and restraint that are as rare as they are commendable. Quiet, sincere and tremendously effective, she does one of the finest jobs of the entire season."^[5]

Radio

Woods' roles on radio programs included those shown in the table below.

Program	Role
Backstage Wife	Maida^[6]
Boston Blackie	Mary Wesley^[2]
Bright Horizon	Rosie^[7] Margaret Anderson McCarey^[6]
Bulldog Drummond	"heroine roles"^[8] "the feminine lead"^[9]
Casey, Crime Photographer	Ann Williams^[10]
Guiding Light	Helene Cunningham^[11]
Joyce Jordan, Girl Interne	Margot Sherwood^[6]
The Man I Married	Evelyn Waring^[12]
Midstream	Meredith Conway^[6]
Portia Faces Life	Elaine Arden^[13]
Road of Life	Carol Martin^[1]
The Romance of Helen Trent	Tember Adams^[6]
Rosemary	Audrey Roberts^[6]
The Shadow	Margo Lane^[14]
This Is Nora Drake	Peg Martinson^[6]
We Love and Learn	Mickey^[6]
Woman in White	Janet Munson Adams^[6]

Other programs on which Woods was a regular included Crime and Peter Chambers, Inner Sanctum Mystery, The Private Files of Rex Saunders, Treasury Star Parade,^[13] and It Can Be Done.^[15]

Television

A veteran of at least 10 daytime serials, Woods' daytime debut was as Claire Bannister Steele on Young Dr. Malone from 1959-1963 as the serial's leading villainess. Following that, she appeared on The Edge of Night as Evelyn Dark (1964), A Flame in the Wind as Miriam Bentley (1964–66), The Nurses (where she starred with McMurray) as Vivian Gentry (1965-1967), Search for Tomorrow as the original Andrea Whiting (1967), Bright Promise as Isabel Jones (1971-1972), Return to Peyton Place as Zoe Tate (1972-1973), and Days of Our Lives as Dorothy Kelly (1978). On General Hospital, she played the role of Edna Hadley (1977-1978, 1980), the New York landlady who arranged for Heather Grant to sell her baby, Steven Lars. She guest-starred in an episode of Gibbsville in 1976, originated the role of Amanda Ewing, Jock's first wife, on Dallas, and had a recurring role as Chase Gioberti's housekeeper, Mrs. Miller, on Falcon Crest (1984-1987). She played Langley Wallingford's first wife, Betty Miller (Hilary's mother) on All My Children in 1984, and was part of the original cast of The Bold and the Beautiful as Helen Logan from 1987 to 1989, and again in 2001, when her character was a great-great-grandmother.^[2]

Television appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1956	Robert Montgomery Presents	-----^[16]

References

^ ^a ^b "Noted Radio Actress". The Evening News. The Evening News. February 9, 1939. p. 22. Retrieved October 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Lesley Woods". Variety. August 19, 2003. Retrieved 2008-03-14. Actress Lesley Woods died Aug. 2 of natural causes in Los Angeles. She was 90.
^ Lentz III, Harris M. (October 24, 2008). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2003: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. ISBN 9780786452088 – via Google Books.
^ "Lesley Woods". Playbill Vault. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
^ Burr, Eugene (June 6, 1942). "New Plays on Broadway: Comes the Revelation". Billboard. pp. 9–10. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Buxton, Frank and Owen, Bill (1972). The Big Broadcast: 1920-1950. The Viking Press. SBN 670-16240-x. Pp. 23, 40, 127, 160, 203, 204, 238, 253, 258.
^ "(untitled caption)". The Centralia Enterprise and Tribune. The Centralia Enterprise and Tribune. February 9, 1945. p. 6. Retrieved October 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "(untitled caption)". The Lincoln Star. October 19, 1941. p. 44. Retrieved October 8, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Has Feminine Lead". The Evening News. The Evening News. June 19, 1942. p. 18. Retrieved October 8, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "'Casey' Cast". Harrisburg Telegraph. Harrisburg Telegraph. September 21, 1946. p. 17. Retrieved October 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "In Medical Drama". The Evening News. The Evening News. March 28, 1940. p. 24. Retrieved October 8, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "'The Man I Married'-New WHP Daytime Serial Starts Monday". Harrisburg Telegraph. Harrisburg Telegraph. July 19, 1941. p. 26. Retrieved October 8, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^ ^a ^b Dunning, John. (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Pp. 184, 346, 550, 554, 680.
^ Sies, Luther F. (2014). Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition, Volume 2. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-5149-4. P. 596.
^ "In Edgar Guest Cast". The Evening News. The Evening News. October 4, 1938. p. 14. Retrieved October 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Vernon, Terry (June 25, 1956). "Tele-Vues". Independent. Long Beach Independent. p. 28. Retrieved October 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.