Gloria Maude Talbott (February 7, 1931–September 19, 2000) was an American film and television actress.
Early life and career
Gloria Talbott was born in Glendale, California.[2][3] Her great-grandfather Benjamin F. Patterson arrived from Ohio in 1882 and bought some acreage in the area. He later assisted with the platting of the city.[4]
She began her career as a child actress in such films as Maytime (1937), Sweet and Low-Down (1944), and A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (1945).[5] She attended Glendale High School.[6] In 1947, she was chosen as the winner of the "Miss Glendale" beauty pageant.[4] In November 1948, Talbott was in the cast of One Fine Day, a comedy presented on stage at the Biltmore Theater in Los Angeles.[7]
Her sister, Lori Talbott, also became an actress.[citation needed]
In 1955, she appeared in TV Reader's Digest episode "America's First Great Lady" as Pocahontas and was the first guest star with roles in both of the 1955 season's new adult Westerns, Gunsmoke, episode "Home Surgery" and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, episode 2 "Mr. Earp Meets a Lady".
In a broadcast on NBC on January 27, 1958, Talbott played Valya in star/producer John Payne's The Restless Gun, season one, episode 19, "Hang and Be Damned". She was cast in the syndicated American Civil War drama Gray Ghost, the 1958 episode "Fatal Memory" on CBS's Wanted: Dead or Alive (returning for the 1960 episode "Tolliver Bender"), the 1959 episode "Have Sword, Will Duel" of the NBC Western Cimarron City, and in the 1961 NBC Western Whispering Smith in the role of Cora Gates.
In 1960, Talbott made guest-starring appearances as Nora Lanyard and Lucinda Jennings in the episodes "Landlubbers" and "Devil in Skirts" of the NBC Western series, Riverboat. She was cast as Sandy in "The Velvet Frame" of the ABC/WB drama, The Roaring 20s. She also appeared in the ABC Western series, The Rebel and in Bonanza as Nedda in the episode "Escape to Ponderosa". In 1961, she portrayed Maria Mosner in the episode "The Twenty-Six Paper" of the ABC adventure series, The Islanders. That same year, she guest-starred in the episode "Buddy's Wife" of the CBS sitcom Bringing Up Buddy.
She appeared twice on CBS's TV Western series Bat Masterson, once in the 1958 episode "Trail Pirate" playing Ellen Parrish, a widowed yet brave wagon train owner, then again in the 1960 episode "Barbary Castle" playing Scottish-accented Mary MacLeod. She also appeared on CBS's Rawhide in the episodes "The Incident of the Calico Gun" (1959), "Incident of the Broken Word" (1960), and "Prairie Elephant" (1961). She appeared in the 1961 episode "Terror in the Afternoon" of the syndicated crime drama The Brothers Brannagan.
Talbott made four guest appearances on the CBS courtroom drama series Perry Mason: as defendant Eve Nesbitt in "The Case of the Angry Dead Man", Ann Gilrain in "The Case of the Crying Comedian" (both in 1961), co-defendant Bonnie Lloyd in the 1963 episode, "The Case of the Elusive Element", and Minna Rohan in the 1966 episode, "The Case of the Unwelcomed Well".
In 1962, she appeared again in an episode of Gunsmoke called "Cody's Code" and in 1963 in an episode entitled "The Cousin".[13]
In 1965, Talbott was cast in the lead in an episode of the syndicated series, Death Valley Days, "Kate Melville and the Law".[14][4] In 1965 Talbott appeared as Lola Wynatt in season 5 Episode !0 of My Three Sons.
Personal life
Talbott was married four times and had two children.[15]
^"California Birth Index, 1905-1995," database, Gloria Maude Talbott, February 7 1931, Los Angeles County, California; birth record, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento, California. Retrieved via FamilySearch archives, June 12, 2022.
^SuzAnne Barabas and Gabor Barabas, "Gunsmoke: A Complete History and Analysis of the Legendary Broadcast Series." McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.1990. pp. 533, 549.