Jeff Donnell
  • Jeff Donnell
  • Jeff Donnell
  • Jeff Donnell
Who's Dated Who feature on Jeff Donnell including awards, trivia, quotes, pictures, biography, photos, videos, pics, news, commentary, vital stats, fans and facts.
 

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Career Highlights

Actor Credits



Filmography

TV Shows/Series
General Hospital (Stella Fields) [1980]
Fantasy Island (Mrs. Hoyt) [1979] (# of episodes: 1)
The Bob Newhart Show (Little Woman) [1978] (# of episodes: 1)
The Feather and Father Gang (Annie) [1977] (# of episodes: 1)
Chico and the Man (Peggy) [1977] (# of episodes: 1)
Matt Helm (Ethel) [1975 - 1976]
Kolchak: The Night Stalker (Maura) [1975] (# of episodes: 1)
Police Story (Martha) [1974 - 1975] (# of episodes: 2)
Paper Moon (Mrs. Carson) [1974] (# of episodes: 1)
Marcus Welby, M.D. (Cleaning Woman) [1974] (# of episodes: 1)
The Girl with Something Extra (Betsy Burton) [1973] (# of episodes: 1)
Here We Go Again (Aunt Patti) [1973] (# of episodes: 1)
The ABC Afternoon Playbreak (Mrs. Cummings) [1973] (# of episodes: 1)
Cannon (Mrs. Holt) [1973] (# of episodes: 1)
Barnaby Jones (Janet Gossett) [1973] (# of episodes: 1)
Adam-12 (Mrs. James Nelson) [1973] (# of episodes: 1)
Emergency! (Katie) [1972] (# of episodes: 1)
Me and the Chimp (Grandma) [1972]
The Partridge Family (Mrs. Monahan) [1972] (# of episodes: 1)
The Jimmy Stewart Show (Agatha Dwiggins) [1971 - 1972] (# of episodes: 2)
Love, American Style (Mrs. Hutton) [1971] (# of episodes: 1)
Medical Center (Mrs. Hersey) [1970] (# of episodes: 1)
Bracken`s World (Joan Elliot) [1970] (# of episodes: 2)
Nanny and the Professor (Mrs. Winslow) [1970] (# of episodes: 1)
The F.B.I. (The rooming house manager) [1969 - 1972] (# of episodes: 2)
Daniel Boone (Varna Montgomery) [1969] (# of episodes: 1)
Julia (Mrs. Bennett) [1968] (# of episodes: 1)
Felony Squad (Mrs. Foster) [1968] (# of episodes: 1)
Gidget (Hannah Marshall) [1966] (# of episodes: 1)
The Addams Family (Eleanor Digby) [1966] (# of episodes: 1)
Dr. Kildare (Evelyn Driscoll) [1966] (# of episodes: 5)
Disneyland (Mrs. Jarkey) [1964] (# of episodes: 2)
Perry Mason (Rose Carol) [1962 - 1964] (# of episodes: 2)
Mister Ed (Martha Harper) [1962] (# of episodes: 1)
Play of the Week (Lucy) [1960] (# of episodes: 1)
The DuPont Show with June Allyson (Millie Moon) [1960] (# of episodes: 1)
The Ann Sothern Show (Helen) [1960] (# of episodes: 1)
Overland Trail (Jennifer Dean) [1960] (# of episodes: 1)
The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen [1959] (# of episodes: 1)
Playhouse 90 (Sylvia) [1956] (# of episodes: 1)
Studio 57 [1956] (# of episodes: 1)
Ethel Barrymore Theater [1956] (# of episodes: 2)
Matinee Theatre [1956] (# of episodes: 1)
Climax! (Kay Matheson) [1955] (# of episodes: 1)
The United States Steel Hour (Eva Dulaney) [1954 - 1962] (# of episodes: 7)
The George Gobel Show (Alice) [1954 - 1958] (# of episodes: 5)
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars [1953 - 1954] (# of episodes: 2)
Omnibus [1953] (# of episodes: 1)
Hallmark Hall of Fame [1953] (# of episodes: 1)
Cavalcade of America (Ann Rutledge) [1953] (# of episodes: 1)
The Bigelow Theatre [1951] (# of episodes: 1)
The Ford Television Theatre (Doris) [1943] (# of episodes: 1)
Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson [1] (# of episodes: 1955)
 

Jeff Donnell Biography
Featured player and occasional co-star Jeff Donnell was born Jean Marie Donnell in a boy`s reformatory in South Windham, Maine in 1921, her father a penologist and mother a schoolteacher. It was during her upbringing at the all-male reformatory that she gave herself the nickname "Jeff." She met her first husband, a drama teacher from her Boston alma mater, Leland Powers Drama School, and married him at the age of 19. Together they started the Farragut Playhouse in Rye, New Hampshire, and almost immediately she was noticed in a play there by a Columbia Studios talent scout and signed. Whisked to Los Angeles, she appeared in her first war-era movie, My Sister Eileen (1942) and her husband was hired as a dialogue director. Hardly the chic, glamour girl type, Jeff possessed a perky, unpretentious charm and demeanor that fit comfortably as an occasional light love interest or sidekick in mostly unchallenging "B" escapism. Typical of her movie load were the innocuous What`s Buzzin, Cousin? (1943), A Thousand and One Nights (1944), Carolina Blues (1944) and Eadie Was a Lady (1945). She also enlivened a number of musical westerns that featured Ken ("Gunsmoke") Curtis. In the few "A" films she appeared in, more than not she was the obliging or supportive friend of the leading lady. Jeff later moved to RKO Studios but fared no better and found herself in progressively inferior material. She made a successful move to TV in the early 50s and was seen in a number of comedy and dramatic parts.

Divorcing her first husband in 1952, she married actor Aldo Ray, who was a up-and-rising film star at the time, in 1954 but the marriage crumbled within two years, beset by drinking problems. Jeff would marry and divorce two more times. As the 50s rolled on she earned steady work on TV bringing to life comedian George Gobel`s often-mentioned wife Alice on the sitcom "The George Gobel Show" for four seasons. She also got to play Gidget`s mom in a couple of lightweight movies. Most fans, however, will remember Jeff`s long-running stint on "General Hospital as Stella Fields, a Quartermain housekeeper, which started in 1979 and lasted until her death in 1988. Dogged by ill health in later years, Jeff died peacefully of a heart attack in her sleep at age 66.
 

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Trivia

Trivia and Quotes

Quotes
  • I wasn`t the pretty type and I certainly wasn`t glamorous, so, I always felt fortunate to be acting. My first concern was for my family, so I never developed a driving ambition. I consider myself a very lucky person
    Life
    Trivia
  • Lived in Towson, MD during her youth and was a 1938 graduate of the Towson Senior High School.
  • Had two children by her (much older) first husband Bill Anderson: Michael Phineas (nicknamed Mickey Finn), born in 1942, and Sarah Jane (Sally), born 1947.
  • Had a key role in the critically lauded film Sweet Smell of Success (1957) as Tony Curtis` secretary, but her role was cut extensively, including a big romantic scene with Curtis, that might have reignited her movie career.
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