Forgotten Hollywood

Manny P. here…

“`Dina Merrill was an actress, heiress, socialite, businesswoman and philanthropist. She was the only child of  Post Cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, and her second husband was the Wall Street stockbroker Edward Francis (E.F.) Hutton. She was also related to Glenn Close.

“`Merrill would attend George Washington University; dropped out and enrolled at American Academy of the Dramatic Arts in Manhattan. Merrill made her Broadway debut in  The Mermaid Singing in 1945; then appeared  in George Washington Slept Here.

“`During the 1950s and 1960s, Merrill was intentionally marketed, and was called Hollywood’s next Grace Kelly. Her film credits included  Desk Set, The Sundowners, Operation Petticoat (with Tony Curtis and Cary Grant, who was wed to her cousin Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton),  The Courtship of Eddie’s Father,  I’ll Take Sweden,  Butterfield 8,  The Greatest, True Colors, Caddyshack II,  a remake of Mighty Joe Young, and The Player.  In 1991, Dina and her third husband, Ted Hartley, merged their company with a movie studio that claimed the copyright and intellectual property of  RKO Radio Pictures.                          DINA MERRILL –>

“`Merrill appeared regularly as a guest star on numerous television series in the 1960s, most notably as villain Calamity Jan in two 1968 episodes of Batman alongside then-husband Cliff Robertson. Dina also made appearances on  Dr. Kildare, Rawhide, The Phil Silvers Show, Playhouse 90, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,  Daniel Boone, Daktari, Run For Your Life, Bonanza, Medical Center, The Name of the Game, The Virginian, Marcus Welby M.D., Mission:  Impossible, The F.B.I., The Odd Couple, Night Gallery, Ellery Queen, Hotel, Hawaii 5-0, The Love Boat, Quincy M.E., Murder She Wrote, and Roseanne.

“`Dina was a presidential appointee to the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; trustee of Eugene O’Neill Theater Center; and vice president of New York City Mission Society. In 2005, she received a  Lifetime Achievement Award from American Academy of the Dramatic Arts. When son, David, was diagnosed with diabetes, she was inspired to establish the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

“`Dina Merrill was 93.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Monday, May 22nd, 2017 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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