Elinor Donahue

Known for ActingBorn 1937-04-19 (age 89)Tacoma, Washington, USA

Mary Eleanor Donahue (born April 19, 1937), credited as Elinor Donahue, is an American actress, best remembered today for playing the role of Betty Anderson, the eldest child of Robert Young and Jane Wyatt, on the 1950s American sitcom Father Knows Best. Donahue achieved stardom for her role as the elder daughter, Betty, on the television family series Father Knows Best. Her co-stars were Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Billy Gray as her younger brother, James "Bud" Anderson, Jr., and Lauren Chapin as her younger sister, Kathy. Donahue was a musical judge in ABC's Jukebox Jury (1953–54). While in the first season of Father Knows Best she also appeared on The Ray Bolger Show, starring Ray Bolger as a song-and-dance man. Thereafter, she was cast with James Best, Ann Doran, and J. Carrol Naish in the 1956 episode "The White Carnation" of the religion anthology series, Crossroads. She guest starred on an episode of U.S. Marshal. She also appeared as a new bride in the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show episode titled "The Newlyweds" that aired April 2, 1956. She played Georgiana Balanger in the episode "Dennis and the Wedding" (1960) on Dennis the Menace.[5] Donahue was also cast, in 1960, with Marion Ross in an episode ("Duet") of The Brothers Brannagan. She played Miriam Welby on ABC's The Odd Couple, Jane Mulligan on Mulligan's Stew, and Nurse Hunnicut on Days of Our Lives. She was featured in 12 episodes of CBS's The Andy Griffith Show as pharmacist Ellie Walker, even getting a mention in the opening credits. The character was intended to be a love interest for Sheriff Andy Taylor, but after one season (1960–1961), Donahue decided to ask for a release from her three-year contract.[6] In 1963, Donahue was cast in an episode of NBC's short-lived modern Western series, Redigo, with Richard Egan as the rancher Jim Redigo; then in 1964, she appeared as Melanie in "The Secret in the Stone" in the NBC medical drama dealing with psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour, starring Jack Ging and Ralph Bellamy. Additionally, on February 9, 1963, she played Letty May in the episode "The Burning Tree" on Have Gun Will Travel. In the 1964–65 season, Donahue costarred as Joan Randall, the daughter of Walter Burnley, played by John McGiver, on the CBS sitcom, Many Happy Returns about the complaint department of a fictitious Los Angeles department store. She guest-appeared on Star Trek in the second-season episode "Metamorphosis" (1967) as commissioner Nancy Hedford. In 1966, she guest starred on the TV series A Man Called Shenandoah, episode 8, "Town On Fire."Read more

Movies & web series

Girls' Town

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

The Brothers Brannagan

Friends

E! True Hollywood Story

Cold Case

Doctors' Private Lives

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Heart Within

Mulligan's Stew

Star Trek

Occasional Wife

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

The Odd Couple

The Golden Girls

Honeymoon Lodge

Murder, She Wrote

Happy Days

Pretty Woman

Get a Life

The Andy Griffith Show

Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas

Imitation of Life

The Happy Years

My Blue Heaven

Star Trek: Inside the Roddenberry Vault

Have Gun, Will Travel

Diff'rent Strokes

The New Adventures of Beans Baxter

S.W.A.T.

Eek! The Cat

Just an Overnight Guest

Police Story: No Margin for Error

Dick Clark's Good Old Days

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Herman's Head

Police Story

Barnaby Jones

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

In Name Only

77 Sunset Strip

CHiPs

Hotel

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show

The Rookies

One Day at a Time

Coach

General Electric Theater

The Eleventh Hour