Elinor Donahue

Elinor Donahue is an American actress who played Nancy Hedford and the Companion (merged with Hedford) in the second season episode . She also acted as a stand-in when the Companion existed outside of Hedford, to give actors someone to address their words to. 
She filmed her scenes between Thursday and Friday at Desilu Stage 10.
She is perhaps best remembered for her Emmy Award-nominated role as Betty "Princess" Anderson, the eldest daughter in the popular 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best. Fellow Original Series guest actress Jane Wyatt (Amanda Grayson) portrayed her mother on this series.
Born Mary Eleanor Donahue in Tacoma, Washington, she began working in radio and in vaudeville when she was only a child. At the age of 5, she began appearing in minor roles in feature films. In 1950, she appeared in The Happy Years, a comedy starring a young Dean Stockwell. That same year, she and her soon-to-be TV co-star Jane Wyatt were seen in the musical My Blue Heaven. Donahue also had roles in films such as Three Daring Daughters (1948), (1950), and (1952). In 1959, she and Phyllis Douglas appeared in (1959).
Donahue portrayed "Princess" Anderson for all six seasons of Father Knows Best, which ran from 1954 through 1960. She is also known for recurring roles as Felix Unger's love interest, Miriam Welby, on The Odd Couple and as pharmacist Ellie Walker during the first season of The Andy Griffith Show. Donahue was among the recipients of the Legend Award that was given to The Andy Griffith Show by the TV Land Awards in 2004.
In 1977, Donahue starred as the wife of Lawrence Pressman's Michael Mulligan in NBC's . She had a two-year stint as evil nurse Kate Honeycutt on and her brief role as Dr. Anderson on (starring Judith Anderson). She later played Chris Elliott's aloof mother on the cult 1990s FOX sitcom Get a Life and had a recurring role on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (with many other Star Trek "one timers" such as Chad Allen and Jason Leland Adams), portraying the title character's sister, Rebecca. Donahue also had brief recurring roles on The Flying Nun and Coach. 
In addition to her regular and recurring TV roles, Donahue has made guest appearances on shows such as (in an episode with Whit Bissell and Paul Fix), (in an episode directed by Don McDougall), The Rookies (with Bert Remsen), Petrocelli (starring Susan Howard and David Huddleston), (starring Lee Meriwether), (starring Ricardo Montalban), , , and (with David Warner and William Windom). She more recently appeared in episodes of Friends, Ellen, and . In the latter, she co-starred with Thomas Kopache. In the "Friends" episode "The One Where Nana Dies Twice" (09:43) she wears a Redshirt.
Donahue has also continued acting in feature films, with appearances in (1983, co-starring Rosalind Chao, Paul Dooley, Richard Libertini, and Kurtwood Smith), (1990, with Jason Alexander and Dey Young), and (1991, co-written by Michael De Luca). Donahue also appeared in the 1995 made-for-TV movie The Invaders, starring Scott Bakula. She more recently played Lady Palimore in (2004, starring Chris Pine and John Rhys-Davies).
Donahue is the widow of television producer , to whom she had been married for nearly 29 years. They had three children together. She also has an older son from a previous marriage. Donahue married her third husband, contractor Louis Genevrino, in 1992. In 1998, Donahue published a memoir entitled In the Kitchen with Elinor Donahue, in which she relived some of her memories of Hollywood along with providing more than 150 of her own recipes.
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Category:Performers
Category:TOS performers