Elinor Donahue (born Mary Eleanor Donahue, April 19, 1937) is a retired American actress, best known today for playing the role of Betty Anderson, the eldest child of Jim and Margaret Anderson on the 1950s American sitcom Father Knows Best.
Donahue was born in Tacoma, Washington, the daughter of Doris Genevieve (née Gelbaugh) and Thomas William Donahue on April 19, 1937.[2]
Appearing in dancing-chorus film roles from the age of five, Donahue was at one point a ballet-school classmate of future Fred Astaire partner Barrie Chase. She was a child actress working in vaudeville[3] and had several bit parts in movies as a teenager, including Love Is Better Than Ever (1952), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Tea for Two (1950) starring Doris Day. She played one of the daughters in Three Daring Daughters in 1948 and appeared as Mamie Van Doren's sister in Girls Town (1959).
Donahue achieved stardom for her role as the elder daughter, Betty, on the television family series Father Knows Best, which aired from 1954 to 1960.[4] 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).[5] 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.[6] She acted in the feature film Girls Town (1959 film), which she later described as "an awful picture".[7]
Donahue played Georgiana Balanger, the niece of George and Martha Wilson, in the episode "Dennis and the Wedding" (1960) on Dennis the Menace.[8] 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 evil Nurse Hunnicut on Days of Our Lives.
She was part of the main cast for the first season of CBS's The Andy Griffith Show, as Andy's pharmacist love interest Ellie Walker. She was even mentioned in the opening credits before Don Knotts. After one season (1960–1961), Donahue asked for a release from her three-year contract.[9]
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 she played in another Western series Have Gun Will Travel as Letty May in the episode "The Burning Tree".
In 1964, she appeared in the NBC TV series The Eleventh Hour, a medical drama dealing with psychiatry, starring Jack Ging and Ralph Bellamy, where she played the role of Melanie in the episode "The Secret in the Stone".
In 1966, she guest-starred on the TV series A Man Called Shenandoah, episode 8, "Town On Fire".
In 1967, she guest-appeared on Star Trek in the second-season episode "Metamorphosis" as commissioner Nancy Hedford.
Donahue portrayed the sister of Sister Bertrille (Sally Field) in three episodes of ABC's The Flying Nun (1968–70).
She portrayed Miriam Welby in 17 episodes of The Odd Couple (1972–75).
In 1977, she appeared in an episode of the ABC crime drama The Feather and Father Gang.
In 1978, Donahue starred in the NBC sitcom Please Stand By.
In 1979, she appeared on Diff'rent Strokes as a fiancée to Mr. Drummond in season 1.
In 1981, Donahue appeared in an episode of One Day at a Time, as Alex's mother Felicia.
In 1984, she made an appearance as Mrs. Broderick, the mother of a teenage drug addict on the last season of Happy Days.
In 1987, she played the title character's mother in the short-lived Fox series The New Adventures of Beans Baxter.
In 1988, she appeared in a Newhart episode ("Courtin' Disaster").
In 1989 she appeared in an episode of The Golden Girls as the newest wife of Dorothy Zbornak's ex-husband, Stan.
In 1990, she played Bridget, a Beverly Hills clothing-store manager, in the film Pretty Woman. Donahue played Gladys, the mother of Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott), in all 35 episodes of the sitcom Get a Life (1990–92), and had a recurring role as Rebecca Quinn on the CBS drama series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
In 1991, she portrayed the "Orphanage woman" in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
In 1992, she voiced the mother on the Fox Kids animated series Eek! the Cat. In 1994, she made an appearance as Aunt Lillian in "The One Where Nana Dies Twice", an episode of Friends. She played the part of Lorraine, Luther Van Dam's girlfriend, in season five of Coach in the early 1990s.
In 1998, Donahue published a memoir titled In the Kitchen with Elinor Donahue, in which she relived some of her memories of Hollywood along with providing more than 150 of her recipes.[10]
In September 2010, Donahue made an appearance on The Young and the Restless as Judge Anderson, one of Nikki Newman's old friends and also as the woman minister who will officiate at the wedding of Billy Abbott and Nikki's daughter, Victoria Newman. The wedding took place in front of the Abbotts' new home, which just happened to be a replica of the Anderson house from Father Knows Best.
In 2015, Donahue played the role of Mrs. Chumley in Judson Theatre Company's production of the Pulitzer Prize play Harvey by Mary Chase. Donahue called the role her "swan song".[11]
Donahue was married three times. Her first husband was sound producer Richard Smith whom she married in 1955. She had one son with him. They divorced in 1961.[12] Her second marriage, to producer Harry Ackerman, who was 25 years her senior, was in 1962 at the Court of Liberty. He was the adoptive father of her son from her first marriage, and Donahue and he had three sons together. Ackerman died in 1991.[13] As a memorial and resource for the history of American television, Donahue donated Ackerman's personal papers to the Rauner Library at Dartmouth College, his alma mater.[14] In 1992, she married actor Lou Genevrino.[12]
