Celebrity News January 20, 2022
'Our Miss Brooks' Star Gloria McMillan Dies at 88
Gloria McMillan, the vivacious blonde actress whose career on the radio and on TV stretched back to the late '30s, died at 88 on January 19.
Her death was announced by friends on Facebook.
McMillan was born in Portland, Oregon, on March 13, 1933, moving to Hollywood with her family as a child.
On the radio from age 4, her first dramatic role was on "Big Town" circa 1937. From 1948-1957, McMillan was the voice of Harriet Conklin on the radio version of "Our Miss Brooks" with Eve Arden and Richard Crenna. She played the same role on the TV series from 1952-1956, and repeated it in the 1956 feature film of the same name.
After her final performance as Harriet, she acted only sporadically, including on an episode of "Dr. Kildare" (1966), in the classic beauty-pageant satire "Smile" (1975), in the pilot for a series called "Most Wanted," and in a more substantial role in the miniseries "Centennial" (1978-1979).
She gave her final TV performance on a 1990 episode of "Perfect Strangers."
Having run acting academies since 1969, McMillan retired in 2018.
She is survived by her second husband, Ron Cocking, and by five children.