Merry Anders practically grew up in local bijous watching films and their accompanying stage shows with her movie-crazy mother and grandmother. The family relocated to Los Angeles in 1949 and, while attending John Burroughs Junior High School, Anders made the acquaintance of Rita La Roy, an old-time film actress who convinced her to take a ...
[on working with Ted de Corsia in The Quick Gun (1964)] He was just great, though. Just perfect as his character. It helped me in a way because I was supposedly so terrified of him I was speechless.
2
[on quitting her acting career] I had a couple of years where I only grossed about three thousand dollars and I couldn't make a living. Dad wrote me a letter and said, "Get out of that movie business, get yourself a decent job, girl!" I was divorced and it's hard to raise a child, have a nice home, put up the appearance of success, drive a car in perfect running shape and everything when you're on unemployment.
3
I come on the set with my lines learned and then I read them like Merry Anders. Usually that's enough, but if the director wants something more, then we go to work. After that the lines come out like Merry Anders working.
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Fact
1
Retired after 25 years at Litton Data Systems as a Customer Relations coordinator [1994]
2
Interviewed in Tom Weaver's books "Attack of the Monster Movie Makers" (McFarland & Co., 1994) and "A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde" (McFarland & Co., 2010).
3
In 2005, resided in Encino, California, with her husband.
4
She had a daughter who attended Los Angeles Valley College in the 1970s. Apparently trying to follow in her mother's footsteps, the daughter appeared in college plays, for example, "A Midsummer's Night Dream," but without much acclaim or, as far as is known, without any professional appearances later.
5
She continued acting in the 1970s by registering for at least one class at Los Angeles Valley College each year in order to appear in a college play. Among her credits was "The Glass Menagerie", and playing her daughter was the soon-to-be-famous TV actress Christopher Norris.
6
Although she was actually a blonde, Jack Webb insisted that she wear a brunette wig during her appearances on the second Dragnet 1967 (1967) series (1967-1970) on the grounds that it made her look more serious.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Gunsmoke
1971
TV Series
Shirley
Will to Die
1971
Laura Dean
Airport
1970
Mrs. Burt Ball - Passenger (uncredited)
Lassie
1967-1968
TV Series
Carol Dawson / Ann
Dragnet 1967
1967-1968
TV Series
Policewoman Dorothy Miller
Women of the Prehistoric Planet
1966
Lt. Karen Lamont
Never Too Young
1966
TV Series
Alice
Get Smart
1966
TV Series
Miss Sloan
Tickle Me
1965
Estelle Penfield
Raiders from Beneath the Sea
1964
Dottie Harper
Young Fury
1964
Alice
The Time Travelers
1964
Carol White
The Addams Family
1964
TV Series
Miss Carver
The Virginian
1964
TV Series
Donna Durrell
The Quick Gun
1964
Helen Reed
A Tiger Walks
1964
Betty Collins
Perry Mason
1961-1964
TV Series
Joyce Carlton / Sadie Hepner / Adele Bentley
Arrest and Trial
1964
TV Series
Joyce
The Joey Bishop Show
1963-1964
TV Series
Barbara / Leslie Medford Wallingford
Police Nurse
1963
Joan Olson
The Jack Benny Program
1963
TV Series
Kidnapper AKA Florence Nightengale
House of the Damned
1963
Nancy Campbell
FBI Code 98
1963
TV Movie
Grace McLean
77 Sunset Strip
1958-1962
TV Series
Mary O'Neil / Lally Embry / Lorrie Lambers / ...
Death Valley Days
1962
TV Series
Lorna Erickson / Abby Jefferson
Air Patrol
1962
Mona Whitney
Beauty and the Beast
1962
Sybil
Hawaiian Eye
1960-1962
TV Series
Gloria Burns / Maxine / Kitty Todd / ...
Patty
1962
Mary
Straightaway
1962
TV Series
Barbara
Ichabod and Me
1961
TV Series
Leona
Maverick
1960-1961
TV Series
Cissie Anderson / Marybelle McCall / Maggie Bradford / ...