Lesley Woods
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Lesley Woods | |
|---|---|
![](#/media/File:Lesley_Woods_"Portia_Faces_Life"_(1946_NBC_press_photo).JPG) Woods in 1946 | |
| Born | August 22, 1910 Berwick, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | August 2, 2003 (aged 92) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Goodman School of Drama |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1936–2001 |
| Known for | |
| Spouse | Richard McMurray |
| Children | Sam McMurray (stepson) |
Lesley Woods (August 22, 1910 – August 2, 2003) was an American radio, stage and television actress. She was a graduate of the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago.[1]
Woods was born in Berwick, Iowa, and enrolled in a midwestern dramatic school.[2]
Personal life and death
Woods was married to actor Richard McMurray. Sam McMurray is her stepson.[3] She died on August 2, 2003. [4]
Stage
When Woods was 19 years old she joined a summer stock theater company in Benton Harbor, Michigan. She went to New York, where a friend helped her to find work with a stock company in Spring Lake, New Jersey.[2]
Woods' acting on Broadway included being in Double Dummy (1936), Excursion (1937), Comes the Revelation (1942), The Assassin (1945), and A Case of Libel (1963–64).[5] She was a member of Theatre West. A Billboard review of Comes the Revelation summarized Woods' acting as follows: "Small, blond and attractive, Miss Woods plays with an honesty and restraint that are as rare as they are commendable. Quiet, sincere and tremendously effective, she does one of the finest jobs of the entire season."[6]
Radio
Woods' roles on radio programs included those shown in the table below.
| Program | Role |
|---|---|
| Backstage Wife | Maida[7] |
| Boston Blackie | Mary Wesley[3] |
| Bright Horizon | Rosie[8] Margaret Anderson McCarey[7] |
| Bulldog Drummond | "heroine roles"[9] "the feminine lead"[10] |
| Casey, Crime Photographer | Ann Williams[11] |
| Guiding Light | Helene Cunningham[12] |
| Joyce Jordan, Girl Interne | Margot Sherwood[7] |
| The Man I Married | Evelyn Waring[13] |
| Midstream | Meredith Conway[7] |
| Portia Faces Life | Elaine Arden[14] |
| Road of Life | Carol Martin[1] |
| The Romance of Helen Trent | Tember Adams[7] |
| Rosemary | Audrey Roberts[7] |
| The Shadow | Margo Lane[15] |
| This Is Nora Drake | Peg Martinson[7] |
| We Love and Learn | Mickey[7] |
| Woman in White | Janet Munson Adams[7] |
Other programs on which Woods was a regular included Crime and Peter Chambers,[16] Inner Sanctum Mystery,[17] The Private Files of Rex Saunders,[18] Treasury Star Parade,[19] and It Can Be Done.[20]
Television
A veteran of at least 10 daytime serials, Woods' daytime debut was as Claire Bannister Steele on Young Dr. Malone from 1959-1963 as the serial's leading villainess. Following that, she appeared on The Secret Storm as Evelyn Dark (1964), A Flame in the Wind as Miriam Bentley (1964–66), The Nurses (where she starred with McMurray) as Vivian Gentry (1965-1967), Search for Tomorrow as the original Andrea Whiting (1967), Bright Promise as Isabel Jones (1971-1972), Return to Peyton Place as Zoe Tate (1972-1973), and Days of Our Lives as Dorothy Kelly (1978). On General Hospital, she played the role of Edna Hadley (1977-1978, 1980), the New York landlady who arranged for Heather Grant to sell her baby, Steven Lars. She guest-starred in an episode of Gibbsville in 1976, originated the role of Amanda Ewing, Jock's first wife, on Dallas, and had a recurring role as Chase Gioberti's housekeeper, Mrs. Miller, on Falcon Crest (1984-1987). She played Langley Wallingford's first wife, Betty Miller (Hilary's mother) on All My Children in 1984, and was part of the original cast of The Bold and the Beautiful as Helen Logan from 1987 to 1989, and again in 2001, when her character was a great-great-grandmother.[3]
