Actress Christine Rissy Burke dies Twilight Zone, Andy Griffith More February 2, 2009

Actress Christine Rissy Burke, who appeared in such television series as Twilight Zone and helped found the Center for Early Education, died of cancer February 2, 2009, in Los Angeles. She was 74.

A native of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Burke attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated from the Yale School of Drama. She then moved to New York, where she studied with Lee Strasberg and George Morrison while working on live television shows such as Danger, Suspense and the first regularly scheduled color series, The Best of Broadway.

Burke married writer-producer Peter Nelson in 1960, and began working in television in Hollywood. Among her series credits were Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, The Andy Griffith Show and My Favorite Martian.

She was active in local theater as a member of Theater West, where she starred in productions of Shaw, O'Casey, and Chekhov.

After retiring from acting, she helped found the Center For Early Education, in West Hollywood, and devoted herself to environmental causes.

She is survived by her husband Peter, two sons and two grandchildren.