Gail Kobe, Prolific Actress Who Became Top Daytime Producer
After years as a successful actress in both television and film, Kobe made a career change and became a producer of several daytime dramas.
Gail Kobe, an actress who later became a successful producer of several daytime television dramas, died August 1, 2013, in Los Angeles. She was 81.
Born March 19, 1932 in Hamtramck, Michigan, Kobe was first discovered by renowned filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, who cast her in his 1956 epic The Ten Commandments.
In the years that followed, she worked primarily in television, and she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Dr. Anne Warner on the series Dr. Kildare.
Other notable TV credits included the roles of Doris Schuster in Peyton Place and Ann Boyd Jones in Bright Promise. Her numerous guest appearances included episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Bewitched, Hogan’s Heroes, The Mod Squad, Mission: Impossible and The Outer Limits, and dozens of westerns, including Rawhide, The Virginian, Maverick, Daniel Boone and Gunsmoke.
During the 1970s and ’80s, Kobe's career took a significant shift when she began producing daytime drama on both coasts, including Days of Our Lives, Texas, Another World, The Bold and the Beautiful and Guiding Light, for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination.
Kobe was a member of Theatre West in Hollywood and starred in and directed many plays at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She later moved to Rancho Mirage, where her charitable work included volunteering for the Palm Springs Desert Museum and the Eisenhower Medical Center.
She was honored with a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars for her acting, producing and humanitarian work. For the past two years, she resided at the Motion Picture Television Fund Home (MPTF), where she was active at Channel 22, putting together the show We’ve Got Mail, along with her many other Fund activities.
Survivors include her cousins, Constance Orson, casting director Greg Orson, Carl Orson, Linda Abdelaziz, Michael Anderson, Diane Anderson Smith and Judy and Dale Anderson.
A memorial service will be held at the MPTF campus at the Louis B. Mayer Theater on Sunday, August 18, at 3 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund.
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