October 12, 2012

Phyllis Thaxter, Film and Television Actress for

Phyllis Thaxter, an actress know for several memorable film roles and decades of television appearances, died August 14, 2012, in Orlando, Florida. She was 90.

According to news reports, the cause was complications related to Alzheimer's disease.

Born in Maine, Thaxter studied at the Montreal Repertory Theater in the 1930s and later moved to New York, where she found work on Broadway.

She drew the attention of Holywod and was cast in the film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, which led to further work in movies such as The Sea of Grass, Blood on the Moon, Springfield Rifle, Jim Thorpe — All American and The Breaking Point.

In 1978, she and Glenn Ford played the parents of Christopher Reeve's Man of Steel in Superman.

In the 1950s she began working in television, and over the next several decades appeared on numerous series, including Robert Montgomery Presents, The Loretta Young Show, Kraft Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse, Climax!, Playhouse 90, Wagon Train, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The United States Steel Hour, Rawhide, The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Bonanza, Medical Center, The FBI, Cannon, Marcus Welby, MD, Barnaby Jones and Murder, She Wrote.

Read more about Thaxter's life and career at:

Hollywood Reporter

New York Times

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