Cathy Lewis
Encyclopedia
Cathy Lewis was an American
actress remembered best for numerous radio
appearances but making a number of film
and television
appearances in the last decade of her life.
According to Ron Lackmann's The Encyclopedia of American Radio, Lewis moved from Spokane to Chicago and found work on The First Nighter Program
. Other accounts say she first hoped to make it as a singer. Eventually, Lewis moved to Hollywood, and had leading roles with the Pasadena Playhouse
in productions of Stage Door
, To Quito and Back, and Winterset
, appearing with Robert Preston
, Victor Mature
, Dana Andrews
, and Victor Jory
. Then came a year's tour with Alexander Woolcott's company in The Man Who Came to Dinner
and with Noël Coward
's Bitter Sweet
.
She met and married radio actor/writer/director Elliott Lewis
(they shared the common surname) in 1943. Both Lewises were staples of vintage American radio; radio historians Gerald Nachman and John Dunning have written of their numerous, genre-spanning works in comedy
and drama
(they were, for example, regulars among what was known as Hollywood's Radio Row group of performers, appearing often---together and separately---on such programs as The Whistler
), especially their co-creation of the respected anthology series On Stage
and their stewardship (with Elliott Lewis directing and both of the couple acting) of the venerable mystery series Suspense
.
But while her husband would often be remembered most for his comic role in The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show
(as bumbling buddy Frank Remley), she would be most identified as the sensibly droll Jane Stacy rooming with scatterbrained Irma Peterson (Marie Wilson
) in the 1947–54 radio and television comedy My Friend Irma.
in Double Trouble (1941). She recreated her My Friend Irma role on television for the show's first season before the cameras. However, she did not appear in the two movies adaptations, My Friend Irma (best known for the film debuts of Martin
and Lewis
) and My Friend Irma Goes West.
She had a supporting role in The Party Crashers (1958), a film now noted as the final screen appearances of troubled legend Frances Farmer
and former child star Bobby Driscoll
. That same year, Cathy and Elliott Lewis divorced, putting an end to their image as "Mr. and Mrs. Radio." A year later, she starred as half the title of a short-lived bid to bring another radio legend, Fibber McGee and Molly
, to television, with Bob Sweeney
as Fibber to Lewis' Molly.
By 1961, Lewis played a supporting role in the Spencer Tracy
movie The Devil at 4 O'Clock
and began a recurring role as George Baxter's sister Deirdre on the television hit Hazel
, which starred another one-time radio presence, Shirley Booth
(Miss Duffy in the comedy Duffy's Tavern
). Her final screen appearance was on a 1965 episode of F-Troop. However, she did have one more memorable contribution to make: the voice of Jade, a female spy/adventurer who appeared in two episodes of the original Jonny Quest
animated series.
Cathy Lewis died of cancer on November 20, 1968, the ninth anniversary of her father's death.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress remembered best for numerous radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
appearances but making a number of film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
appearances in the last decade of her life.
According to Ron Lackmann's The Encyclopedia of American Radio, Lewis moved from Spokane to Chicago and found work on The First Nighter Program
The First Nighter Program
The First Nighter Program was a long-running radio anthology comedy-drama series broadcast from 1930 to 1953. The host was Mr. First Nighter .The show's opening recreated the aural atmosphere of a Broadway opening. Before each week's drama began, Mr...
. Other accounts say she first hoped to make it as a singer. Eventually, Lewis moved to Hollywood, and had leading roles with the Pasadena Playhouse
Pasadena Playhouse
The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engagements each year.-History:...
in productions of Stage Door
Stage Door
Stage Door is a RKO film, adapted from the play by the same name, that tells the story of several would-be actresses who live together in a boarding house at 158 West 58th Street in New York City. The film stars Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier,...
, To Quito and Back, and Winterset
Winterset (play)
Winterset is a play by Maxwell Anderson.A verse drama written largely in poetic form, the tragedy deals indirectly with the famous Sacco-Vanzetti case, in which two Italian immigrants with radical political beliefs were executed...
, appearing with Robert Preston
Robert Preston (actor)
-Early life:Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. and Frank Wesley Meservey, a garment worker and billing clerk for American Express. After attending Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, California, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community...
, Victor Mature
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature was an American stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky to an Italian-speaking father from the town Pinzolo, in the Italian part of the former County of Tyrol , Marcello Gelindo Maturi, later Marcellus George Mature, a cutler,...
, Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
, and Victor Jory
Victor Jory
Victor Jory was a Canadian actor.-Biography:Born in Dawson City, Yukon, Jory was the boxing and wrestling champion of the Coast Guard during his military service, and he kept his burly physique. He toured with theater troupes and appeared on Broadway, before making his Hollywood debut in 1930...
. Then came a year's tour with Alexander Woolcott's company in The Man Who Came to Dinner
The Man Who Came to Dinner
The Man Who Came to Dinner is a comedy in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It debuted on October 16, 1939 at the Music Box Theatre in New York City. It then enjoyed a number of New York and London revivals. The first London production was staged at The Savoy Theatre starring Robert...
and with Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet is an operetta in three acts written by Noël Coward and first produced in 1929 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. It ran for a very successful 967 performances....
.
She met and married radio actor/writer/director Elliott Lewis
Elliott Lewis (radio)
Elliott Lewis was active during the Golden Age of Radio as an actor, producer and director, proficient in both comedy and drama. These talents earned him the nickname "Mr Radio"....
(they shared the common surname) in 1943. Both Lewises were staples of vintage American radio; radio historians Gerald Nachman and John Dunning have written of their numerous, genre-spanning works in comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
(they were, for example, regulars among what was known as Hollywood's Radio Row group of performers, appearing often---together and separately---on such programs as The Whistler
The Whistler
The Whistler was an American radio mystery drama which ran from May 16, 1942 until September 22, 1955. It was sponsored by the Signal Oil Company: "That whistle is your signal for the Signal Oil program, The Whistler." The program was adapted into a film noir series by Columbia Pictures in...
), especially their co-creation of the respected anthology series On Stage
On Stage
On Stage may refer to:*On Stage , a 1970 live album by Elvis Presley*On Stage , a 1974 live albums by Loggins and Messina*On Stage , a 1977 live album by Rainbow...
and their stewardship (with Elliott Lewis directing and both of the couple acting) of the venerable mystery series Suspense
Suspense (radio program)
-Production background:One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era...
.
But while her husband would often be remembered most for his comic role in The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show
The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show
The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, a comedy radio program which ran on NBC from 1948 to 1954, evolved from an earlier music and comedy variety program, The Fitch Bandwagon...
(as bumbling buddy Frank Remley), she would be most identified as the sensibly droll Jane Stacy rooming with scatterbrained Irma Peterson (Marie Wilson
Marie Wilson (American actress)
Katherine Elisabeth Wilson , better known by her stage name, Marie Wilson, was an American radio, film, and television actress. She may be best remembered as the title character in My Friend Irma.-Career:...
) in the 1947–54 radio and television comedy My Friend Irma.
Films and television
In 1940, she had her first screen credit in an episode of the Crime Does Not Pay film series. Most of her film work in the 1940s was in uncredited bit parts, although she was the female lead with Harry LangdonHarry Langdon
Harry Philmore Langdon was an American comedian who appeared in vaudeville, silent films , and talkies. He was briefly partnered with Oliver Hardy.-Life and career:...
in Double Trouble (1941). She recreated her My Friend Irma role on television for the show's first season before the cameras. However, she did not appear in the two movies adaptations, My Friend Irma (best known for the film debuts of Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
) and My Friend Irma Goes West.
She had a supporting role in The Party Crashers (1958), a film now noted as the final screen appearances of troubled legend Frances Farmer
Frances Farmer
Frances Elena Farmer was an American actress of stage and screen. She is perhaps better known for sensationalized and fictional accounts of her life, and especially her involuntary commitment to a mental hospital...
and former child star Bobby Driscoll
Bobby Driscoll
Robert Cletus "Bobby" Driscoll was an American child actor known for a large body of cinema and TV performances from 1943 to 1960. He starred in some of The Walt Disney Company's most popular live-action pictures of that period, such as Song of the South , So Dear to My Heart , and Treasure Island...
. That same year, Cathy and Elliott Lewis divorced, putting an end to their image as "Mr. and Mrs. Radio." A year later, she starred as half the title of a short-lived bid to bring another radio legend, Fibber McGee and Molly
Fibber McGee and Molly
Fibber McGee and Molly was an American radio comedy series which maintained its popularity over decades. It premiered on NBC in 1935 and continued until its demise in 1959, long after radio had ceased to be the dominant form of entertainment in American popular culture.-Husband and wife in real...
, to television, with Bob Sweeney
Bob Sweeney (TV director and producer)
child = Bridget Bob Sweeney was an actor, director and producer of radio, television and film.-Early career on radio and television:...
as Fibber to Lewis' Molly.
By 1961, Lewis played a supporting role in the Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
movie The Devil at 4 O'Clock
The Devil at 4 O'Clock
The Devil at 4 O'Clock is a 1961 disaster film with elevated themes, starring Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Based upon an eponymous novel by Max Catto, film was a precursor to the disaster movies of the 1970s, such as The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and The...
and began a recurring role as George Baxter's sister Deirdre on the television hit Hazel
Hazel (TV series)
Hazel is a Screen Gems television series about a fictional live-in maid named Hazel Burke and her employers, the Baxters. The five-season, 154-episode series aired in primetime from September 1961 until April 1966...
, which starred another one-time radio presence, Shirley Booth
Shirley Booth
Shirley Booth was an American actress.Primarily a theatre actress, Booth's Broadway career began in 1925. Her most significant success was as Lola Delaney, in the drama Come Back, Little Sheba, for which she received a Tony Award in 1950...
(Miss Duffy in the comedy Duffy's Tavern
Duffy's Tavern
Duffy's Tavern was a popular American radio situation comedy which ran for a decade on several networks , concluding with the December 28, 1951 broadcast....
). Her final screen appearance was on a 1965 episode of F-Troop. However, she did have one more memorable contribution to make: the voice of Jade, a female spy/adventurer who appeared in two episodes of the original Jonny Quest
Jonny Quest (TV series)
Jonny Quest – often casually referred to as The Adventures of Jonny Quest – is an American science fiction/adventure animated television series about a boy who accompanies his father on extraordinary adventures...
animated series.
Cathy Lewis died of cancer on November 20, 1968, the ninth anniversary of her father's death.