Elena Verdugo
Encyclopedia
Elena Verdugo is an American
actress who began in film
s at the age of six in Cavalier of the West (1931). Her career in radio
, television
, and film
spanned six decades.
Verdugo made numerous film appearances through the 1940s, including several Universal horror films. While filming the Abbott and Costello comedy Little Giant (1946), she met and married screenwriter Charles R. Marion, who also wrote for the comedy team's radio show. The couple had one son, Richard Marion, who later became an actor/director. He died of a heart attack in 1999, aged 50. Her second husband was Charles Rosewall.
Verdugo starred with Gene Autry and Stephen Dunne in the movie The Big Sombrero (1949).
Verdugo had a flair for comedy, and she garnered much laughter and applause in the title role of the hit situation comedy Meet Millie
on both radio and live television of the early 1950s. She co-starred in Thief of Damascus
(1952) with Paul Henreid and John Sutton
. She guest starred on The Bob Cummings Show (AKA Love That Bob) in a 1958 episode entitled "Bob and the Ravishing Realtor," playing the part of the realtor. In 1963, she co-starred with Richard Egan
and Roger Davis
in the short-lived NBC
half-hour Western
drama
tic series Redigo
, actually the second season of Egan's earlier hour-long Empire
. The program was set on a New Mexico
ranch
during the early 1960s. Verdugo appeared as herself in 1963 on the NBC game showYour First Impression
.
From February to June 1964, Verdugo played Audrey, the widowed sister of Phil Silvers
' character of Harry Grafton, in Silvers' unsuccessful CBS sitcom The New Phil Silvers Show
. Joining Verdugo on the program were Sandy Descher
as her daughter, Susan, and Ronnie Dapo
as Andy, Audrey's son.
In the full 1964-1965 season, Verdugo played Lynn Hall, an employee of a complaint department at a fictitious Los Angeles
department store
in CBS's Many Happy Returns
starring character actor
John McGiver
. Her costars were Elinor Donahue, earlier of Robert Young
's Father Knows Best
, and Mark Goddard
, also of Lost in Space
and Johnny Ringo
.
Verdugo was twice nominated for an Emmy Award
in her performances as office assistant Consuelo Lopez in Robert Young's ABC
series Marcus Welby, M.D.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress who began in 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...
s at the age of six in Cavalier of the West (1931). Her career in 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...
, television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, and 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...
spanned six decades.
Verdugo made numerous film appearances through the 1940s, including several Universal horror films. While filming the Abbott and Costello comedy Little Giant (1946), she met and married screenwriter Charles R. Marion, who also wrote for the comedy team's radio show. The couple had one son, Richard Marion, who later became an actor/director. He died of a heart attack in 1999, aged 50. Her second husband was Charles Rosewall.
Verdugo starred with Gene Autry and Stephen Dunne in the movie The Big Sombrero (1949).
Verdugo had a flair for comedy, and she garnered much laughter and applause in the title role of the hit situation comedy Meet Millie
Meet Millie
Meet Millie, a situation comedy about a wisecracking Manhattan secretary from Brooklyn, made a transition from radio to television in the early 1950s. In the live television version, Mom and Millie were living in Jackson Heights, Queens...
on both radio and live television of the early 1950s. She co-starred in Thief of Damascus
Thief of Damascus
Thief of Damascus is a 1952 Technicolor Arabian Nights comedy adventure produced by Sam Katzman, directed by Will Jason, and starring Paul Henreid, John Sutton, Jeff Donnell.The film features a generous use of stock footage from such films as Joan of Arc...
(1952) with Paul Henreid and John Sutton
John Sutton (actor)
John Sutton , who was born in Rawalpindi, British India , was actor of British parentage.-Filmography:*Rawhide as Lord Ashton...
. She guest starred on The Bob Cummings Show (AKA Love That Bob) in a 1958 episode entitled "Bob and the Ravishing Realtor," playing the part of the realtor. In 1963, she co-starred with Richard Egan
Richard Egan (actor)
Richard Egan was an American actor. In some films he is credited as Richard Eagan.-Career:Born in San Francisco, California, Egan served in the United States Army as a judo instructor during World War II...
and Roger Davis
Roger Davis (television actor)
Jon Roger Davis is an American actor and entrepreneur. The sandy-haired Davis is best known for his boyish good looks, and lilting, Henry Fonda-like voice. He came to fame in such television series as Dark Shadows and Alias Smith and Jones...
in the short-lived NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
half-hour Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
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...
tic series Redigo
Redigo (TV series)
Redigo is a 15-week Western dramatic series, set on a New Mexico ranch during the early 1960s, which aired over NBC from September 24 to December 31, 1963. It starred Richard Egan as ranch owner Jim Redigo, Roger Davis as Mike the ranch hand, and Elena Verdugo as Gerry...
, actually the second season of Egan's earlier hour-long Empire
Empire (1962 TV series)
Empire, an hour-long Western television series set on a 1960s ranch in New Mexico, starred Richard Egan , Terry Moore , and Ryan O'Neal . It ran on NBC for a season between September 25, 1962, and May 14, 1963...
. The program was set on a New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
ranch
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
during the early 1960s. Verdugo appeared as herself in 1963 on the NBC game showYour First Impression
Your First Impression
Your First Impression is a NBC daytime game show which aired from January 2, 1962, to June 26, 1964. A panel of three celebrities tried to guess the identity of mystery guests from clues supplied by the host. Bill Leyden was the MC of the program, with Dennis James as a regular panelist or...
.
From February to June 1964, Verdugo played Audrey, the widowed sister of Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...
' character of Harry Grafton, in Silvers' unsuccessful CBS sitcom The New Phil Silvers Show
The New Phil Silvers Show
The New Phil Silvers Show is an American situation comedy starring comedian Phil Silvers which aired thirty episodes on CBS from September 28, 1963, to April 25, 1964, under the sponsorship of General Foods.-Synopsis:...
. Joining Verdugo on the program were Sandy Descher
Sandy Descher
Sandra "Sandy" Descher is an American former child actress of the 1950s.-Biography:Although born in Burbank, California, she was discovered by accident while on vacation. When Descher was about five years old, her family had travelled across country to New York City where the girl fell in love...
as her daughter, Susan, and Ronnie Dapo
Ronnie Dapo
Ronnie Dapo is an American former child actor who appeared in supporting roles in such television series as ABC's Room for One More and CBS's The New Phil Silvers Show .-Acting career:...
as Andy, Audrey's son.
In the full 1964-1965 season, Verdugo played Lynn Hall, an employee of a complaint department at a fictitious Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
in CBS's Many Happy Returns
Many Happy Returns (TV series)
Many Happy Returns is a situation comedy television series that ran on CBS for twenty-six episodes, from September 21, 1964 to April 12, 1965, under the sponsorship of General Foods.-Cast:The show starred character actor John McGiver...
starring character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
John McGiver
John McGiver
John Irwin McGiver was a character actor who made more than a hundred appearances in television and motion pictures over a two-decade span from 1955 to 1975....
. Her costars were Elinor Donahue, earlier of Robert Young
Robert Young (actor)
Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
's Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best is an American radio and television comedy series which portrayed a middle class family life in the Midwest. It was created by writer Ed James in the 1940s.-Radio:...
, and Mark Goddard
Mark Goddard
Mark Goddard is an American film actor who has starred in a number of television programs. He portrayed Major Don West, the space adversary of Dr. Zachary Smith in the cult 1960s CBS series, Lost in Space, and Detective Sgt...
, also of Lost in Space
Lost in Space
Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
and Johnny Ringo
Johnny Ringo (TV series)
Johnny Ringo is a Western television series starring Don Durant that aired on CBS from October 1, 1959, until June 30, 1960. It was loosely based on the life of the notorious gunfighter Johnny Ringo, who tangled with Wyatt Earp, John "Doc" Holliday, and "Buckskin" Franklin Leslie.This fictional...
.
Verdugo was twice nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
in her performances as office assistant Consuelo Lopez in Robert Young's ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
series Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Marcus Welby, M.D. is an American medical drama television program that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969, to July 29, 1976. It starred Robert Young as a family practitioner with a kind bedside manner, and was produced by David Victor and David J. O'Connell...
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
.