Jeff Donnell was an American film and television actress. Born Jean Marie Donnell, she grew up in South Windham, Maine. As a child, she adopted the nickname

Nickname

A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 "Jeff" after the character in her favorite comic strip, Mutt and Jeff.

Donnell graduated from Towson High School

Towson High School

Towson High School is a high school in Baltimore County, Maryland, founded in 1873. The school's current stone structure was built in 1949. Located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson and serving the surrounding communities of Towson, Lutherville, and Ruxton, it is part of the Baltimore...

, Towson, Maryland

Towson, Maryland

Towson is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 at the 2010 census...

, in 1938 and attended the Leland Powers School

Leland Powers School

The Leland Powers School, also known as the Leland Powers School of Communication, Leland Powers School of Radio, Theatre, and Television, Leland Powers Theatre School, the Leland Powers School of Expression, Leland Powers School of the Spoken Word, and originally called the Leland Powers School of...

 of Drama in Boston, Massachusetts. Later, she studied at the Yale School of Drama

Yale School of Drama

The Yale School of Drama is a graduate professional school of Yale University providing training in every discipline of the theatre: acting, design , directing, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism, playwriting, stage management, sound design, technical design and production, and theater...

. She was signed to a contract by Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 in 1942 and made her film debut in My Sister Eileen

My Sister Eileen (1942 film)

My Sister Eileen is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Alexander Hall. The screenplay by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov is based on their 1940 play of the same title, which was inspired by a series of autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney originally published in The New...

. She later had roles in some RKO

RKO Pictures

RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...

 films.

She was not a major star, but she did have a lengthy film and television career in various supporting roles, including the role of Gidget's mother, "Dorothy Lawrence", opposite Carl Reiner

Carl Reiner

Carl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...

 in the 1961 movie Gidget Goes Hawaiian

Gidget Goes Hawaiian

Gidget Goes Hawaiian is a 1961 musical romantic comedy film starring Deborah Walley and James Darren. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film is a sequel to the 1959 Sandra Dee "beach movie" vehicle Gidget....

.

Her other notable appearances in movies and television include:

• "Winnie Slade" in The Boogie Man Will Get You
  The Boogie Man Will Get You
  The Boogie Man Will Get You is a 1942 comedy horror film, directed by Lew Landers and starring Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. One of six pictures Karloff made with Columbia...
  
  (1942)
• Doughboys in Ireland (1943)
• "Butch" in Nine Girls (1944)
• "Sylvia Nicolai" in In a Lonely Place
  In a Lonely Place
  In a Lonely Place is a film noir directed by Nicholas Ray, and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's Santana Productions. The script was adapted by Edmund North from the 1947 novel In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes.Bogart stars in the film as Dixon Steele, a...
  
  (1950)
• 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...
  
   (Leading Lady) Movie (1952)
• "Alice Gobel" in the George Gobel
  George Gobel
  George Leslie Gobel was an American comedian and actor. He was best known as the star of his own weekly NBC television show, The George Gobel Show, which ran from 1954 to 1960 .-Early years:He was born George Leslie Goebel in Chicago, Illinois, His father, Hermann Goebel, was a...
  
   TV show (1954–1958)
• "Miriam Fisher" in The Iron Maiden (1962; released in the U.S. as Swinging Maiden)
• "Cornelia," (Cornelia Fort
  Cornelia Fort
  Cornelia Clark Fort was an aviator in the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron later called Women Airforce Service Pilots, who became the first female pilot in American history to die on active duty.-Early life and career:...
  
  ), a flying instructor in Tora, Tora, Tora (1970)
• "Mrs James Nelson" in Adam 12 (1973)
• "Aunt May Parker" in The Amazing Spider-Man (1977)
• "Stella Fields" in the TV soap opera
  Soap opera
  A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
  
   General Hospital
  General Hospital
  General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
  
  (1980–1988)

Death

Donnell died of a heart attack on April 11, 1988, aged 66. Her sudden absence from General Hospital, on which she had a recurring role as the Quartermaines' housekeeper at the time of her death, was explained away by the writers as her character having won the lottery and quit her job.

External links