Virginia Gregg
Encyclopedia
Virginia Gregg Burket was an American actress best known for her many roles in radio dramas.
Born in Harrisburg, Illinois
, Virginia Gregg was the daughter of musician Dewey Alphaleta (née
Todd) and businessman Edward William Gregg.
, Dragnet
, Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke
, The Jack Benny Program
, Let George Do It
, Lux Radio Theatre, One Man's Family
, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
and The Screen Guild Theater
.
On the radio series Have Gun–Will Travel (starring John Dehner
as Paladin), Gregg portrayed Miss Wong (the girlfriend of Hey Boy).
She also portrayed Richard Diamond's girlfriend, the wealthy Helen Asher, on the radio series Richard Diamond, Private Detective
(starring Dick Powell
as Diamond).
. Gregg portrayed Mary Surratt
, the woman hanged
for conspiracy
in the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln
, in the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case" of NBC
anthology series, The Joseph Cotten Show
.
She made three appearances on the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents
and the syndicated
Rod Cameron
series, State Trooper
. She appeared as Judge Banks in the 1958 episode "We, the Jury" of the CBS sitcom, Mr. Adams and Eve
, starring Howard Duff
and Ida Lupino
. She appeared as well in the 1958 episode "Postmarked for Death" in the western
series Tombstone Territory
starring Pat Conway
and Richard Eastham
. She played the mother to Jay North
's character in the Christmas 1958 episode of Steve McQueen
's Wanted: Dead or Alive. In 1959, Gregg appeared as Zina in the episode "The Meeting" of Bruce Gordon
's short-lived docudrama
, Behind Closed Doors
. In the 1961-1962 television season, Gregg provided the voice of Maggie Bell in the ABC
cartoon
series, Calvin and the Colonel
. In 1961, she guest starred on NBC's anthology program, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
. In 1962 she played Phoebe Starke in the Gunsmoke episode of the same name. She also played the role of Ess Cutler in Gunsmoke in the same year - she's on the credits.
In 1963, she appeared on The Eleventh Hour
, in two episodes, entitled "Medicine Man in This Day and Age, A?" as Aunt Tabitha and "Which Man Will Die?" as Arlene Montebello, respectively. She appeared in an episode ("Three Men from Now"; 1965) of The Legend of Jesse James
starring Christopher Jones
.
In 1959, 1963 and 1964, she guest starred on CBS's Rawhide
Western series in the episodes "Incident of the Misplaced Indians", "Incident of the Comancheros" and "Incident of the Banker". In 1964, she guest-starred as Mrs. Bronson in the episode "Confounding Her Astronomers" of the ABC
medical series Breaking Point.
She may have been best known to television audiences as part of the Dragnet company. Jack Webb
utilized her in dozens of roles on both radio and TV versions of the show as well as the Dragnet 1954 movie where she played the role of Ethel Starkie, wife of the murder victim. In later years, she appeared on other shows produced by Webb's Mark VII Limited
(e.g., Adam-12
, Emergency!
). She also played many non-recurring character roles in various episodes of the long-running TV series Perry Mason
.
' mother in the movie Psycho
as did Jeanette Nolan
and Paul Jasmin, all uncredited. Only Gregg did the voice in the sequels Psycho II and Psycho III
.
She voiced "Tarra" on the 1967 animated TV series, The Herculoids
. She reprised that role when the series was revived in 1981 as part of the Space Stars
animated series.
Born in Harrisburg, Illinois
Harrisburg, Illinois
Harrisburg is a city and township in Saline County, Illinois, United States. It is located about southwest of Evansville, Indiana, southeast of St. Louis, Missouri. The 2010 population was 9,017, with a township population of 10,790. It is the county seat of Saline County...
, Virginia Gregg was the daughter of musician Dewey Alphaleta (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Todd) and businessman Edward William Gregg.
Radio
Gregg was a prolific radio actor, heard on such programs as The Adventures of Sam SpadeThe Adventures of Sam Spade
The Adventures of Sam Spade was a radio series based loosely on the private detective character Sam Spade, created by writer Dashiell Hammett for The Maltese Falcon. The show ran for 13 episodes on ABC in 1946, for 157 episodes on CBS in 1946-1949, and finally for 51 episodes on NBC in 1949-1951...
, Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
, Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.-Cast:*Jack Benny - Himself...
, Let George Do It
Let George Do It (radio)
Let George Do It was a radio drama series produced by Owen and Pauline Vinson from 1946 to 1954. It starred Bob Bailey as detective-for-hire George Valentine ....
, Lux Radio Theatre, One Man's Family
One Man's Family
One Man's Family, is a long-running American radio soap opera. It was heard for almost three decades, from 1932 to 1959. Created by Carlton E. Morse, it was the longest-running uninterrupted serial in the history of American radio...
, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was a radio drama of "the transcribed adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account — America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator." The show aired on CBS Radio from January 14, 1949 to September 30, 1962...
and The Screen Guild Theater
The Screen Guild Theater
The Screen Guild Theater was a popular radio anthology series during the Golden Age of Radio, broadcast from 1939 until 1952, with leading Hollywood actors performing in adaptations of popular motion pictures such as Going My Way and The Postman Always Rings Twice.The show had a long run, lasting...
.
On the radio series Have Gun–Will Travel (starring John Dehner
John Dehner
John Dehner was an American actor in radio, television, and films, playing countless roles, often as a droll villain. Between 1941 and 1988, he appeared in over 260 films and television programs. Prior to acting, Dehner had worked as an animator at Walt Disney Studios, and later became a radio...
as Paladin), Gregg portrayed Miss Wong (the girlfriend of Hey Boy).
She also portrayed Richard Diamond's girlfriend, the wealthy Helen Asher, on the radio series Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Richard Diamond, Private Detective is an American detective drama which aired on radio from 1949 to 1953, and on television from 1957 to 1960.-Radio:...
(starring Dick Powell
Dick Powell
Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...
as Diamond).
Films
Beginning with Body and Soul (1947), Gregg made more than 45 films, including Journey to Nowhere, Spencer's Mountain and I'll Cry Tomorrow.Television
On televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. Gregg portrayed Mary Surratt
Mary Surratt
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt was an American boarding house owner who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to death, she was hanged, becoming the first woman executed by the United States federal government. She was the mother of John H...
, the woman hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
for conspiracy
Conspiracy (crime)
In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...
in the assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, in the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case" of 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...
anthology series, The Joseph Cotten Show
The Joseph Cotten Show
The Joseph Cotten Show is an American anthology series series hosted by and occasionally starring Joseph Cotten. The series, which first aired on NBC, aired 31 episodes from September 14, 1956, to September 13, 1957...
.
She made three appearances on the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
and the syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
Rod Cameron
Rod Cameron
Rod Cameron was a Canadian-born movie actor whose career extended from the 1930s to the 1970s. He appeared in horror, war, action and science fiction movies, but is best remembered for his many Westerns....
series, State Trooper
State Trooper (TV series)
State Trooper is a half-hour television crime drama set in the 1950s American West, starring Rod Cameron as Rod Blake, an officer of the Nevada State Troopers. The series aired 104 episodes in syndication from September 25, 1956, to June 25, 1959...
. She appeared as Judge Banks in the 1958 episode "We, the Jury" of the CBS sitcom, Mr. Adams and Eve
Mr. Adams and Eve
Mr. Adams and Eve is a CBS sitcom starring Howard Duff and his then wife, Ida Lupino, as a fictitious acting couple, Howard and Eve Adams, residing in Beverly Hills, California. In the television series, Lupino is known professionally as Eve Drake. The program aired sixty-six episodes from January...
, starring Howard Duff
Howard Duff
Howard Green Duff was an American actor of film, television, stage, and radio.Duff was born in Charleston, Washington, now a part of Bremerton. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle in 1932 where he began acting in school plays only after he was cut from the basketball team...
and Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
. She appeared as well in the 1958 episode "Postmarked for Death" in the 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...
series Tombstone Territory
Tombstone Territory
Tombstone Territory is an American Western series starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. The series' first two seasons aired on ABC from 1957 to 1959...
starring Pat Conway
Pat Conway
Patrick Douglas Conway, known as Pat Conway , was an American actor best known for his role as young but tough Sheriff Clay Hollister on the ABC and then syndicated western television series Tombstone Territory . He was a maternal grandson of silent film star Francis X...
and Richard Eastham
Richard Eastham
Richard Eastham, born as Dickinson Swift Eastham , was an American actor of stage, film, and television and a concert singer known for his deep baritone voice.-Tombstone Territory:...
. She played the mother to Jay North
Jay North
Jay North is an American actor. Beginning a prolific career as a child actor at the age of six, North became a household name during the early 1960s for his role as the well-meaning, but mischievous, Dennis Mitchell on the CBS situation comedy Dennis the Menace, based on the comic strip created...
's character in the Christmas 1958 episode of Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
's Wanted: Dead or Alive. In 1959, Gregg appeared as Zina in the episode "The Meeting" of Bruce Gordon
Bruce Gordon (actor)
Bruce Gordon was an American actor best known for playing Frank Nitti in the ABC television series The Untouchables....
's short-lived docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
, Behind Closed Doors
Behind Closed Doors (1958 TV series)
Behind Closed Doors is an American drama series set during the Cold War hosted by and occasionally starring Bruce Gordon in the role of Commander Matson. The series, which aired on NBC from October 2, 1958, to April 9, 1959, focuses, among other themes, on how the former Soviet Union stole American...
. In the 1961-1962 television season, Gregg provided the voice of Maggie Bell in the 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...
cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
series, Calvin and the Colonel
Calvin and the Colonel
Calvin and the Colonel was an animated cartoon television series in 1961 about Colonel Montgomery J. Klaxon, a shrewd fox and Calvin T. Burnside, a dumb bear. Their lawyer was Oliver Wendell Clutch, who was a weasel . The colonel lived with his wife Maggie Belle and her sister Sue, who did not...
. In 1961, she guest starred on NBC's anthology program, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show is an American anthology drama television series which ran on NBC from September 1960 to September 1961. Barbara Stanwyck served as hostess, and starred in all but four of the half-hour productions. The four she did not star in were actually pilot episodes of potential...
. In 1962 she played Phoebe Starke in the Gunsmoke episode of the same name. She also played the role of Ess Cutler in Gunsmoke in the same year - she's on the credits.
In 1963, she appeared on The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (1962 TV series)
The Eleventh Hour is an American medical drama about psychiatry starring Wendell Corey, Jack Ging, and Ralph Bellamy, which aired sixty-two new episodes plus selected rebroadcasts on NBC from October 3, 1962, to September 9, 1964.-Series premise:...
, in two episodes, entitled "Medicine Man in This Day and Age, A?" as Aunt Tabitha and "Which Man Will Die?" as Arlene Montebello, respectively. She appeared in an episode ("Three Men from Now"; 1965) of The Legend of Jesse James
The Legend of Jesse James (TV series)
The Legend of Jesse James is a 34-episode western television series starring Christopher Jones in the tile role of notorious outlaw Jesse James which aired on ABC from September 13, 1965, to May 9, 1966...
starring Christopher Jones
Christopher Jones (actor)
William "Billy" Frank Jones, better known as Christopher Jones, is an American character actor, born August 18, 1941 in Jackson, Tennessee....
.
In 1959, 1963 and 1964, she guest starred on CBS's Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
Western series in the episodes "Incident of the Misplaced Indians", "Incident of the Comancheros" and "Incident of the Banker". In 1964, she guest-starred as Mrs. Bronson in the episode "Confounding Her Astronomers" of the 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...
medical series Breaking Point.
She may have been best known to television audiences as part of the Dragnet company. Jack Webb
Jack Webb
John Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
utilized her in dozens of roles on both radio and TV versions of the show as well as the Dragnet 1954 movie where she played the role of Ethel Starkie, wife of the murder victim. In later years, she appeared on other shows produced by Webb's Mark VII Limited
Mark VII Limited
Mark VII Limited was the production company of actor, producer, and director Jack Webb, and was active from 1951 to 1982. Many of its series were produced in association with Universal Television; most of them aired on the NBC television network in the U.S....
(e.g., Adam-12
Adam-12
Adam-12 was a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. Created by Jack Webb who is known for creating Dragnet, the series captured a...
, Emergency!
Emergency!
Emergency! is an American television series that combines the medical drama and action-adventure genres. It was produced by Mark VII Limited and distributed by Universal Studios...
). She also played many non-recurring character roles in various episodes of the long-running TV series Perry Mason
Perry Mason (TV series)
Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
.
Voice acting
She supplied the voice of Norman BatesNorman Bates
Norman Bates is a fictional character created by writer Robert Bloch as the central character in his novel Psycho, and portrayed by Anthony Perkins as the main antagonist of the 1960 film of the same name directed by Alfred Hitchcock...
' mother in the movie Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
as did Jeanette Nolan
Jeanette Nolan
Jeanette Nolan was an American radio, film and television actress. Nolan was nominated for four Emmy Awards.-Early life:...
and Paul Jasmin, all uncredited. Only Gregg did the voice in the sequels Psycho II and Psycho III
Psycho III
Psycho III is a 1986 sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. The film stars Anthony Perkins , Diana Scarwid, Jeff Fahey and Roberta Maxwell. The screenplay is written by Charles Edward Pogue...
.
She voiced "Tarra" on the 1967 animated TV series, The Herculoids
The Herculoids
The Herculoids is a Saturday morning animated television series that was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The show debuted on September 9, 1967 on CBS...
. She reprised that role when the series was revived in 1981 as part of the Space Stars
Space Stars
Space Stars is a 1981 NBC Saturday morning cartoon created by Hanna-Barbera which ran from 1981-1982.-Format:Space Stars ran four cartoon segments each week: Space Ghost, The Herculoids, Teen Force, and Astro and the Space Mutts. The cartoons would occasionally cross-over into one another...
animated series.