Elizabeth MacRae, whose career was defined by her work on popular television shows including Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and the soap opera General Hospital, has died at the age of 88.
MacRae died peacefully at her home in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Monday, May 27, according to her obituary.
Although the actress was best known for her work on television, she appeared in a handful of movies throughout her career, including a widely acclaimed late-career triumph opposite Gene Hackman in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 paranoia thriller The Conversation.
MacRae was born in 1936 in Columbia, South Carolina, and by 1956 she had decided to focus on becoming an actor.
A 1956 audition for the director Otto Preminger’s Saint Joan was a bust, but she credited the legendary filmmaker for encouraging her to stick with acting and encouraging her to seek out professional acting training.
Elizabeth MacRae, whose career was defined by her work on popular television shows including Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and the soap opera General Hospital , has died at 88; pictured on Judd For The Defense (1969)
MacRae died peacefully at her home in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Monday, May 27, according to her obituary; pictured in 1959 on Rendezvous
Later that year she moved to New York City and began studying with the actress Uta Hagen at the Herbert Berghof studio, and she honed her craft by acting on stage.
In 1958, MacRae moved to Los Angeles to begin auditioning for television shows, even as she continued taking acting classes.
She scored her first television appearance that year with an uncredited role on The Verdict Is Yours.
She followed it up with roles on Rendezvous and the influential crime series Naked City, and in 1961 she had guest appearances on Maverick and The Asphalt Jungle
Despite failing a 1956 audition for Otto Preminger’s Saint Joan, the legendary filmmaker encouraged her to continue with acting classes. She moved to NYC that year, before relocating in LA in 1958 and scoring her first television gigs; seen in 1959 on Rendezvous