final credits - imogene burkhart, aka jean byron
On radio she was known as "the Lux Girl," pitching cosmetic products on the "Rosemary Clooney Show." On television she will be best remembered as Natalie Lane, mother of Patty Duke on the mid-1960s series "The Patty Duke Show."
Jean Byron died February 3rd, 2006 at the age of 80 from an infection following hip replacement surgery.
Imogene Burkhart was born in Paducah, Kentucky in 1925. The war effort took her family to California where Burkhart studied acting. The first of her nearly 100 film and television credits came after signing on with Columbia Pictures in the early 1950s, adopting "Jean Byron" as her stage name. She played alongside Johnny Weissmuller, John Carradine, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Raquel Welch and Angela Lansbury among others.
National television audiences first saw her appearing with Bob Denver as "Dr. Imogene Burkhart" on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" series. She also played the character of "Ruth Adams" during the show's first season. Her other television appearances included the shows "Mannix," "77 Sunset Strip," "My Friend Flicka," "Batman," "Marcus Welby, M.D." and "Maude."
A friend of Tommy Dorsey, Burkhart occasionally sang with the big band whenever she was filming in New York. In the 1950s, she was briefly married to fellow actor Michael Ansara. She made her final screen appearance in the 1999 "Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' in Brooklyn Heights" made-for-tv reunion movie. Burkhart/Byron has a Bacon number of 2. Fans of Byron will want to visit her official web site.
Other actress tributes can be found here.