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Beverlee McKinsey

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Name
  
Beverlee McKinsey

Role
  
Actress

Children
  

Beverlee McKinsey Beverlee McKinsey has passed away in Texas Forum


Full Name
  
Beverlee Magruder

Born
  
August 9, 1935 (
1935-08-09
)

Died
  
May 2, 2008, Santa Maria, California, United States

Spouse
  
Berkeley Harris (m. 1971–1984), Angus Duncan (m. 1963–1967), Mark McKinsey (m. 1956–1959)

Parents
  
Jewell Magruder, Warren Magruder

Movies and TV shows
  
Another World, Texas, Bronco Billy, Love Is a Many Splendor

Similar People
  
Scott McKinsey, Carmen Duncan, Berkeley Harris, Jacqueline Courtney, Marj Dusay

My Tribute To Beverlee McKinsey


Beverlee McKinsey (August 9, 1935 – May 2, 2008) was an American actress. She is best known for her roles on two daytime serials. Her first known role was as Iris Cory Carrington on the soap opera Another World from 1972 to 1980. Subsequently, she portrayed the same role until November 1981 on the spin-off show Texas. Her other famous role was as the Baroness Alexandra Spaulding Von Halkein, on the soap opera Guiding Light, from 1984 to 1992. In 1994, she made a brief return to daytime, appearing in 6 episodes of General Hospital as Myrna Slaughter, a witness in Edward Quartermain's trial for the murder of Jack Boland.

Contents

Texas goodbye iris beverlee mckinsey s final scene


Early life

Beverlee McKinsey was born Beverlee Magruder in McAlester, Oklahoma, on August 9, 1935. She was the daughter of Warren and Jewell Magruder of McAlester.

McKinsey graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in Drama. Her professional career began in the New York theater. She understudied the leading role of newlywed Corie in the original Broadway production of Barefoot in the Park and was given the opportunity to perform the role opposite Robert Redford several times. She also co-starred as Honey in the London production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill. She started her career in Off-Broadway theater, often appearing alongside James Earl Jones and Doris Belack.

Beverlee McKinsey My Tribute To Beverlee McKinsey YouTube

McKinsey moved to Hollywood in the late 1960s, and after several appearances in episodic television shows and playing a reporter on the soap opera Love of Life, she landed her first contract role as Martha Donnelly/Julie Richards (1970–1971) on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing where she worked with future husband Berkeley Harris.

Iris Carrington

After a brief appearance as Emma Frame on Another World in May 1972, she so impressed then-head writer Harding Lemay that he subsequently cast her in a drastically different role, from dowdy Emma to that of manipulative, scheming Iris Carrington. McKinsey played the role from December 1972 to July 1980. During much of her tenure on Another World, McKinsey's portrayal of Iris was part of an unconventional triangle - the character was trying to break up her father Mackenzie Cory and his new wife, Rachel.

McKinsey's character proved so popular that she was made the star of the soap's spin-off series, Texas, which debuted August 4, 1980. She remains one of two actresses on daytime television to be given a star billing on a soap opera, the other being Rosemary Prinz of How to Survive a Marriage.

After McKinsey left the role of Iris in November 1981, NBC's Texas eventually lost one million viewers in the Nielsen ratings and was canceled in 1982.

McKinsey received four Daytime Emmy nominations for her work as Iris.

Alexandra Spaulding

After a hiatus from daytime, Gail Kobe, then executive producer of Guiding Light, lured McKinsey to Guiding Light, on CBS, in February 1984 in the newly created character of wealthy matriarch Baroness Alexandra Spaulding Von Halkein.

The skilled McKinsey made certain that each of her characters were different. On Another World, Iris would do anything to get whatever she wanted. McKinsey played Iris' desire for her father's approval as the root of her need for power. Iris could be pathetic, sympathetic and a tyrant. As Guiding Light's Alexandra, she played the character's love for power and the desire to best her brother Alan Spaulding. And not to forget her longing for the love, affection and approval of Lujack/Nick, her twin sons who were forcibly taken away from her at birth. Alexandra also cared deeply for her nephews, Phillip and Alan-Michael.

While Alexandra could be a snob (and ruthless) at times, she also could let her hair down, as when she went bowling with then-beau H.B. Lewis (Larry Gates). Her ruthlessness was revealed when Alexandra married Roger Thorpe (Michael Zaslow) then discovered he was involved in an affair with the younger Mindy Lewis. McKinsey's performance during this storyline evolved from kitten-like sweetness to a tiger-based ferocity that had critics cheering. The scene where Alexandra humiliates Roger in public at the Country Club is now considered a Guiding Light classic scene.

In 1992, McKinsey took advantage of an out in her contract and abruptly left GL. Soap journalist Michael Logan wrote about the turn of events:

Interviewing McKinsey was a dream. There were never any "I just love everyone I work with" cliches. After she exited Guiding Light, McKinsey cited her "not very pleasant" work environment for one of the reasons she chose to leave the daytime serial. Looking at her contract, she discovered she could leave the show after every six-month period. So McKinsey took advantage of the contract the day before her annual eight-week vacation. McKinsey went on permanent vacation. McKinsey adamantly defended her choice to exit the show. Her bosses felt they had been bamboozled. "They're bent out of shape because, for once, somebody beat 'em at their own game," she said. "I had warned Jill (the show's then-executive producer Jill Farren Phelps) – although I don't think she paid attention to me – that I was not happy. I was not happy with the story line." She had confided in Phelps previously that she was frustrated enough to quit, and was told in response that perhaps she should read her contract.

McKinsey later quipped that perhaps it was Phelps and the rest of the Guiding Light production team who should have read the contract. "They didn't read the contract! I read it very closely. I knew every word. The next day, they were all combing over the contract. Somebody said, 'Maybe Beverlee's not familiar with the contract.' Well, of course she was! She wrote it, you bozos. She wrote it! I've had this out clause since 1986. I asked for it and it was P&G that determined how much notice they wanted me to give – and they chose eight weeks."

Personal life

She was married three times, and had one son, Scott McKinsey from her marriage to Mark McKinsey. Her son is a director on the soap opera General Hospital (on which she briefly appeared in 1994).

McKinsey married Berkeley Harris, a co-star from Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, in 1971, and cared for him during his illness from terminal brain cancer prior to his death in 1984.

She briefly returned to acting in 1994, as Myrna Slaughter on General Hospital, stating that the reason for it had to do with her medical insurance, but adamantly considered herself retired from soaps from that moment in 1992 when she last left the set of GL. She had resisted all entreaties to return to daytime television. After some health issues, including a kidney transplant, McKinsey retired to Southern California and made few public appearances. Michael Logan famously described McKinsey as "[making] Greta Garbo look like a chatterbox!". Logan, TV Guide's soap columnist, once called McKinsey "…the greatest actress ever to grace daytime drama."

Beverlee McKinsey died on May 2, 2008, at the Olympic Medical Center in Los Angeles, from complications due to a kidney transplant, which she had undergone in 1998.

Filmography

Actress
1994
General Hospital (TV Series) as
Myrna Slaughter
- Episode #1.8118 (1994) - Myrna Slaughter
- Episode #1.8114 (1994) - Myrna Slaughter
- Episode #1.8111 (1994) - Myrna Slaughter
- Episode #1.8110 (1994) - Myrna Slaughter
1984
Guiding Light (TV Series) as
Alexandra Spaulding / Alan Michael Spaulding / Ale / ...
- 5th Street Fire Aftermath (1990) - Alexandra Spaulding
- Jan 26 1987 (1987) - Alexandra Spaulding
- Masquerade Ball (1984) - Alexandra Spaulding
1983
Remington Steele (TV Series) as
Alexis Vandermeer
- Vintage Steele (1983) - Alexis Vandermeer
1983
The Demon Murder Case (TV Movie) as
Charlotte Harris
1980
Texas (TV Series) as
Iris Wheeler / Iris Carrington
1972
Another World (TV Series) as
Iris Carrington
1980
Bronco Billy as
Irene Lily
1973
The ABC Afternoon Playbreak (TV Series) as
Lorraine Collins
- The Other Woman (1973) - Lorraine Collins
1973
Cannon (TV Series) as
Rita Bell
- The Dead Samaritan (1973) - Rita Bell
1969
Mod Squad (TV Series) as
Evelyn Ellis / Claudine Ensign
- Another Final Game (1972) - Evelyn Ellis
- A Hint of Darkness, a Hint of Light (1969) - Claudine Ensign
1972
The Delphi Bureau (TV Series) as
Goldy
- The Man Upstairs-The Man Downstairs Project (1972) - Goldy
1971
McMillan & Wife (TV Series) as
Laurie Forrest
- Husbands, Wives, and Killers (1971) - Laurie Forrest
1971
Medical Center (TV Series) as
Beth
- The Shattered Man (1971) - Beth
1971
Longstreet (TV Series) as
Sue Hazelton
- A World of Perfect Complicity (1971) - Sue Hazelton
1970
The F.B.I. (TV Series) as
Cathy Wheaton
- Summer Terror (1970) - Cathy Wheaton
1970
Death Valley Days (TV Series) as
Maud Gage Baum
- The Wizard of Aberdeen (1970) - Maud Gage Baum
1969
The Reivers as
Girl by the Boon's Car (uncredited)
1969
Hawaii Five-O (TV Series) as
Jo Louise Mailer
- The Joker's Wild, Man, Wild! (1969) - Jo Louise Mailer
1969
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? as
Dancer (uncredited)
1969
The Virginian (TV Series) as
Abby Clayton
- The Substitute (1969) - Abby Clayton
1969
Mannix (TV Series) as
Carol Chase
- Deathrun (1969) - Carol Chase
1968
The Second Hundred Years (TV Series) as
Flo
- Love on the Double (1968) - Flo
1967
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (TV Series) as
Martha Donnelly (aka Julie Richards) (1970-1971)
1966
Hawk (TV Series) as
Dr. Mattie Mulroy
- Wall of Silence (1966) - Dr. Mattie Mulroy
1966
Preview Tonight (TV Series)
- The Cliff Dwellers (1966)
1965
Seaway (TV Series) as
Millie
- Shipment from Marseilles (1965) - Millie
1965
The Defenders (TV Series) as
Karen McDermott
- Only a Child (1965) - Karen McDermott
1965
The Doctors and the Nurses (TV Series) as
Eileen Moore
- Where There's Smoke (1965) - Eileen Moore
1964
The Reporter (TV Series) as
Ann
- Murder by Scandal (1964) - Ann
Self
1981
The Bob Braun Show (TV Series) as
Self
- Episode dated 22 April 1981 (1981) - Self
1978
The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (TV Series) as
Self - Panelist
- Episode dated 27 November 1978 (1978) - Self - Panelist
1978
The 5th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards (TV Special) as
Self
1977
The Merv Griffin Show (TV Series) as
Self
- 1st Annual Soap Opera Digest Awards (1977) - Self
Archive Footage
2000
The 16th Annual Soap Opera Awards (TV Special) as
Iris Cory Carrington Delaney Bancroft Wheeler
1999
Another World (TV Series) as
Iris Cory Carrington Delaney Bancroft Wheeler
- Episode #1.8891 (1999) - Iris Cory Carrington Delaney Bancroft Wheeler

References

Beverlee McKinsey Wikipedia


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