Name Mary Jackson | Role Character actress | |
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Spouse Griffin Bancroft Jr. (m. 1937–2005) Movies and TV shows Similar People Helen Kleeb, JR Bookwalter, Max Palevsky, Lynn Hamilton, Ted Kotcheff | ||
Mary Jackson (November 22, 1910—December 10, 2005) was an American character actress whose nearly fifty-year career began in 1950 and was spent almost entirely on television. She is best known for the role of the lovelorn Emily Baldwin in The Waltons and was the original choice to play Alice Horton in the long-running daytime soap Days of Our Lives. She in fact played the part in the unaired pilot although the role was subsequently taken by Frances Reid.
Early years
Born in the village of Milford, Michigan, She earned a bachelor's degree from Western Michigan University in 1932.
She was a schoolteacher during the Great Depression for one year before pursuing her interest in the theater.
She returned to college, enrolling in Michigan State University's fine arts program and, subsequently, began her performing career on Chicago stage, in summer stock and, at the start of the period referenced as the Golden Age of Television, in New York City and, as the 1960s began, in Hollywood.
Mary Jackson was survived by her husband of 68 years, Griffin Bancroft Jr., to whom she was married from July 4, 1937 until her death, in Los Angeles, from Parkinson's disease, two-and-a-half weeks just after her 95th birthday.
Always close to her Michigan roots, Jackson was a charter member of the Milford Historical Society. Jackson was instrumental in 1988 in raising money to rebuild the Oak Grove Cemetery Bridge over the Huron River - a bridge that connected the Village of Milford to its oldest burial grounds. Jackson was buried at Oak Grove Cemetery, in her hometown of Milford, Michigan.