Maudie Prickett

Career

Born in Portland, Oregon, Prickett often portrayed maids, busybodies, spinsters, and nosy neighbors. She made ten appearances as recurring character Rosie, a maid, in the 1960s NBC sit-com Hazel starring Shirley Booth, Don DeFore, Whitney Blake, and Bobby Buntrock.

One of her most notable film appearances was as a maid named Elsie at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest in 1959.

Other television credits include nine appearances as Ms. Gordon on CBS's The Jack Benny Program and five appearances as various characters on ABC's Bewitched. In 1959, she played a secretary, Miss Sanders, to the Howard McNear character, Wilbur Wilgus, on ABC sitcom, The Donna Reed Show. Prickett played Alice MacAvity in 1954 in the NBC sitcom It's a Great Life, featuring Frances Bavier. She guest-starred in the 1957-1958 NBC sitcom Sally, starring Joan Caulfield, and on CBS's Dennis the Menace, with Jay North. She appeared as a dentist's secretary in the episode "The Dentist" on another CBS sitcom, Angel, starring Annie Fargé. Parley Baer played Dr. Mathews in the episode. Prickett appeared in 1962 in the short-lived ABC/Warner Bros. sitcom, Room for One More, starring Andrew Duggan, and played a regular character in 1966 on the even more short-lived Tammy Grimes Show.

Prickett was cast in the 1950s westerns The Adventures of Kit Carson and 26 Men, true stories of the Arizona Rangers. She portrayed Miss Taisy, Lois Lane's nurse in the classic Adventures of Superman series starring George Reeves and Phyllis Coates.

She also appeared in several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show as Mrs. Edna Larch, as well as Myrtle on Mayberry R.F.D.

In 1965 she appeared on Get Smart as Maxwell Smart's Aunt Bertha in the episode "My Nephew the Spy".

In 1970 she played the role of Mrs. Thelma Benstead, a rental house landlord on the television series Dragnet. She also played on the ABC sitcom Bewitched for two episodes in 1972 as Ms. Peabody, who was a nosy and intrusive teacher with Tabitha Stephens.

One of her later appearances was in 1974 in Jeanette Nolan's short-lived CBS western series, Dirty Sally.

Personal life

Maudie was married three times. First marriage was in 1941 to Charles Fillmore Prickett II (1901–1954), co-founder and general manager of the Pasadena Playhouse), by whom she had one son (Charles Fillmore Prickett III (1949–2006), an orthopedic surgeon) and one daughter (Charie Doyle Prickett, 1950); next in 1961 to Eakle W. Cartwright, M.D. (a physician, died 1962); and finally in 1966 to Cyril Bernard Cooper (1900–1971, mayor of Pasadena 1968–1970).

Death

Prickett died of uremic poisoning in Pasadena, California on April 14, 1976. She is interred at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California.