Anne Francis

She earned a Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award nomination for her performance. Francis was also known for two other classic 1950s films, Bad Day at Black Rock and Blackboard Jungle. She had a trademark mole near her lower lip. The beauty mark was even written into the script of one of her films. In 2005, TV Guide ranked Francis at number 18 on its "50 Sexiest Stars of All Time" list.

• Name — Anne Francis • Born — 16 September 1930 • Birth Name — Anne Lloyd Francis • Birthplace — Ossining, New York, U.S. • Died — 2 January 2011 • Place of death — Santa Barbara, California, U.S. • Other Names — Ann Francis • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1936–2006 • Children — 2 • Television — Honey West • Known for — * Forbidden Planet • Bad Day at Black Rock • Blackboard Jungle

Francis was born in Ossining, New York. Contrary to some sources, which erroneously claim she was born Ann Marvak (rather than Francis), her parents' marriage registration and census records from 1925 and 1930 confirm that their names were Philip Ward Francis and Edith (née Albertson) Francis. She was their only child. Francis entered show business as a child, working as a model at 5 years old to assist her family during the Great Depression. She made her Broadway debut at the age of 11.

• Illustration — Francis and Clifton Webb in Dreamboat (1952) Francis was put under contract to MGM and made her first film appearances in This Time for Keeps (1947) and Summer Holiday (1948). She played supporting roles in the films So Young, So Bad (1950), Lydia Bailey (1952), The Rocket Man (1954), Susan Slept Here (1954), and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955); her first leading role was in Blackboard Jungle (1955). Her best-known film role is that of Altaira in Forbidden Planet (1956), a science-fiction classic that was nominated for a best-effects Oscar. • Illustration — Leslie Nielsen and Francis in Forbidden Planet, 1956 Her movie roles were then confined to low-budget efforts: a call girl in Girl of the Night (1960), a scheming trophy wife in Brainstorm (1965), as Jerry Lewis's wife in Hook, Line & Sinker (1969), and as co-star to a young Burt Reynolds in the adventure movie Impasse (1969). An exception was her role as chorine Georgia James in Funny Girl (1968).

• Illustration — James Best, Laura Devon, and Anne Francis (right) in "Jess-Belle", an episode of The Twilight Zone (1963) When motion-picture opportunities became scarcer for Francis near the close of the 1950s, she moved to television. Beginning as a guest on The Untouchables and as the title character in The Doreen Maney Story, she appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone ("The After Hours" and "Jess-Belle"), two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Hooked" and "Keep Me Company"), and three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ("What Really Happened", "Blood Bargain", and "The Trap"). In 1961, she appeared twice in Route 66, first in "Play it Glissando" and then "A Month of Sundays". Francis appeared in two episodes of the Western series The Virginian, two episodes of Columbo ("Short Fuse" and "A Stitch in Crime") and the episode "Incident of the Shambling Man" on the CBS Western Rawhide. She was cast in an episode of Gene Kelly's drama series, Going My Way, based on the 1944 film of the same name. During 1964, she guest-starred in "Hideout" and "Rachel's Mother" in The Reporter, as well as two successive appearances in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. She appeared in season four, episode 10 of Mission: Impossible, titled "The Double Circle".

Honey West was an action drama; the character was formally introduced in the April 21, 1965, episode of Burke's Law titled "Who Killed the Jackpot?", after which it was spun off as a series that lasted one season of 30 half-hour episodes. Honey was a shrewd, high-energy private investigator who collaborated with assistant Sam Bolt (John Ericson) in a company that was inherited from her father. At home, she cared for her pet ocelot named Bruce. The show was canceled due to budgetary considerations, and ABC executives imported the similarly-themed hit British show The Avengers.

Francis made a guest appearance in a 1967 episode of The Fugitive and in The Invaders the same year. She guest-starred in a 1973 episode of Barnaby Jones, "Murder in the Doll's House". At the start of the final season of My Three Sons in 1971, Francis played bowling-alley waitress Terri Dowling, who married character Laird Fergus McBain Douglas of Sithian Bridge, Scotland, and returned to his homeland as a member of the nobility. (Fred MacMurray played the dual-character roles of Steve Douglas and Fergus McBain Douglas in this four-part story arc.) She appeared twice as a guest star on Columbo, once as the manipulated lover of the murderer ("Short Fuse", 1972) and once as the murder victim ("A Stitch in Crime", 1973). In 1974, Francis appeared as Ida, the madame of a bawdy house on the series Kung Fu in the episode "Night of the Owls, Day of the Doves". In 1975, she appeared as Abby in an episode of Movin' On titled "The Price of Loving". In 1976, she appeared as Lola Flynn in an episode of Wonder Woman, entitled "Beauty on Parade". In 1977, she appeared as Lieutenant Commander Gladys Hope, the head nurse in two episodes of the World War II series Baa Baa Black Sheep. She portrayed Melissa Osborne in the episode "How Do I Kill Thee?" of The Eddie Capra Mysteries in 1978. During the 1980–81 season of Dallas, Francis had a recurring role as Arliss Cooper, the mother of Mitch and Afton Cooper. In 1982, she played an armored car robber and mother in "In the Best of Families" episode of CHiPs. The same year she had a cameo in the TV movie Mazes and Monsters starring Tom Hanks. She later played Mama Jo in the first few episodes (four total) of the 1984 TV-detective series Riptide. In that same year, she guest-starred in the premiere episode of Murder, She Wrote, credited as Anne Lloyd Francis; she went on to guest-star in two more episodes during the show's run. In December 1984, again credited as Anne Lloyd Francis, she guest-starred in the Christmas-themed S8 E13 of The Love Boat playing the mother of Kim Lankford's character, Carol, in the vignette "Noel's Christmas Carol". She appeared on episodes of Matlock and The Golden Girls. In 1996, Francis appeared in the Wings episode "The Lady Vanishes", as Vera, a 1940s gun moll. In 1997, in the Home Improvement episode "A Funny Valentine", she appeared as Liddy, Tim Allen's high-school classmate's mother. She guest-starred in 1998 on The Drew Carey Show as the mother of Drew's girlfriend Nicki in the episodes "Nicki's Parents" and "Nicki's Wedding". Francis's final television acting role was in "Shadows", a 2004 episode of Without a Trace.

• Illustration — Francis (top row, right) in TV Guide, October 30, 1954 From May 1952 through April 1955, Francis was married to former United States Army Air Forces pilot Bamlet Lawrence Price Jr., who became a director, writer, actor, producer and editor. She then was married to Robert D. Abeloff, a Beverly Hills dentist, from 1960 through 1964. She never remarried after divorcing Abeloff. Francis and Abeloff had one daughter. Francis later adopted another daughter, one of the first adoptions granted to an unmarried person in California. Francis studied flying toward the end of the 1960s, eventually earning her pilot's certificate. In 1982, Francis published an autobiography, Voices from Home: An Inner Journey. On its cover, she wrote that the book "is my spiritual exposé. It is about our essence of being, the inner workings of mind and spirit which contribute to the growth of the invisible and most important part of us." A subsequent biography titled Anne Francis: The Life and Career was written by Laura Wagner and published by McFarland & Company in 2011. A smoker for much of her adult life, Francis said that she quit the habit in the mid-1980s, but was diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer in 2006. Francis died from complications due to pancreatic cancer on January 2, 2011, at a retirement home in Santa Barbara, California. Her ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1949 — Suspense — Lois — Episode: "Dr. Violet" • 1949–1950 — Kraft Theatre — Odette — 6 episodes • 1949–1951 — Versatile Varieties — Bonny Maid • 1949–1958 — Studio One — Wichita Jones/Kristin — 2 episodes • 1950 — Lights Out — Episode: "The Faithful Heart" • 1954 — The Ford Television Theatre — Linda Wolcott — Episode: "The Tryst" • Lux Video Theatre — Episode: "Perished Leaves" • 1958 — Climax! — Mary Bellason/Teddy Baxter — 2 episodes • 1959 — The David Niven Show — Marna Edwards — Episode: "The Twist of the Key" • Rawhide — Rose Whitman — Episode: "Incident of the Shambling Man" • Adventures in Paradise — Anne Meadow — Episode: "The Bamboo Curtain" • The Ten Commandments — TV film • 1960 — Startime — Emma — Episode: "Jeff Mcleaod, the Last Reb" • Sunday Showcase — Fanny Holmes — Episode: "Our American Heritage: Autocrat and Son" • The Untouchables — Doreen Maney — Episode: "The Doreen Maney Story" • 1960–1961 — Alfred Hitchcock Presents — Nyla Foster/Julia Reddy — 2 episodes • 1960–1963 — The Twilight Zone — Jess-Belle Stone/Marsha White — Episodes: "The After Hours" and "Jess-Belle" • 1961 — Route 66 — Jana Johnson/Arline Simms — 2 episodes • Dr. Kildare — Kathy Stebbins — Episode: "A Million Dollar Property" • 1963–1965 — The Alfred Hitchcock Hour — Various — 3 episodes • 1963–1965 — Burke's Law — Suzanne Foster/Honey West — 2 episodes • 1964 — Death Valley Days — Pearl Hart — Episode: "The Last Stagecoach Robbery • The Man From U.N.C.L.E. — Gervaise Ravel — 2 episodes • 1964–1970 — The Virginian — Victoria Greenly/Myra Greencastle • 1965–1966 — Honey West — Honey West • 1965–1978 — The Magical World of Disney — Adeline Jones/Marian Lockhart — 4 episodes • 1967 — The Fugitive — Felice Geer — Episode: "The One That Got Away" • The Invaders — Annie Rhodes — Episode: "The Saucer" • 1968–1970 — The Name of the Game — Carol Sherman/Marsha Ryman — 2 episodes • 1969 — Mission: Impossible — Gillian Colbee — Episode: "The Double Circle" • Lost Flight — Gina Talbott — TV film • 1970 — Love, American Style — Claudia — Segment: "Love and the Visitor" • The Intruders — Leora Garrison — TV film • Wild Women — Jean Marshek • Dan August — Gina Talbott — Episode: "Murder by Proxy" • 1970–1973 — Insight — Claire/Gert Halpern — 2 episodes • The F.B.I. — Shelly Brimlow/Didi Lamarie • 1971 — The Forgotten Man — Marie Hardy Forrest — TV film • My Three Sons — Terri Dowling — 3 episodes • Steel Wreath — Angel — TV film • 1972 — Gunsmoke — Sarah — Episode: "Sarah" • Assignment Vienna — Aline Masterson — Episode: "Queen's Gambit" • 1972–1973 — Columbo — Valerie Bishop/Nurse Sharon Martin — 2 episodes • 1972–1974 — Ironside — Angela Griffin/Karen Gillis • 1973 — Cannon — Peggy Angel — Episode: "Murder by Proxy" • Barnaby Jones — Miriam Woodridge — Episode: "Murder in a Dolls House" • 1974 — Banacek — Katherine Wells — Episode: "Horse of a Slightly Different Color" • Cry Panic — Julie — TV film • Kung Fu — Ida Quinlan — Episode: "Night of the Owls, Day of the Doves" • The F.B.I. Story: The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One — Colette — TV film • 1975 — The Last Survivors — Helen Dixon • A Girl Named Sooner — Selma Goss • Archer — Angela Lawrence — Episode: "The Vanished Man" • Movin' On — Abby — Episode: "The Price of Loving" • Ellery Queen — Nurse Chandler — Episode: "The Adventure of the Lover's Leap" • Petrocelli — Emily Burke — Episode: "Terror by the Book" • S.W.A.T. — Doris Wainwright Bristol — Episode: "Silent Night, Deadly Night" • Mobile One — Ginny Dunn — Episode: "The Listening Ear" • 1976 — Bert D'Angelo/Superstar — Angela Griffin — Episode: "Scag" • Wonder Woman — Lola Flynn — Episode: "Beauty on Parade" • Banjo Hackett: Roamin' Free — Flora Dobbs — TV film • 1976–1978 — Police Woman — Sergeant Loretta Muldare/Liz Adams — 2 episodes • 1978 — What Really Happened to the Class of '65? — Carol — Episode: "The Girl Who Always Said No" • Flying High — Susan Vale — Episode: "Fear of Cheesecake" • Vegas — Lillian Ross — Episode: "Mother Miskin" • Hawaii Five-O — Alicia Wade — Episode: "When Does a War End?" • The Eddie Capra Mysteries — Melissa Osborne — Episode: "How Do I Kill Thee" • Little Mo — Sophie Fisher — TV film • 1978–1980 — Charlie's Angels — Margo/Cindy Barton — 2 episodes • 1978–1981 — Fantasy Island — Various — 3 episodes • 1979 — Quincy, M.E. — Elizabeth Shafer — Episode: "Physician, Heal Thyself" • The Rebels — Mrs. Harris — Miniseries • Beggarman, Thief — Teresa Kraler — TV film • 1980 — The Littlest Hobo — Mrs. Penelope Conrad — Episode: "Romiet and Julio" • Detour to Terror — Sheila — TV film • Dan August: The Jealousy Factor — Nina Porter • 1980–1983 — Trapper John, M.D. — Gail Edsin/Mrs. Havenhurst — 2 episodes • 1981 — Dallas — Arliss Cooper — 4 episodes • CHiPs — Susan Wright — Episode: "In the Best of Families" • 1982 — Mazes and Monsters — Ellie — TV film • 1983 — O'Malley — Amanda O'Malley • Charley's Aunt — Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez • 1984 — Riptide — Mama Jo — 6 episodes • The Love Boat — Mrs. Kelsey — 2 episodes • Partners in Crime — Sarah — Episode: "Getting in Shape" • 1984–1990 — Murder, She Wrote — Various — 3 episodes • 1985 — Crazy Like a Fox — Sister Elizabeth — Episode: "Premium for Murder" • Hardcastle and McCormick — Jane Bigelow — Episode: "The Long Ago Girl" • Finder of Lost Loves — Ruth Cunningham — Episode: "Connections" • 1986 — A Masterpiece of Murder — Ruth Beekman — TV film • 1987 — Laguna Heat — Helene Long • Jake and the Fatman — Dixie — Episode: "Fatal Attraction" • Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story — Marjorie Post Hutton — TV film • 1988 — My First Love — Terry • 1989 — Matlock — Janet Masters — Episode: "The Starlet" • The Golden Girls — Trudy McMahon — Episode: "Til Death Do We Volley" • 1992 — Love Can Be Murder — Maggie O'Brien — TV film • 1993 — The Double 0 Kid • 1994 — Burke's Law — Honey Best — Episode: "Who Killed Nick Hazard?" • Fortune Hunter — Mrs. Brady — Episode: "The Frostfire Intercept" • 1996 — Wings — Vera — Episode: "The Lady Vanishes" • Have You Seen My Son — Catherine Pritcher — TV film • 1997 — Home Improvement — Liddy Talbot — Episode: "A Funny Valentine" • Conan the Adventurer — Gagool — Episode: "The Curse of Afka" • 1998 — Nash Bridges — Julia Ann Porter — Episode: "Sacaraments" • The Drew Carey Show — Charlene Fifer — 2 episodes • 1999 — Fantasy Island — Cassie — Episode: "Heroes" • 2004 — Without a Trace — Rose Atwood — Episode: "Shadows"

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