Mary Grace Canfield Biography

Mary Grace Canfield (September 3, 1924 - February 15, 2014) was an American actress who often played the role of a romance-starved spinster/wallflower.

Early life and career

Mary Grace Canfield was born in Rochester, New York, the second child of Hubert and Hildegard (ne Jacobson) Canfield. She grew up in Pittsford, New York. Her sister Constance was two years older.

Acting mostly in small theater companies and regional theatre, between 1952 and 1964 she appeared in several Broadway plays, although most ran for no more than a month. Her Broadway credits include The Waltz of the Toreadors and The Frogs of Spring.

Canfield's first credited performance on television was in March 1954, when she portrayed Frances in the episode "Native Dancer" on Goodyear Playhouse. After making additional television appearances, she played a housekeeper, Amanda Allison, in the ABC sitcom The Hathaways during the 1961-62 season.

As Thelma Lou's "plain" cousin in an episode of CBS's The Andy Griffith Show, she had an arranged blind date with Gomer Pyle, played by Jim Nabors. Her name on that episode was her actual name, Mary Grace.

Green Acres

Canfield gained her most notoriety in her recurring role on the hit CBS comedy series, Green Acres. She played Ralph Monroe, the all-thumbs carpenter who greeted her fellow Hootervillians with her signature, "Howdie Doodie!" She appeared in over 40 episodes of the show during its six-season run from 1965 to 1971.

She reprised the role in the 1990 TV movie Return to Green Acres. Recalling the Ralph character in a 2006 interview, she stated, "To be remembered for Ralph kind of upsets me "? only in the sense that it was so easy and undemanding." She added, "It's being known for something easy to do instead of something you worked hard to achieve."

Other roles

She guest starred on the NBC medical drama The Eleventh Hour. In 1966, Canfield played Abner Kravitz's sister, Harriet, on three episodes of Bewitched in the interval between the death from ovarian cancer of actress Alice Pearce, who played Abner's wife, Gladys Kravitz, before the hiring of Pearce's successor, Sandra Gould, in the role of Mrs. Kravitz. During the early 1970s, Canfield and actress Lucille Wall shared the role of nurse Lucille March (Audrey's sister) on General Hospital.

She appeared in films including Pollyanna, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Later life and death

In the early 2000s, she appeared on stage in her local New England theatre productions.

Canfield made her last public appearance in 2005, when she attended Eddie Albert's funeral along with Green Acres co-stars Sid Melton and Frank Cady (Sam Drucker).

Canfield, aged 89, died of lung cancer on February 15, 2014, in Santa Barbara, California.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1960	Pollyanna	Angelica
1963	Come Blow Your Horn	Mildred
1967	'	Mrs. Doody
1975	Half a House	Thelma
1983	Something Wicked This Way Comes	Miss Foley
1993	Young Goodman Brown	Goody Cloyse

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	Goodyear Television Playhouse	Frances	Episode: "Native Dancer"
1955	'	Liesl	Episode: "The Guardsman"
1956	Robert Montgomery Presents	Abigail Lewis	Episode: "Goodbye, Grey Flannel"
1959	'	Sidonia	Episode: "The Waltz of the Toreadors"
1961	Thriller	Celia Perry	Episode: "A Good Imagination"
1961-1962	'	Amanda Allison	Episodes: "Elinor's Guilt", "TV or Not TV", "The Paint Job", "A Man for Amanda"
1962	Thriller	Ally Rose	Episode: "The Hollow Watcher"
1962	Hazel	Miss Simmons	Episode: "Rock-A-Bye Baby"
1962	Poor Mr. Campbell	Grindl	TV film
1963	'	Mrs. Bennett	Episode: "The Baby Formula"
1963	'	Mrs. Dobkin	Episode: "The Middle Child Gets All the Aches"
1963	'	Mary Grace Gossage	Episode: "A Date for Gomer"
1964	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Juliet	Episode: "Wake Up, Darling"
1965-1971	Green Acres	Ralph Monroe	Recurring role (41 episodes)
1966	'	Alice Goodall	Episode: "Twelve Angry Women"
1966	Bewitched	Harriet Kravitz	Episodes: "Follow That Witch: Parts 1 & 2", "A Bum Raps", "Man's Best Friend"
1967	Vacation Playhouse	Mildred	Episode: "Heaven Help Us"
1970	Adam-12	Susie Fisher	Episode: "Log 135: Arson"
1973	Love, American Style	Bridgette	Episode: "Love and the Games People Play"
1973	General Hospital	Lucille March	TV series, replacement for Lucille Wall
1976	Family	Mrs. Hanley	Episodes: "Coming Apart", "Home Movie"
1978	Tabitha	Dr. Morrison	Episode: "Paul Goes to New York"
1984	Burning Rage	Nettie McFadden	TV film
1985	Alice	Ruthie	Episode: "The Night They Raided Debbie's"
1990	Return to Green Acres	Ralph Monroe	TV film
1993	'	Jane	Episode: "Aloha, Io-wahu"