Elinor Donahue
Mary Eleanor Donahue (born April 19, 1937), credited as Elinor Donahue, is an American actress, best remembered today for playing the role of Betty Anderson, the eldest child of Robert Young and Jane Wyatt, on the 1950s American sitcom Father Knows Best.
Donahue achieved stardom for her role as the elder daughter, Betty, on the television family series Father Knows Best. Her co-stars were Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Billy Gray as her younger brother, James "Bud" Anderson, Jr., and Lauren Chapin as her younger sister, Kathy.
Donahue was a musical judge in ABC's Jukebox Jury (1953–54). While in the first season of Father Knows Best she also appeared on The Ray Bolger Show, starring Ray Bolger as a song-and-dance man. Thereafter, she was cast with James Best, Ann Doran, and J. Carrol Naish in the 1956 episode "The White Carnation" of the religion anthology series, Crossroads. She guest starred on an episode of U.S. Marshal. She also appeared as a new bride in the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show episode titled "The Newlyweds" that aired April 2, 1956.
She played Georgiana Balanger in the episode "Dennis and the Wedding" (1960) on Dennis the Menace.[5] Donahue was also cast, in 1960, with Marion Ross in an episode ("Duet") of The Brothers Brannagan. She played Miriam Welby on ABC's The Odd Couple, Jane Mulligan on Mulligan's Stew, and Nurse Hunnicut on Days of Our Lives.
She was featured in 12 episodes of CBS's The Andy Griffith Show as pharmacist Ellie Walker, even getting a mention in the opening credits. The character was intended to be a love interest for Sheriff Andy Taylor, but after one season (1960–1961), Donahue decided to ask for a release from her three-year contract.[6]
In 1963, Donahue was cast in an episode of NBC's short-lived modern Western series, Redigo, with Richard Egan as the rancher Jim Redigo; then in 1964, she appeared as Melanie in "The Secret in the Stone" in the NBC medical drama dealing with psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour, starring Jack Ging and Ralph Bellamy.
Additionally, on February 9, 1963, she played Letty May in the episode "The Burning Tree" on Have Gun Will Travel.
In the 1964–65 season, Donahue costarred as Joan Randall, the daughter of Walter Burnley, played by John McGiver, on the CBS sitcom, Many Happy Returns about the complaint department of a fictitious Los Angeles department store. She guest-appeared on Star Trek in the second-season episode "Metamorphosis" (1967) as commissioner Nancy Hedford.
In 1966, she guest starred on the TV series A Man Called Shenandoah, episode 8, "Town On Fire."
Photos
Movies (37)
No Friends
2025 · Aunt Lillian
Star Trek: Inside the Roddenberry Vault
2016 · Self
El Diario De La Princesa 2
2004 · Lady Palimore
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Heart Within
2001 · Rebecca Quinn Dickinson
Dear God
1996 · Elinor Donahue
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
1991 · Orphanage Woman
Pretty Woman
1990 · Bridget
No Earthly Reason
1984 · Mrs. Morrison
High School U.S.A.
1983 · Mrs. Franklin
Going Berserk
1983 · Margaret Anderson
Just an Overnight Guest
1983
Police Story: No Margin for Error
1978
Doctors' Private Lives
1978 · Mona Wise
Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas
1977 · Betty Anderson
Dick Clark's Good Old Days
1977
Mulligan's Stew
1977 · Jane Mulligan
The Father Knows Best Reunion
1977 · Betty Anderson
Gidget Gets Married
1972 · Medley Blaine
In Name Only
1969 · Esther Garrity
Girls Town
1959 · Mary Lee Morgan
Imitation of Life
1959 · Lora's Friend (uncredited)
Love Is Better Than Ever
1952 · Pattie Marie Levoy
Her First Romance
1951 · Lucille Stewart
My Blue Heaven
1950 · Mary (uncredited)
Tea for Two
1950
The Happy Years
1950 · Connie Brown
Singing Guns
1950 · Little Girl (uncredited)
An Old-Fashioned Girl
1949 · Maud Shaw (as Mary Eleanor Donahue)
The Arkansas Swing
1948 · Toni MacGregor
Tenth Avenue Angel
1948 · Cynthia (uncredited)
Three Daring Daughters
1948 · Alix Morgan
The Unfinished Dance
1947 · Josie (as Mary Eleanor Donahue)
Winter Wonderland
1946 · Betty Wheeler
And Now Tomorrow
1944 · Janice
Honeymoon Lodge
1943 · Janie Thomas
Mister Big
1943 · Muggsy
Girls' Town
1942 · Bit Role (uncredited)
TV shows (50)
Caso Cerrado
2003 · Esther 'Legs' Davis (2005)
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
Friends
1994 · Aunt Lillian
Ellen
1994 · Delores Warwell
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
1993 · Rebecca Quinn
Eek! The Cat
1992 · Mom (voice)
Herman's Head
1991 · Mrs. Fitzer
Get a Life
1990 · Gradys Peterson
Coach
1989 · Lorraine
The New Adventures of Beans Baxter
1987 · Susan Baxter
The Golden Girls
1985 · Katherine
Murder, She Wrote
1984 · Connie Lewis
Newhart
1982 · Irma
Hotel
1982 · Louise
Condominium
1980 · Audrey Ames
$weepstake$
1979
Diff'rent Strokes
1978
Mulligan's Stew
1977 · Jane Mulligan
The Love Boat
1977 · Rowena, Betty Anderson, Mrs. Van Buren, Andrea Hammond
CHiPs
1977 · Elnor Donahue (uncredited)
Battle of the Network Stars
1976
One Day at a Time
1975
S.W.A.T.
1975
Police Woman
1974 · Ellie Tarlow
Petrocelli
1974 · Joan Hiller
Happy Days
1974
Police Story
1973
Barnaby Jones
1973 · Judy Corbett
The Rookies
1972
The Odd Couple
1970 · Miriam Welby
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1969
The Flying Nun
1967 · Dr. Jennifer Ethrington
Occasional Wife
1966
Star Trek
1966 · Commissioner Nancy Hedford
Many Happy Returns
1964
Redigo
1963
The Eleventh Hour
1962
The Merv Griffin Show
1962 · Self
The Virginian
1962 · Carole Cole
Dr. Kildare
1961 · Sharon Calloway
The Andy Griffith Show
1960 · Ellie Walker
The Brothers Brannagan
1960 · Diane
Dennis the Menace
1959
77 Sunset Strip
1958 · Laura Holt
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957 · Letty Mae Stinchcomb
Father Knows Best
1954 · Betty Anderson
Letter to Loretta
1953 · Debbie Waring, Janey
General Electric Theater
1953 · Carol Madsen
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
1950 · Emily Vanderlip Foster