THE HAT SQUAD - REMEMBERING ANNE JEFFREYS

Anne Jeffreys, the elegant actress who was Dick Tracy's girlfriend Tess Trueheart in the movies and starred opposite her husband Robert Sterling as "the ghostess with the mostess" on television's 'Topper', has died. She was 94.

Jeffreys later played the snobby socialite Amanda Barrington on 'General Hospital' during a long association with the soap opera and appeared as David Hasselhoff's mom on 'Baywatch'.

Jeffreys and Sterling met when she was in "Kiss Me Kate" and the actor — who had recently divorced actress Ann Sothern — was making his Broadway bow in "Gramercy Ghost" at the theater next door.

They married in November 1951, worked together on the 1952 Broadway musical "Three Wishes for Jamie" and launched a successful nightclub act. All that led to the charismatic couple being cast as the debonair wife-and-husband ghosts Marion and George Kirby — who playfully haunt sober banker Cosmo Topper (Leo G. Carroll), who now occupies their old home — on CBS' 'Topper'.

The series, which aired for two seasons from 1953-55, was based on Thorne Smith's 1926 fantasy novel that famously was adapted for the classic 1937 MGM comedy which starred Constance Bennett and Cary Grant as the Kirbys and Roland Young as Topper. (A young Stephen Sondheim wrote for the CBS show and found the pace grueling.)

Jeffreys and Sterling later starred on the 1958 ABC comedy 'Love That Jill' (they played heads of rival modeling agencies), but that series lasted just a handful of episodes. They were together until Sterling's death in 2006'.

In the 1980s, Jeffreys played Jane Wyman's romantic rival Amanda Croft on the CBS primetime soap opera 'Falcon Crest' and was Tony Franciosa's office manager on the short-lived ABC drama 'Finder of Lost Loves.

Jeffreys first appeared on ABC's 'General Hospital' as Amanda in 1984 and made her last appearance in 2004. In between, she played the character on the G.H. spinoff 'Port Charles'.

Her TV résumé also included 'My Three Sons', 'Bonanza', 'Dr. Kildare', 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' (in a reunion with her 'Topper' co-star Carroll), 'The Delphi Bureau', 'Murder, She Wrote', 'L.A. Law', the 'Rich Man, Poor Man' sequel 'Beggarman, Thief' and, in her final onscreen appearance in 2013, HBO's 'Getting On'.

(From The Hollywood Reporter)

That is an incredible cast of characters whom Ms. Jeffreys contributed to Toobworld.  O'Bviously there were many actors who added far more, but her clan were in plenty of heavy-hitters and high-shelf programs.  Thanks to so many retro TV networks on the air today, I'm sure we will always have one of her cathode haints with us. For example, Mrs. Irene Buchannon, the mother of lifeguard Mitch Buchannon:

But Prime-Time marches on in Toobworld and as with Ms. Jeffreys herself, all of her characters have aged as well.  As is customary with Toobworld policy, we now consider all of those characters whom she has played to have passed on as well.  We don't like recastaways unless there's a good splainin provided and there are times when only the original actor is acceptable i the role.  Could you picture anybody else playing Archie Bunker instead of Carroll O'Connor or Lt. Columbo without Peter Falk?  Many other actors were considered for both of those roles before them, but once they were cast, that was it.

And the same should hold true for those women played by the loverly Anne Jeffreys.

In most cases, that ruling has been taken out of our hands due to plot details or the Toobworld timeline.  For example, the roles she played in 'Bonanza' and 'Wagon Train' must be dead as both series took place circa the 1860s.  (The only TV Western characters I know would still be alive in Toobworld would be Miguelito Loveless and his father, Mr. Roarke.)

And in the case of Amanda Barrington (who came so close to gaining entry into the TVXOHOF), her death was established within the framework of the soap opera.  She was last seen in July of 2004 at the funeral of Lila Quatermaine and in 2013 it was revealed by her son that she had passed away some years before.  It's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that similar circumstances befell her characters in other shows of which I'm not aware.

But there are two of Anne Jeffreys' characters who are exempt from this consideration. And one character I'm giving a pass.  (I'm guessing you Whiz Kids of Team Toobworld can figure out who that is.)

First up is the Prime Minister of the planet Ruatha.  As she governed the planet in the 25th Century, she hasn't even been born yet.  So the Toobworld death panel has no jurisdiction over her fate.  ('Buck Rogers Of The 25th Century' - "Planet Of The Amazon Women")

It's probably unlikely, but Siress Blassie might just be still alive.  ('Battlestar Galactica' - "The Man With Nine Lives")  We know nothing about the longevity of a Galactican's life-span.  At the very least, it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that one of Ms. Jeffrey's one-shot characters - who appeared after 1980 and who had a very limited and very shallow backstory - could be Siress Blassie.  Once the Galacticans arrived on Earth, they would have hid in plain sight under an alias, passing herself off as a native Terran.

There is a one-shot character of Ms. Jeffrey's who had too deep a back-story to mess with.  But she is one of my favorites - Calamity Rogers, a former movie star who was now living in the mountains of Ghulat.  (Calamity met and married a native of Ghulat and left the world of show business to move with him back to his native land.)  She starred mostly in Westerns when she was in Hollywood, with "The Cowboy And The Single Girl" being the movie that made her a star and established her reputation as "the  girl with the fastest gun in the West".  (From 'The Man From UNCLE' - "The Abominable Snowman Affair")

What I find interesting about this character is that we can make so many theoretical connections from other shows to her. 

Most O'Bvious would be fictional movie Westerns which could have featured her as an actress.  But the big one is her name - "Calamity Rogers" could be a stage name so if Anne Jeffreys ever played an actress in some other show, or any woman with no information about her past, we might be able to parlay that into being Calamity using her real name.

And if Anne Jeffreys made any Western movies, we can use frame grabs from those films and claim that they show Calamity Rogers as the character.

And then there is the ethereal, non-corporeal beauty that is Marion Kerby.  She also predeceased Anne Jeffreys, but then came back to Earth Prime-Time to haunt poor Cosmo Topper who now lived in the house previously occupied by Marion and her husband George.

Maybe some exorcist came along after Topper and his wife passed away in order to cleanse the house, so that it could be sold to new tenants.  But she's sweet and harmless so I don't know why characters like Dean and Sam Winchester would ever be interested in driving out their spirits. 

So rest well in your state of unrest, Mr. and Mrs. Kerby.  Although we might not see either of you - or even Neil! - ever again, I'd like to think you are somewhere out there in Toobworld.

Good night and may God bless Anne Jeffreys.......

O'BSERVATIONS:
You had to wait until the penultimate shot in her episode of 'The Man From UNCLE', but Ms. Jeffreys was reunited with her 'Topper' co-star Leo G. Carroll who played UNCLE boss Alexander Waverly.  And the way she was hanging on his every word, I have a good feeling that Mr. Waverly was going to get lucky that night....

I will be doing more research into Ms. Jeffreys' other roles to see if there was one woman who could have been the Galactican Siress Blassie living among the Terrans.

I only wish Amanda Barrington had been able to gain one last appearance somewhere in the ABC schedule so that she could have the trifecta to qualify for inclusion in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.  She had 'General Hospital' and 'Port Charles' to her credit.

BCnU!