Meredith MacRae

Overview

Born
May 30, 1944 · Houston, Texas, USA
Died
July 14, 2000 · Manhattan Beach, California, USA (complications from brain cancer)
Birth name
Meredith Lynn MacRae
Height
5′ 4″ (1.63 m)

Mini bio

Meredith Lynn MacRae was born on May 30, 1944, in Houston, Texas. She was born on military base Fort Sam Houston, where her father was stationed.

Meredith was bitten by the show business bug at an early age. Her father, Gordon MacRae was a singer and movie idol of the 1950s (Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956)), and her mother, Sheila MacRae, is an actress/comedienne and author, who is probably best known as Alice Kramden (1966-1970), during the 2nd incarnation of Jackie Gleason's The Jackie Gleason Show (1966) (aka "The Honeymooners").

At the age of eight, Meredith started her own acting career and appeared in the film By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953), which starred her father.

She attended UCLA and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. In 1964, she married Richard Berger, former president of MGM. They divorced four years later.

Meredith went on to starring roles in two of television's heyday family sitcoms: Petticoat Junction (1963) and My Three Sons (1960). She also guest starred in many other television shows including: Fantasy Island (1977), Magnum, P.I. (1980), The Rockford Files (1974), and Webster (1983) (the highest rated episode ever). She also appeared in several movies and had a brief singing career.

In 1969, Meredith married actor Greg Mullavey (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1973). They had one daughter, Allison, born in 1974. Greg and Meredith divorced in 1992 but remained friends.

In 1995, Meredith married Philip Neal, Chairman and CEO of Avery-Dennison.

In 1999, she was diagnosed with cancer. In 2000, due to complications from multiple surgeries and allergic reactions to medications (which caused her brain to swell), Meredith Lynn MacRae departed this life.
- IMDb mini biography by: drkstr60

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

Soft speaking voice
Mezzo-Soprano Voice Range
Blonde Hair brown eyes

Trivia

Died 14 years after her father, Gordon MacRae, and 14 years before her mother, Sheila MacRae.
Daughter of Gordon MacRae and Sheila MacRae.
The civic-minded actress received many awards in her later career: a Vesta Award for Excellence in Journalism, a Bronze Halo Award from the Motion Picture Broadcast council, an Angel Award as producer of the year's most outstanding documentary, a U.S. Senate Certificate of Commendation and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, plus honors from Women in Film, the American Heart Association, the League of Women Voters, the American Cancer Society, the National Council on Alcoholism, and was named one of the city's outstanding women by L.A. mayor Tom Bradley in the 80s.
Sidelined as a singer during her "sweater girl" heyday. She cut two singles on her own, and two records with her TV "sisters" Lori Saunders and Linda Henning, calling themselves the "Girls of Petticoat Junction," including a cover of "Thirty Days Hath September".
Eldest of four children, her sister Heather MacRae was also an actress.