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Madlyn Rhue

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Madlyn Rhue
Rhue in 1961
Born
Madeline Roche

(1935-10-03)October 3, 1935
Washington, D.C., U.S.
DiedDecember 16, 2003(2003-12-16) (aged 68)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1958–1996
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1962; div. 1970)​

Madlyn Soloman Rhue (née Madeline Roche),[1] (October 3, 1935 – December 16, 2003) was an American film and television actress.

Early life and education

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Rhue was born in Washington, D.C.,[2] graduated from Los Angeles High School, and studied drama at Los Angeles City College.[3]

Entertainment career

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Rhue debuted in show business at age 17 as a dancer at the Copacabana night club in New York City.[4] At that time she decided to create a stage name for herself by adapting the title of the film 13 Rue Madeleine (1947).[1] From the 1950s to the 1990s, she appeared in some 20 films, including Operation Petticoat (1959); The Ladies Man (1961); A Majority of One (1961); It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963); Kenner (1969); and Stand Up and Be Counted (1972).

Rhue guest-starred in dozens of television series, beginning with Cheyenne (1955). She played Ricardo Montalbán's wife in a 1960 episode of Bonanza, "Day of Reckoning". That year, she also played the title role of Marian Ames in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Wayward Wife" and appeared in Route 66 Season 3 Episode 9.

Later in the 1960s, her appearances included Stagecoach West (1961), Rawhide (1963), The Defenders (1965) in "Whipping Boy" as Christine Knox and the classic Star Trek episode "Space Seed" (1967) where she once again appeared opposite Ricardo Montalbán (who played Khan Noonien Singh) playing his love interest Lt. Marla McGivers.[5]

Rhue played regulars Marjorie Grant in Bracken's World (1969–70)[6] and Hilary Madison in Executive Suite (1976–77).[6]: 316  Other guest appearances included Have Gun – Will Travel, Gunsmoke (S5E15). "Tag You're It". The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (as Consuela Sandino in episode "The Dark Pool"), Route 66 (as Ara Rados in the episode, "Every Father's Daughter"), The Untouchables, The Rebel, Perry Mason, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive, Ironside, The Wild Wild West, Mannix, Hawaii Five-O, Mission: Impossible, Longstreet, Fantasy Island, Charlie's Angels (as Georgia in "Angels on the Street" in 1979) and Fame (as Angela Schwartz). She also appeared in the television movie Goldie and the Boxer, and made appearances on the game show Match Game during 1974–1976.

In the early 1960s, Rhue was injured in an automobile accident that resulted in lost teeth and a cut lower lip. She was hospitalized before returning to acting.[7]

In 1962, Rhue married actor Tony Young[8][9] and acted with him in the Western He Rides Tall. They divorced in 1970.[8]

Multiple sclerosis and later entertainment career

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In 1977, Rhue was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.[3] She continued to work, including a role in Days of Our Lives, but by 1985, Rhue's legs had become so weak from the multiple sclerosis that she could only get around by wheelchair.[3] Once becoming a wheelchair user, Rhue described feelings of fear and anxiety over being unable to land on-screen work in the entertainment industry for a period of 11 months. Regarding the matter, she was quoted as stating, "It became apparent that I would have to invent a giant accident to explain the wheelchair or start telling the truth."[3]

Despite being reliant on a wheelchair, Rhue managed to resume her entertainment career and was praised by media outlets for not allowing her health issues to disrupt her career. She played intermittent roles that did not require her to walk or stand, sometimes incorporating the wheelchair as part of the character. For example, she played a wheelchair-using ballistics expert on the CBS police-based legal drama, Houston Knights.[3] She also played a judge role in the scripted court show, Trial by Jury, lasting only the 1989–90 television season. She performed the role in a wheelchair, unseen to viewers as she presided from the judge's bench. Her part as a female judge was uncharacteristic for court shows, the genre dominated by men performing the judge role to that point.[1] She also performed a recurring role in Murder, She Wrote, said to be her last television role.[3][10] Angela Lansbury created a role for her when she heard that Rhue was at risk of losing her health insurance because she could no longer work enough hours.[3]

Contrary to rumors, her illness apparently had nothing to do with her not reprising the Star Trek role of Lt. Marla McGivers in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). At the time of the film's production start in late 1981, Rhue was still mobile and appearing in television roles, but hiding her diagnosis for fear of it impacting her career. Director Nicholas Meyer stated that he wrote McGivers out of his drafts of the film (with a line referencing the character's death) in order to give the Khan character additional motivation for seeking vengeance.[11]

In 1991, in her last movie, she played a wheelchair-using character in the made for television thriller A Mother's Justice.

Death

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Rhue eventually became completely incapacitated by multiple sclerosis and died from pneumonia at the age of 68 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills in Los Angeles, California.[3]

Religion and politics

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Rhue adhered to Judaism outside of her marriage to Young, during which she partook in Catholicism.[12] She was also a registered Republican who supported the administrations of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush.[12]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
1958 The Kiss Girl in Park Short
1959 The Miracle Nun who warns Teresa about her singing love songs Uncredited
1959 Operation Petticoat Lieutenant Reid, NC, USAR
1961 The Ladies Man Miss Intellect
1961 A Majority of One Alice Black
1962 Escape from Zahrain Laila
1963 It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World Secretary Schwartz
1964 He Rides Tall Ellie Daniels
1969 Kenner Anasuya
1972 Stand Up and Be Counted Gloria Seagar

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
1958 The Court of Last Resort Janice Lowell Season 1 Episode 22: "The Stephen Lowell Case"
1958 Whirlybirds Phyllis Bolling Season 2 Episode 10: "Seven Orchids"
1958–1959 Have Gun - Will Travel Jean Nelson / Elizabeth DeVries 2 episodes
1959 Mike Hammer Linda Season 2 Episode 5: "Aces and Eights"
1959 The Third Man Hassani Season 1 Episode 20: "Five Hours to Kill"
1959 Black Saddle Julie Reynolds Season 1 Episode 19: "Client: Reynolds"
1959 M Squad Loretta Danzig Season 2 Episode 40: "Death Is a Clock"
1959 Riverboat Cassie Baird Season 1 Episode 3: "About Roger Mowbray"
1959 Cheyenne Ellen Lassiter Season 4 Episode 6: "Prisoner of Moon Mesa"
1959 Tightrope! Judy Brannen Season 1 Episode 10: "The Money Fight"
1959 The Rebel Beth Lassiter Season 1 Episode 10: "In Memoriam"
1959 Tales of Wells Fargo Linda Season 4 Episode 13: "Woman with a Gun"
1959 Gunsmoke Rusty Season 5 Episode 15: "Tag, You're It"
1959 Laramie Eve Season 1 Episode 16: "The Pass"
1959 Special Agent 7 Mary Season 1 Episode 10: "The Trap"
1959–1960 Bourbon Street Beat Lenore Lamartine / Nita Roulas 2 episodes
1960 Hotel de Paree Sarah Carter Season 1 Episode 15: "Sundance Goes To Kill"
1960 Perry Mason Marian Ames Season 3 Episode 13: "The Case of the Wayward Wife"
1960 The Troubleshooters Rhoda Spencer Season 1 Episode 21: "Incident at Rain Mountain"
1960 The Alaskans Fay Loomis Season 1 Episode 24: "Disaster at Gold Hill"
1960 Pony Express Ellen Fairchild Season 1 Episode 3: "The Last Mile"
1960 Outlaws Rose Dabney Season 1 Episode 2: "Ballad for a Badman"
1960 Michael Shayne Agnes Musgrave Season 1 Episode 2: "A Night with Nora"
1960 The Roaring 20's Julie Fiore Season 1 Episode 1: "Burnett's Woman"
1960 Bonanza Hatoya Season 2 Episode 7: "Day of Reckoning"
1960 Sugarfoot Nora Sutton Season 4 Episode 2: "A Noose for Nora"
1960 Hong Kong Lola Season 1 Episode 5: "The Jade Empress"
1960 Checkmate Irene Thorne Season 1 Episode 7: "Target: Tycoon"
1960 General Electric Theater Deborah Season 9 Episode 14: "The Other Wise Man"
1960 The Untouchables Chickie Bernstein / Sally Karpeles 2 episodes
1960 The Westerner Carla Season 1 Episode 13: "The Painting"
1961 Stagecoach West Maria Lorenz Season 1 Episode 26: "Fort Wyatt Crossing"
1961 Adventures in Paradise Sherry Drake Season 3 Episode 9: "The Assassins"
1961 Bus Stop Gloria White Season 1 Episode 14: "Jaws of Darkness"
1962 Cain's Hundred Margarita Safa Season 1 Episode 28: "Women of Silure"
1962 Route 66 Ara Rados Season 3 Episode 9: "Every Father's Daughter"
1963 The Nurses Rhoda Green Season 1 Episode 24: "A Question of Mercy"
1963 77 Sunset Strip Mrs. Knight Season 5 Episode 25: "Flight 307"
1963 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Consuela Sandino Season 1 Episode 29: "The Dark Pool"
1963 Rawhide Inez Maldenado Season 5 Episode 29: "Incident at Rio Doloroso"
1963 Kraft Mystery Theater Girl Season 3 Episode 15: "Man Without a Witness"
1963 Arrest and Trial Christina Ortega Season 1 Episode 3: "Tears from a Silver Dipper"
1963 The Lieutenant Jackie Madian Season 1 Episode 14: "The Alien"
1963–1971 The Virginian Marie Valonne / Frankie Grace 2 episodes
1964 Espionage Susan Wilder Season 1 Episode 16: "We the Hunted"
1964 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Lillian Season 1 Episode 24: "The Game with Glass Pieces"
1964–1966 The Fugitive Sophie / Liz Roland 2 episodes
1964–1967 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Clara Valder / Angela Abaca 2 episodes
1965 Daniel Boone Ester Moncour Season 1 Episode 13: "The Hostages"
1965 The Defenders Christine Knox Season 4 Episode 14: "Whipping Boy"
1965 Slattery's People Lupe Leon Season 1 Episode 17: "Question: Does Nero Still at Ringside Sit?"
1965 Burke's Law Manicurist (uncredited) Season 3 Episode 3: "Steam Heat"
1965 I Spy Jean Season 1 Episode 8: "The Time of the Knife"
1965 A Man Called Shenandoah Ann Clayton Season 1 Episode 12: "A Special Talent for Killing"
1966 Laredo Dona Dolores Season 1 Episode 29: "The Would-Be Gentleman of Laredo"
1966 Iron Horse Angela Burnett Season 1 Episode 10: "The Man from New Chicago"
1967 Star Trek Lt. Marla McGivers Episode: "Space Seed"
1967 Captain Nice Amanda Woolf Season 1 Episode 10: "Who's Afraid of Amanda Woolf?"
1967 The Wild Wild West Carlotta Waters Season 3 Episode 1: "The Night of the Bubbling Death"
1967 Stranger on the Run Alma Britten TV Movie
1967–1974 Ironside Margaret Blackwell / Betty Julian / Kate Dunhill / Amy Frost 4 episodes
1968 Cowboy in Africa Christie Blaine Season 1 Episode 23: "Work of Art"
1968 It Takes a Thief Melinda Garcia Season 2 Episode 1: "One Night on Soledade"
1968 The Guns of Will Sonnett Marion Hagger Season 2 Episode 6: "The Straw Man"
1969–1970 Bracken's World Majorie Grant 27 episodes (Recurring role)
1969–1975 Mannix Laura Giles / Marcia Inman / Nedda Kordic 3 episodes
1970 Land of the Giants Bertha Fry Season 2 Episode 20: "The Deadly Dart"
1970–1973 Hawaii Five-O (1) Madge
(2) June Fleming		 (1) Season 3 Episode 13: "The Payoff" (1970)
(2) Season 5 Episode 17: "Here Today... Gone Tonight" (1973)
1971 The Courtship of Eddie's Father Dolores Carew Season 3 Episode 7: "Two's Company"
1971 Longstreet Kim Anderson Season 1 Episode 11: "This Little Piggy Went to Marquette"
1972 The Manhunter Teresa Taylor TV Movie
1972 Banacek Holly Allencamp Season 1 Episode 1: "Let's Hear It for a Living Legend"
1972 Mission: Impossible Adele Cooper Season 7 Episode 10: "Ultimatum"
1972 Ghost Story Georgia Strauss Season 1 Episode 12: "Creatures of the Canyon"
1973 Poor Devil Frances Emerson TV Movie
1973 Barnaby Jones Myra Stayley Season 2 Episode 8: "The Deadly Prize"
1973 Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law Neva Boland Season 3 Episode 10: "Snatches of a Crazy Song"
1974 The Sex Symbol Joy Hudson TV Movie
1974 Kolchak: The Night Stalker Maria Season 1 Episode 6: "Firefall"
1974–1976 Cannon Gloria Norlan / Phyllis Behr 2 episodes
1975 Police Story Sue Ellen Season 2 Episode 13: "Headhunter"
1975 Baretta Sharon Fowler Season 1 Episode 1: "He'll Never See Daylight"
1975 Petrocelli Ellen Walker Season 1 Episode 17: "A Lonely Victim"
1975 Medical Story Mrs. Doran TV Movie
1975–1977 Switch Evelynn Thurston / Donna Mendarez 2 episodes
1976 Starsky and Hutch Belinda Williams Season 1 Episode 17: "Losing Streak"
1976 The Streets of San Francisco Crystal Season 4 Episode 20: "Clown of Death"
1976–1977 Executive Suite Hilary Mason/Madison Series regular
1977 We've Got Each Other Millie Season 1 Episode 7: "A Space Odyssey"
1978 The Tony Randall Show Evelyn Season 2 Episode 19: "Phantom of the Poconos"
1979 The Best Place to Be Emily Stockwood TV Movie
1979 Charlie's Angels Georgia Season 4 Episode 7: "Angels on the Street"
1979 Hart to Hart Charlotte Fleming Season 1 Episode 8: "Max in Love"
1979 Goldie and the Boxer Marsha TV Movie
1979–1983 CHiPs Madlyn Rhue (uncredited) / Mildred Sloane 3 episodes
1980 Quincy M.E. Laura Stedman Season 5 Episode 16: "Unhappy Hour"
1981 Dynasty Lucy 2 episodes
1981 Diff'rent Strokes Tina Claremont Season 4 Episode 3: "The Model"
1982 Fantasies Rebecca TV Movie
1982 Fantasy Island Lillie Langtry Season 6 Episode 3: "The Perfect Gentleman/Legend"
1982 Games Mother Never Taught You TV Movie
1982–1984 Days of Our Lives Daphne DiMera 66 episodes
1982–1985 Fame Mrs. Angela Schwartz 8 episodes
1986 Bridges to Cross Carolyn Ryan Series regular
1987 L.A. Law Judge Wyatt (uncredited) Season 2 Episode 3: "Cannon of Ethics"
1987–1988 Houston Knights Annie Hartung 18 episodes (Recurring role)
1989 Trial by Jury Judge Season 1 Episode 1: "Episode #1.1"
1989-1996 Murder, She Wrote (1) Doris West
(2) (3) (4) (5) Jean O'Neill		 (1) Season 6 Episode 2: "Seal of the Confessional" (1989)
(2) Season 10 Episode 3: "The Legacy of Borbey House" (1993)
(3) Season 10 Episode 21: "Wheel of Death" (1994)
(4) Season 12 Episode 5: "Home Care" (1995)
(5) Season 12 Episode 14: "Murder on Tempo" (1996)
1991 A Mother's Justice Lois Greenfield TV Movie

References

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  1. ^ a b c Buck, Jerry (September 28, 1989). "Actress Madlyn Rhue doesn't let MS slow her". Springfield News-Leader. Associated Press. p. 18. Retrieved July 28, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  2. ^ "Madlyn Rhue, 68, Television Actress". The New York Times. Associated Press. December 20, 2003. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h McLellan, Dennis (December 18, 2003). "Madlyn Rhue, 68; TV Actress Kept Working With Multiple Sclerosis". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
  4. ^ Rosenbert, Howard (August 14, 1987). "Stricken with MS, Madlyn Rhue still a working actress". Los Angeles Times. p. 72. Archived from the original on October 26, 2022. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  5. ^ DeCandido, Keith (May 23, 2017). "Star Trek The Original Series Rewatch: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". Tor.com-Blog. Tor.com. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
  7. ^ Glazer, Barney (August 11, 1961). "Barney Glazer's Hollywood". Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle. p. 2. Retrieved July 28, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  8. ^ a b Lentz, Harris M. III (2004). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2003: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. pp. 325–326. ISBN 978-0-7864-1756-8. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  9. ^ "Madlyn Rhue". Variety. December 20, 2003. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  10. ^ Rhue, Madlyn (November 16, 1987). "After Years of Lying, Actress Madlyn Rhue Reveals Truth About Her Multiple Sclerosis". People. Vol. 28, no. 20. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
  11. ^ "Trek II Myths Rhue the Day". FACT TREK. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Lowe, Skip E. (1996), An Interview With Madlyn Rhue
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