Barbara Pepper

Barbara Pepper, born Marion Pepper on May 31, 1915, in New York City, was an American actress whose career spanned stage, film, television, and radio. The daughter of actor David Mitchell "Dave" Pepper and his wife Harrietta S. Pepper, she began her professional life in show business at age 16 with the Goldwyn Girls, a musical stock company. It was during this period, while working on Eddie Cantor's Roman Scandals in 1933, that she first met Lucille Ball, a friendship that would last throughout her life. Her Broadway work dates to 1932 and 1933, and includes an appearance in the revue George White's Music Hall Varieties in 1932.

Between 1937 and 1943, Pepper appeared in 43 films, the majority in supporting or minor roles. Among the exceptions were lead parts in two 1936 feature films, The Rogues' Tavern and Mummy's Boys. In later years she took small roles in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and My Fair Lady (1964), and also worked in radio. In 1943 she married actor Craig Reynolds, born Harold Hugh Enfield, and the couple had two sons. Reynolds died in 1949 in a motorcycle accident in California, leaving Pepper to raise their children on her own. She did not remarry.

During the 1950s, following a significant weight gain, Pepper's screen work shifted primarily to character parts on television. She made multiple appearances on I Love Lucy, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, The Jack Benny Program, and Petticoat Junction. She appeared four times on Perry Mason, one of those appearances being the role of Martha Dale, mother of the title character, in the 1957 episode "The Case of the Vagabond Vixen." That same year she guest-starred in the Mr. Adams and Eve episode "The Diet," credited as "Fat Woman." In 1958 she played "Boxcar Annie" in the Tales of Wells Fargo episode "Butch Cassidy," and in 1959 she appeared as Mary Devlin in "The Telegraph Story" on The Texan.

Despite her long association with Lucille Ball, Pepper was passed over for the role of Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy, reportedly due to concerns about her alcohol addiction. Because William Frawley, cast as Fred Mertz, was also known to have an alcohol problem, casting directors chose not to place two performers with that history in the same production.

Pepper is perhaps most widely remembered for her television work on Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. She first appeared as Ruth Ziffel in the Petticoat Junction episode "Genghis Keane" in 1964, and subsequently played Doris Ziffel on Green Acres from 1965 to 1968, departing the series due to health problems. Actress Fran Ryan took over the role, and Green Acres continued until 1971. Pepper's final screen appearance came in Hook, Line & Sinker (1969), in which she played Jerry Lewis's secretary. She died of a coronary thrombosis on July 18, 1969, in Panorama City, California, at the age of 54.