Barbara Perry

Barbara Perry (June 22, 1921 – May 5, 2019) was an American actress, singer, dancer, and book writer born in Norfolk, Virginia. Her career in film and television spanned 84 years, beginning in 1933 and extending to 2017, alongside a Broadway presence that ran from 1946 to 1981.

Perry's screen career began in childhood with an appearance in Counsellor at Law in 1933, followed by a small role in The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 1935. Decades later, she became a recognizable television presence, appearing in series including Perry Mason, The Donna Reed Show, The Andy Griffith Show, My Three Sons, and The Dick Van Dyke Show, where she portrayed Buddy Sorrell's wife Pickles before Joan Shawlee took over the role. She also played Thelma Brockwood on The Hathaways. Her final known screen credit came in 2017 with the television series Baskets.

On Broadway, Perry made her debut in 1946 with two productions: Swan Song and If the Shoe Fits. She returned to Broadway in 1950, playing Mrs. Larry in Happy as Larry. In 1957, she appeared in the musical Rumple, taking on the role of Anna. Between her mid-1950s and early-1960s work, Perry studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and while in England performed in Zip Goes a Million alongside George Formby, Warde Donovan, and Sara Gregory at the Hippodrome and Palace Theatres. In 1981, Perry both wrote and performed in Passionate Ladies, a one-woman show staged at the Bijou Theatre on Broadway.

Perry was first married to Bennett Warren James from 1953 to 1965; the marriage ended in divorce and produced one daughter. On April 14, 1967, she married animator Art Babbitt in Hollywood, California. That marriage lasted until Babbitt's death in 1992, and the couple had no children together. Perry died on May 5, 2019, in Los Angeles at the age of 97.