Enid Markey

Enid Markey was born on February 22, 1894, in Dillon, Colorado, and received her education at a boarding school in Denver. An actress whose work encompassed theatre, film, radio, and television, Markey built a career that extended from the early 1900s through the late 1960s, spanning more than five decades.

Markey began her professional life performing on stage and in vaudeville before transitioning to motion pictures. Her first film appearance came in The Fortunes of War in 1911. During the 1914 production of The Wrath of the Gods, while working as a leading lady with the New York Motion Picture Company, she was nearly asphyxiated when smoke and fumes engulfed her during a scene depicting a lava flow destroying a village, though she had recovered from the incident by May of that year. Her most historically significant film work came in 1918, when she became the first actress to portray Jane, Tarzan's companion and eventual wife, appearing in that role twice alongside Elmo Lincoln in Tarzan of the Apes and The Romance of Tarzan.

Following those films, Markey redirected her focus toward the stage, later stating that her motivation was a desire to learn how to act. Her Broadway career ran from 1919 to 1967, during which she appeared in 29 plays. Her first Broadway production was Up in Mabel's Room in 1919, and her final appearance on the Broadway stage came with What Did We Do Wrong? in 1967. Among her many Broadway credits were Find Daddy, Something to Brag About, Barnum Was Right, The Exciters, and Bluffing Bluffers.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Markey established a presence in television, appearing in multiple series including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and The Defenders. She had two separate appearances in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In the 1960–1961 television season, she held a regular role in the sitcom Bringing Up Buddy, playing Aunt Violet Flower, one of two spinster aunts who share their home with their bachelor stockbroker nephew, Buddy Flower, portrayed by Frank Aletter; Doro Merande played the other aunt. In 1963, Markey guest-starred on The Andy Griffith Show in the episode "Up in Barney's Room," portraying Mrs. Mendelbright, the landlady of Barney Fife. In 1966, she appeared on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. in the episode "Grandma Pyle: Fortune Teller," playing the character Grandma Pyle. Her final screen appearance was in the 1968 film The Boston Strangler.

In her personal life, Markey married George W. Cobb, an executive at the American Can Company, in 1942. He died in 1948. On November 13, 1981, while visiting friends on Long Island, New York, Markey suffered a heart attack and was admitted to South Side Hospital in Bay Shore, New York. She died there two days later, on November 15, 1981, at the age of 87.