Jeanne Bates

Jeanne Bates (May 21, 1918 – November 28, 2007) was an American actress whose career spanned radio, film, television, and Broadway. Born in Berkeley, California, she began performing while a student at San Mateo Junior College, taking on roles in radio soap operas produced in San Francisco. She went on to hold the lead role on the radio mystery series Whodunit, for which she also supplied the signature scream. The show was later revived under the title Murder Will Out. In 1943, Bates married Lew X. Lansworth, the writer of Whodunit, and remained married to him until his death in 1981. Her radio work extended to other programs as well, including appearances on Gunsmoke in episodes broadcast in December 1952 and October 1960.

A contract with Columbia Pictures in 1942 launched Bates into film work. Her screen debut came in 1943 with the Boston Blackie mystery The Chance of a Lifetime. That same year she played Bela Lugosi's first victim in The Return of the Vampire and portrayed Diana Palmer in The Phantom serial. Subsequent film roles included Anne Winson in The Soul of a Monster (1944), Victoria in The Mask of Diijon (1946), and a minor part in Death of a Salesman (1951). She appeared as Agnes in Back from the Dead (1957) and later in The Strangler (1964) and Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came (1970). Bates also appeared in Shadows in the Night (1946), a further example of her work in the horror and noir genres that defined much of her film output during that period.

Television became a consistent venue for Bates beginning in the 1950s. Her credits included the syndicated western The Range Rider, as well as NBC series such as Buckskin, Riverboat, and Peter Gunn. She appeared in a 1956 episode of The Lone Ranger titled "The Cross of Santo Domingo" and in the series premiere of the syndicated drama Rescue 8, which aired September 23, 1958. That same year she made three appearances on Perry Mason, most notably as Jean Strague in "The Case of the Buried Clock." In 1960, she was cast as Mrs. Grandsoir in the Bourbon Street Beat episode "Mrs. Viner Vanishes." She also guest starred in five episodes of The Restless Gun alongside John Payne and appeared as Mrs. Wayne in the Rawhide episode "Incident of the Tinkers Dam." From 1961 to 1966, Bates portrayed Nurse Wills on the ABC medical drama Ben Casey, a role for which she became particularly well known.

A collaboration with director David Lynch marked a notable chapter in Bates's later career. She appeared in Lynch's Eraserhead (1977) as Mrs. X and returned to work with him on Mulholland Drive (2001), which became her final film credit. Between those two Lynch projects, she took on additional film roles, including the title character in Mom (1991), opposite Brion James, Mark Thomas Miller, and Stella Stevens, as well as small parts in Die Hard 2 (1990), Grand Canyon (1991), and Dream Lover (1994).

In July 1982, Bates brought her career to the Broadway stage, appearing as Mrs. Bixby in a production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. In addition to her performing work, she also taught acting. Bates died of breast cancer on November 28, 2007, at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, at the age of 89. Her remains are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.