Kathleen Nolan

Kathleen Nolan, born Joycelyn Schrum on September 27, 1933, in St. Louis, Missouri, is an American actress and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. Her stage career began remarkably early: she made her first appearance on the showboat Goldenrod at 13 months old and continued performing on that showboat for 12 years. Her family maintained their own theatrical troupe, the Circle Stock Company, and also worked in tent shows. After graduating from high school in St. Louis, Nolan sang on a local radio station before pursuing a professional acting career.

Nolan's Broadway career spanned from 1954 to 1967. Her first major stage credit came when she was cast as Wendy in the original Broadway production of Peter Pan, the Styne-Comden-Green musical starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, which ran during the 1954–1955 season. She reprised the role in both the 1955 and 1956 live NBC-TV broadcasts of the production on Producers' Showcase. A 1960 television version of Peter Pan was produced but did not feature Nolan. The earlier black-and-white broadcasts in which she appeared are available for viewing by appointment at the Paley Center in New York, and both the 1955 and 1956 versions have been released on DVD through Video Artists International. Her path to the Peter Pan role had an unusual origin: while working as an usher at the Palace Theatre during Judy Garland's show, word reached Garland that Nolan could recreate her entire performance. Garland invited Nolan to perform the full show for her and subsequently recommended Nolan to the creators of Peter Pan. Nolan's second Broadway credit was the role of Amy in Love in E-Flat in 1967. In addition to her Broadway work, she performed extensively in summer and winter theater.

On television, Nolan made her debut on The Philco Television Playhouse and went on to play the teenaged cousin Liz in the 1953–1954 sitcom Jamie, starring Brandon deWilde. Her most prominent television role came on the sitcom The Real McCoys, where she played Kate McCoy, a housewife and the wife of Luke McCoy, portrayed by Richard Crenna, from 1957 to 1962. She received an Emmy nomination in 1959 for Best Supporting Actress in a Continuing Character in a Comedy Series for that role. During production of the series, on February 23, 1961, Nolan was thrown from a horse and injured, causing her to miss four months of work before returning for the episode broadcast on June 15, 1961. She departed the series before its final season in 1962–1963, at which point the show also moved from ABC to CBS and shifted its time slot from Thursday to Sunday evenings. Her character was written out as having died. Nolan also appeared on McHale's Navy, which led to her own spin-off series, Broadside, featuring a cast that included Edward Andrews, Dick Sargent, Sheila James, Lois Roberts, Joan Staley, George Furth, Arnold Stang, and Jimmy Boyd. Despite strong ratings, Universal Studios cancelled Broadside after one season.

Over the course of her career, Nolan appeared in numerous television series, including Gunsmoke, The Lloyd Bridges Show, The Millionaire, The Untouchables, Breaking Point, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Bionic Woman, The Rockford Files, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Quincy M.E., The Incredible Hulk, Bewitched, Burke's Law, The Big Valley, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Thriller, Magnum P.I., Murder She Wrote, Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal, Crossing Jordan, and All My Children, among others. In film, she appeared as Claudia, Burt Reynolds's love interest, in the 2017 film The Last Movie Star.

Beyond performing, Nolan served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1975 to 1979, making her the first woman to hold that office. She also served on SAG's board of directors for twelve years. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Nolan is a life member of the Actors Studio. In 1980, she received the Women in Film Crystal Award, which honors women whose endurance and excellence have helped expand the role of women in the entertainment industry.

In her personal life, Nolan married Richard Heckenkamp on November 4, 1962. The marriage ended in divorce on May 19, 1965. They had one son, Spencer Garrett.