Priscilla Morrill

Priscilla Alden Morrill (June 4, 1927 – November 9, 1994) was an American actress born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, the only child of Joseph Henry Morrill and Reina Prichard Hadley. She trained at the Carnegie Institute and made her stage debut opposite John Carradine in Julius Caesar before embarking on a Broadway career that spanned from 1950 to 1967.

Morrill's Broadway debut came in The Relapse alongside Cyril Ritchard, and her subsequent stage credits included Tonight at 8:30, A Touch of the Poet, The Duchess of Malfi, and Love's Labor Lost. Her television career began with an appearance on the Outer Limits episode "The Man with the Power" in 1963, after which she became a frequent presence on American television as a guest star across numerous series and television movies.

Among her recurring television roles, Morrill appeared on Family, Bret Maverick, Santa Barbara, and Newhart. She is perhaps best known for playing Edie Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a role she reprised in 1973 and 1975. She also co-starred in two short-lived series, In the Beginning with McLean Stevenson and Baby Makes Five with Peter Scolari. Her additional guest appearances included the MacGyver season two episode "D.O.A.: MacGyver," in which she played Helen Wilson, and the Golden Girls episode "In a Bed of Rose's." Jean Stapleton noted in an interview for the Archive of American Television that Morrill served as her stand-in during the ninth-season All in the Family episode "A Girl Like Edith," in which Stapleton performed a dual role. Morrill's final onscreen appearance came in a 1992 episode of Coach.

Morrill died on November 9, 1994, of complications from a kidney infection at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 67. She had been married to Paul Bryson since 1954, and the couple had lived in Port Hueneme, California. She was cremated and her ashes scattered at sea.