Shirl Conway

Shirl Conway, born Shirley Elizabeth Crosman on June 13, 1916, in Franklinville, New York, was an American actress whose career spanned Broadway, television, and regional theater. She died on May 7, 2007. A great-niece of actress Henrietta Crosman, Conway earned a bachelor's degree in speech therapy from the University of Michigan in 1938 and worked as a John Robert Powers model before pursuing a career in performance.

Conway made her theatrical debut in Banjo Eyes in 1940, launching a Broadway career that extended through 1955. Her stage credits included the musical Something for the Boys, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and the 1955 musical comedy Plain and Fancy, in which she portrayed Ruth Winters. Her performance in Plain and Fancy earned her a Theatre World Award in 1955. She also toured in Auntie Mame, with the production traveling to capital cities throughout Australia.

Beyond the stage, Conway built a substantial television career. She appeared on Caesar's Hour, Route 66, and The Defenders, and took on the recurring role of Liz Thorpe in the CBS drama The Nurses, which ran from 1962 to 1965. Her work on that series earned her a 1963 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Series. Her film credits include The Strangers Came, released in 1949.

In 1972, Conway relocated to Washington, where she became a founding member of the Harstine Island Theatre Club and continued performing in productions there into her eighties. She was married twice, to engineer Gordon Larson and to actor Bill Johnson.