Teddi Sherman

Theodora Lois Sherman, born April 1, 1921, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was an American actress, television writer, and screenwriter who worked under both the stage name Gayle Lord and the credit Lois Sherman. The daughter of producer Harry Sherman and Lillian Mazur, she died on January 16, 2019, at the age of 97.

Sherman's childhood was spent traveling across the country before she attended a finishing school on the East Coast. She subsequently trained as an actress at the Pasadena Playhouse for four years. In the early 1940s she relocated to Hollywood, where her father had established himself as a successful producer through the Hopalong Cassidy film series. Preferring not to trade on his reputation, she adopted the stage name Gayle Lord. On one occasion, however, while her father was away, she auditioned for a role in a Hopalong Cassidy production and won the part; upon his return, he required her to perform under her real name.

In 1943, Sherman appeared on Broadway in the farce Slightly Married. That same year she also had film roles in The Woman of the Town and Colt Comrades. She went on to appear in additional films her father produced, including Four Faces West in 1948, Tennessee's Partner and The Man from Bitter Ridge in 1955, 10 Seconds to Hell in 1959, 4 for Texas in 1963, and Rage in 1966.

Finding greater satisfaction in writing than in performing, Sherman was named assistant story editor at her father's independent production studio, Enterprise Pictures, in 1946. In that capacity she wrote approximately half a dozen Westerns, among them the Gary Cooper film Four Faces West, and collaborated on multiple scripts with writer Graham Baker. Her television writing credits span more than a decade and include episodes of The Virginian, The Rifleman, Wagon Train, Ben Casey, Mannix, and Then Came Bronson, among numerous other series.

In her personal life, Sherman was reportedly engaged to actor Rod Cameron in the early 1940s, though the relationship did not result in marriage. A later engagement to Vernon Clark, her father's assistant, was also called off. She married Allan Baylin in 1957, and the couple had one daughter together.