Sheila Margaret MacRae (née Stephens; 24 September 1921 – 6 March 2014) was an English-born American actress, singer, and dancer.

Career

MacRae appeared in such films as ''

Caged In music, a barre chord (also spelled bar chord) is a type of chord on a guitar or other stringed instrument played by using one finger to press down multiple strings across a single fret of the fingerboard (like a bar pressing down the strin ...

'' (1950), '' Backfire'' (1950), and ''

Sex and the Single Girl ''Sex and the Single Girl'' is a 1962 non-fiction book by American writer Helen Gurley Brown, written as an advice book that encouraged women to become financially independent and experience sexual relationships before or without marriage. The ...

'' (1964). On television, MacRae played herself in an episode of '' I Love Lucy'', "The Fashion Show", in which she asks Lucy to participate in a Hollywood fashion show organized by

Don Loper Don Loper (April 29, 1906 – November 21, 1972) was an American costume and necktie designer, as well as a screenwriter, choreographer, associate producer, actor, and assistant to MGM musicals producer Arthur Freed. He began his career as a d ...

and featuring actors' wives as models. In her first continuing role on television, between 1966 and 1970, MacRae played Alice Kramden on 52 episodes of ''

The Jackie Gleason Show ''The Jackie Gleason Show'' is the name of a series of American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970, in various forms. ''Cavalcade of Stars'' Gleason's first variety series, which aired on the DuMon ...

'', taking over the role from Audrey Meadows. She went on to have her own short-lived television series (''The Sheila MacRae Show''), and to play Madelyn Richmond on the long-running soap opera ''

General Hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the longest-running American soap opera in production, and the second in American history after '' ...

''.

Personal life

Sheila Margaret Stephens was born in London in 1921, but evacuated with her parents to Long Island, New York in 1939, shortly before the onset of World War II. She finished high school when she was 15. She married actor and singer

Gordon MacRae Albert Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor, singer and radio/television host who appeared in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals '' Oklahoma!'' (1955) and ''Carousel'' (1956) and who p ...

in 1941; the couple divorced in 1967. They often appeared on the stage together in musicals such as ''Bells Are Ringing'' (in a 1964 production), and ''

Guys and Dolls ''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on " The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also b ...

'' (as Miss Adelaide, a character that she took to Broadway in the 1965 revival). They were the parents of two daughters, actresses Heather and Meredith MacRae, and two sons, William Gordon MacRae and Robert Bruce MacRae. One of Sheila's four children, Meredith, predeceased her. She later married Ronald Wayne, a television producer. MacRae became a naturalized United States citizen on 20 March 1959 in California.

Death

MacRae, a devout Christian Scientist, died suddenly on 6 March 2014, in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from po ...

, aged 92, at the

Lillian Booth Actor's Home The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund is an American assisted-living facility, in Englewood, New Jersey. It is operated by the Actors Fund, a nonprofit umbrella charitable organization that assists American entertainment and perform ...

. She had suffered from dementia, but was otherwise in good health and had been hospitalized for a minor surgical procedure, when her death came suddenly from natural causes, said her daughter, Heather. She was soon cremated.

References

External links

* * 1921 births 2014 deaths Actresses from London British emigrants to the United States American Christian Scientists American female dancers American women singers American film actresses American musical theatre actresses American soap opera actresses American television actresses English female dancers English women singers English film actresses English musical theatre actresses English soap opera actresses English television actresses Naturalized citizens of the United States {{England-screen-actor-stub