Actress. Born Jean Marie Donnell she moved to Towson, Maryland with her parents and older sister when she was a toddler. She took dancing and piano lessons while in school and loved the "Mutt and Jeff" comic series so much that she adopted the name 'Jeff' as her nickname. After graduating in 1938 from Towson Senior High School, she studied for one semester at the Yale School of Drama where she met her first husband a much older drama teacher. Married at age 19, the two newlyweds created the Farragut Playhouse in Rye, New Hampshire where she was discovered by a talent agent from Columbia Pictures. She made her film debut in the 1942 movie "My Sister Eileen", and would go on to have a steady career in smaller roles in a number of films and television shows from then on until her death 40 years later. She gained notoriety in the 1960s with the role of 'Gidget's' mother 'Mrs. Lawrence' in the beach films "Gidget Goes Hawaiian" (1961) and "Gidget Goes To Rome" (1963). Shed had semi-recurring roles on the television series "The George Gobel Show", "Dr. Kildare", and "Julia". To later audiences she is remembered for playing the maid to the wealthy 'Quartermaines' on the television soap opera "General Hospital". After her first marriage ended in 1952, Jeff Donnell would marry and divorce three more times including one that lasted two years to actor Aldo Ray. In her last years she suffered from Addision's Disease and died in her sleep from a heart attack at the age of 66. Her body was cremated and per her request her ashes scattered in the Pacific.
Actress. Born Jean Marie Donnell she moved to Towson, Maryland with her parents and older sister when she was a toddler. She took dancing and piano lessons while in school and loved the "Mutt and Jeff" comic series so much that she adopted the name 'Jeff' as her nickname. After graduating in 1938 from Towson Senior High School, she studied for one semester at the Yale School of Drama where she met her first husband a much older drama teacher. Married at age 19, the two newlyweds created the Farragut Playhouse in Rye, New Hampshire where she was discovered by a talent agent from Columbia Pictures. She made her film debut in the 1942 movie "My Sister Eileen", and would go on to have a steady career in smaller roles in a number of films and television shows from then on until her death 40 years later. She gained notoriety in the 1960s with the role of 'Gidget's' mother 'Mrs. Lawrence' in the beach films "Gidget Goes Hawaiian" (1961) and "Gidget Goes To Rome" (1963). Shed had semi-recurring roles on the television series "The George Gobel Show", "Dr. Kildare", and "Julia". To later audiences she is remembered for playing the maid to the wealthy 'Quartermaines' on the television soap opera "General Hospital". After her first marriage ended in 1952, Jeff Donnell would marry and divorce three more times including one that lasted two years to actor Aldo Ray. In her last years she suffered from Addision's Disease and died in her sleep from a heart attack at the age of 66. Her body was cremated and per her request her ashes scattered in the Pacific.
Bio by: Kelt
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