Беверли Маккинси: Звезда Дневных Сериалов

American actress

Beverlee McKinsey (August 9, 1935 – May 2, 2008) was an American actress. She is best known for her roles on daytime serials, including Iris Cory Carrington on Another World and the spin off series Texas from 1972 to 1981 and Alexandra Spaulding on Guiding Light from 1984 to 1992.

McKinsey was born Beverlee Magruder in McAlester, Oklahoma, on August 9, 1935. She was the daughter of Warren and Jewell Magruder of McAlester. McKinsey graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in Drama. Her professional career began in the New York theater. She understudied the leading role of newlywed Corie in the original Broadway production of Barefoot in the Park and was given the opportunity to perform the role opposite Robert Redford several times. She also co starred as Honey in the London production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill. She started her career in Off Broadway theater, often appearing alongside James Earl Jones and Doris Belack. McKinsey moved to Hollywood in the late 1960s, and after several appearances in episodic television shows, she appeared on daytime TV. She played Diana Martin, a reporter, on Love of Life, and was then cast in the contract role of Martha Donnelly/Julie Richards (1970–1971) on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing where she worked with future husband Berkeley Harris.

After a brief appearance as Emma Frame on Another World in May 1972, she so impressed then head writer Harding Lemay that he subsequently cast her in a drastically different role, from dowdy Emma to that of manipulative, scheming Iris Carrington. McKinsey played the role from December 1972 to July 1980. During much of her tenure on Another World, McKinsey's portrayal of Iris was part of an unconventional triangle the character was trying to break up her father Mackenzie Cory and his new wife, Rachel Davis Frame. McKinsey was made the star of the soap's spin off series, Texas, which debuted August 4, 1980. She remains one of three actors on daytime television to be given a star billing on a soap opera, the others being Rosemary Prinz of All My Children and How to Survive a Marriage, and Dana Andrews of Bright Promise. After McKinsey left the role of Iris in November 1981, NBC's Texas eventually lost one million viewers in the Nielsen ratings and was canceled in 1982. McKinsey received four Daytime Emmy nominations for her work as Iris.

After a hiatus from daytime, Gail Kobe, then executive producer of Guiding Light, lured McKinsey to Guiding Light, on CBS, in February 1984 in the newly created character of wealthy matriarch Baroness Alexandra Spaulding Von Halkein. The skilled McKinsey made certain that each of her characters were different. On Another World, Iris would do anything to get whatever she wanted. McKinsey played Iris' desire for her father's approval as the root of her need for power. Iris could be pathetic, sympathetic and a tyrant. As Guiding Light's Alexandra, she played the character's love for power and the desire to best her brother Alan Spaulding. And not to forget her longing for the love, affection, and approval of Lujack/Nick, her twin sons who were forcibly taken away from her at birth. Alexandra also cared deeply for her nephews, Phillip and Alan Michael. While Alexandra could be a snob (and ruthless) at times, she also could let her hair down, as when she went bowling with then beau H. B. Lewis (Larry Gates). Her ruthlessness was revealed when Alexandra married Roger Thorpe (Michael Zaslow) then discovered he was involved in an affair with the younger Mindy Lewis. McKinsey's performance during this storyline evolved from kitten like sweetness to a tiger based ferocity that had critics cheering. The scene where Alexandra humiliates Roger in public at the Country Club is now considered a Guiding Light classic scene. In 1992, McKinsey took advantage of an out in her contract and abruptly left GL. Soap journalist Michael Logan wrote about the turn of events:Interviewing McKinsey was a dream. There were never any "I just love everyone I work with" cliches. After she exited Guiding Light, McKinsey cited her "not very pleasant" work environment for one of the reasons she chose to leave the daytime serial. Looking at her contract, she discovered she could leave the show after every six month period. So McKinsey took advantage of the contract the day before her annual eight week vacation. McKinsey went on permanent vacation. McKinsey adamantly defended her choice to exit the show. Her bosses felt they had been bamboozled. "They're bent out of shape because, for once, somebody beat 'em at their own game," she said. "I had warned Jill (the show's then executive producer Jill Farren Phelps) – although I don't think she paid attention to me – that I was not happy. I was not happy with the story line." She had confided in Phelps previously that she was frustrated enough to quit, and was told in response that perhaps she should read her contract. McKinsey later quipped that perhaps it was Phelps and the rest of the Guiding Light production team who should have read the contract. "They didn't read the contract! I read it very closely. I knew every word. The next day, they were all combing over the contract. Somebody said, 'Maybe Beverlee's not familiar with the contract.' Well, of course she was! She wrote it, you bozos. She wrote it! I've had this out clause since 1986. I asked for it and it was P&G that determined how much notice they wanted me to give – and they chose eight weeks." In addition to her issues with storytelling, which she said would not have motivated her to leave if her working environment had been happier, McKinsey noted that acting had simply stopped being fun for her. "The hours just made me crazy. They were too long," she explained.

She was married three times, and had one son, Scott McKinsey from her marriage to Mark McKinsey. Her son is a director on the soap opera General Hospital (on which she briefly appeared in 1994). McKinsey married Berkeley Harris, a co star from Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, in 1971, and cared for him during his illness from terminal brain cancer prior to his death in 1984. In 1994, she made a brief appearance as Myrna Slaughter on General Hospital. In an interview, she said she took the role to qualify for her medical insurance, but otherwise adamantly considered herself retired from soaps from that moment in 1992 when she last left the set of Guiding Light. She had resisted all entreaties to return to daytime television. After some health issues, including a kidney transplant, McKinsey retired to Southern California and made few public appearances. Michael Logan famously described McKinsey as "[making] Greta Garbo look like a chatterbox!". Logan, TV Guide's soap columnist, once called McKinsey " the greatest actress ever to grace daytime drama."

Beverlee McKinsey died on May 2, 2008, at the Olympic Medical Center in Los Angeles, from complications due to a kidney transplant, which she had undergone in 1998.

Television Year Title Role Notes 1964 The Reporter Ann Episode: "Murder by Scandal" 1965 The Doctors and the Nurses Eileen Moore Episode: "Where There's Smoke" 1965 The Defenders Karen McDermott Episode: "Only a Child" 1965 Seaway Millie Episode: "Shipment from Marseilles" 1966 Hawk Mattie Mulroy Episode: "War of Silence" 1968 The Second Hundred Years Flo Episode: "Love on the Double" 1969 Mannix Carol Chase Episode 13 (season 2): "Death Run" 19691972 The Mod Squad Claudine EnsignEvelyn Ellis Episode: "A Hint of Darkness, a Hint of Light"Episode: "Another Final Game" 1969 The Virginian Abby Clayton Episode: "The Substitute" 1969 Hawaii Five O Jo Louise Mailer Episode: "The Joker's Wild, Man, Wild!" 1970 Death Valley Days Maud Gage Baum Episode: "The Wizard of Aberdeen" 1970 The F. B. I. Cathy Wheaton Episode: "Summer Terror" 1970–1971 Love Is a Many Splendored Thing Martha Donnelly / Julie Richards Unknown episodes 1971 Longstreet Sue Hazelton Episode: "A World of Perfect Complicity" 1971 Medical Center Beth Episode: "The Shattered Man" 1971 McMillan & Wife Laurie Forrest Episode: "Husbands, Wives and Killers" 19721972–1980 Another World Emma Frame OrdwayIris Wheeler Unknown episodes 1972 The Delphi Bureau Goldie Episode: "The Man Upstairs The Man Downstairs Project" 1973 Cannon Rita Bell Episode: "The Dead Samaritan" 1973 The ABC Afternoon Playbreak Lorraine Collins Episode: "The Other Woman" 1980–1981 Texas Iris Wheeler Unknown episodes 1983 The Demon Murder Case Charlotte Harris TV movie 1983 Remington Steele Alexis Vandermeer Episode: "Vintage Steele" 1984–1992 Guiding Light Alexandra Spaulding Unknown episodes (final television appearance) 1994 General Hospital Myrna Slaughter Unknown episodes

Theatre Year Title Role Venue 1962 P. S. 193 Miss Nichols Off Broadway 1963 The Love Nest Polly Seekfest Off Broadway 1963 Barefoot in the Park Corie Bratter (replacement) Broadway 1963 Man and Boy Carol Penn (understudy)Countess Antonescu (understudy) Broadway 1964 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Honey West End 1964 Dutchman Lula (replacement) Off Broadway 1974 Mert & Phil Lavoris Broadway