Alice Backes

During the 1950s, Backes appeared in over 20 television series, both in dramatic and comedic supporting roles. She secured her first two credited roles on television in 1952: as an office secretary on the series Gang Busters, in an episode titled "The Dennis Case"; and as Nurse Lenihan in "The Big Jump" on the televised version of Dragnet. Other television series in which Backes performed later in the 1950s include Mr. and Mrs. North, Medic, Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Studio 57, Startime, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, The Real McCoys, in 13 episodes of Bachelor Father, on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Lux Video Theatre, M Squad, Hennesey, Law of the Plainsman, Leave It to Beaver, and Gunsmoke. In 1962 Backes appeared as Coralee Darby on the TV western The Virginian in the episode titled "The Accomplice."

Backes' career continued through the 1970s. In those decades she either appeared for the first time or returned to perform in more than 60 sitcoms, Westerns, detective, courtroom and medical shows, anthology series, suspense programs, and made-for-television movies. In the 1963 episode of The Andy Griffith Show, "Ernest T. Joins the Army", she played Olive, the widowed waitress working at Mayberry's diner. In a memorable scene in that episode, Olive—after writing down Deputy Barney Fife's extensive breakfast order at the counter—clutches her notepad to her chest, beams with a motherly smile, and says to him, "It does my heart good to see a thin person eat."

While working as a notable "bit player" on some series in the 1960s and 1970s, Backes performed in more substantial roles as a supporting character in multiple episodes on other series such as The Rifleman (where her name was misspelled as Alice Backus), Wagon Train, The Detectives, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Hazel, Bewitched, Mayberry R.F.D., Here's Lucy, and Adam-12. In 1979 she also portrayed the character Kitty Rawlings in the NBC made-for-television movie The Best Place to Be, starring Donna Reed.[6]

By the 1980s, she began to curtail her acting commitments, although she still appeared on Barnaby Jones, Barney Miller, Knight Rider, Mr. Belvedere, and a few other popular series in that decade. Nine years after her 1988 appearance on Mr. Belvedere, she made her last credited performance on television as Harriet Jenkins in an episode of Columbo, titled "A Trace of Murder".[7]

She was cast in no fewer than a dozen feature films, continuing to display in those roles her ability to play a wide range of characters, such as a telephone operator, prison nurse, a farmer's wife, dentist, teacher, a newspaper gossip columnist, and women in other occupations. Her films include the science-fiction comedy The Twonky (1953), I Want to Live! (1958), It Started with a Kiss (1959), That Touch of Mink (1962), The Glory Guys (1965), The Third Day (1965), Snowball Express (1972), The Man from Independence (1974), Half a House (1975), Gable and Lombard (1976), and The Cat From Outer Space (1978).[8]

Outside of her acting assignments, Backes contributed her time and money to various charities, advocacy groups for children and wildlife welfare, and to professional organizations. She promoted the work and served on boards and committees of the United Nation's International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP), Whidbey Animals' Improvement Foundation (WAIF), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Theatre West, and Pioneer Broadcasters. Backes was also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and in 2008, the year after her death, SAG formally recognized her contributions to the industry at the Guild's televised 14th annual awards ceremony.