Diane Brewster

Diane Brewster (March 11, 1931 – November 12, 1991) was an American television actress most noted for playing three distinctively different roles in television series of the 1950s and 1960s: confidence trickster Samantha Crawford in the western Maverick;[1]:668-669 pretty young second-grade teacher Miss Canfield in Leave It to Beaver; and doomed wife Helen Kimble in The Fugitive.[1]

Diane Brewster
Brewster in The Dakotas (1963)
Born(1931-03-11)March 11, 1931
Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
DiedNovember 12, 1991(1991-11-12) (aged 60)
Studio City, California, U.S.
Years active1952–1986
Spouse(s)Jabe Z. Walker (married, 1959–1991; her death)
With James Garner in Maverick (1957)

Background

Brewster's father was Phillip Sloan Brewster, a trial lawyer in Missouri, and her mother was Geraldine Craddock. She was born in Kansas City, Missouri, went to Shawnee Mission High School and studied liberal arts at the University of Kansas at Lawrence. Following her sophomore year at the university, she took a job as a secretary at a radio station.[2]

Brewster was a direct descendant of Pilgrim Elder William Brewster, Governor of Plymouth Colony William Bradford, and 18th-century American poet and writer Martha Wadsworth Brewster.

She and her husband, Dr. Jabe Walker, an oral surgeon, had a son, Dean C. Walker (born March 29, 1960) and a daughter, Lynn D. Walker (born July 25, 1961). Both children were born in Los Angeles. Jabe Z. Walker died in February 2013.[3]

Career

Brewster's first job in entertainment was as MC for a teenage radio program. Work in commercials, fashion commentary, and even weather programs soon followed.[2]

In 1956, Brewster was the announcer on The Ina Ray Hutton Show, a variety program on NBC television.[1]:502

On Maverick, Brewster's character is a gorgeous gambling con artist who often affects a southern accent but is ultimately likable. Brewster first played the character in a 1956 episode of Cheyenne entitled "Dark Rider" before appearing opposite James Garner in the third episode of Maverick, "According to Hoyle". Her other Maverick appearances include "The Savage Hills" with Jack Kelly, "The Seventh Hand" with Garner, and the famous "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" with both Kelly and Garner. Writer/producer and series creator Roy Huggins had given her character his mother's maiden name.

Brewster played Miss Canfield on Leave It to Beaver for the first season on CBS in 1957-1958 and for the 1980s television revivals. Brewster appeared in the show's pilot, "It's a Small World," as Miss Simms, a secretary with a dairy company, and in four regular season episodes as Miss Canfield. In Episode 1 she appears in the credits as "Diana Brewster", a mistake which was corrected in her next appearance in Episode 8. Brewster was replaced by Sue Randall as "Miss Landers" on the second season of Leave It to Beaver.[4]

In 1957, she co-starred with George Montgomery in the western film Black Patch, playing his former and future love interest. On January 31, 1959, Brewster played Lisa Caldwell in the episode "Runaway Train" of NBC's Cimarron City western television series.[5]

Also in 1959, Brewster appeared in The Young Philadelphians playing the mother of Paul Newman's character. (Newman was six years her senior.) She made almost fifty appearances in various other television and film roles, including episodes of Crusader, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Tombstone Territory, Tales of Wells Fargo (as "Dr Alice" S2/E25) and Harbor Was Command. In 1959, she played the girlfriend of Ronald Reagan's character in an installment of the General Electric Theatre anthology series, "Nobody's Child", and portrayed Marian Dell in the episode "Law of the Badlands" of the syndicated series Frontier Doctor starring Rex Allen.[4]

In 1960, Brewster had a starring role as Wilhelmina "Steamboat Willy" Vanderveer in The Islanders,[1]:512-513 an hour-long adventure series set in the South Pacific, with William Reynolds and James Philbrook. That same year, she also portrayed the titular role in "The Lita Foladaire Story," an episode of Wagon Train with Ward Bond and silent film star Evelyn Brent, in which Brewster's character had been killed before the start of the show, with her sections of the story posthumously depicted in flashbacks.[4]

Brewster subsequently guest starred on Empire and in The Rifleman episode, "The Jealous Man" in 1962; on The Dakotas in 1963; on the 1963 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Potted Planter", and in the premiere episode of Kentucky Jones (1964). Brewster appeared several times in flashbacks, as the murdered wife Helen Kimble in The Fugitive. She appeared in two episodes of Death Valley Days, in a 1966 episode of Family Affair, and in an installment of Ironside (1968) before retiring. She reappeared in four episodes of The New Leave It to Beaver.[4]

Death

Diane Brewster died from heart failure in 1991, aged 60.[6]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1955Lucy GallantSalesgirlUncredited
1955Sincerely YoursGirl at Carnegie Hall(scenes deleted)
1957Pharaoh's CurseSylvia Quentin
1957The OklahomanElizaUncredited
1957Courage of Black BeautyAnn Rowden
1957Black PatchHelen Danner
1957The Invisible BoyMary Merrinoe
1958Quantrill's RaidersSue
1958Torpedo RunJane Doyle
1958Tombstone Territory s1 ep33Julie Dixon
1959The Man in the NetVickie Carey
1959King of the Wild StallionsMartha Morse
1959The Young PhiladelphiansKate Judson Lawrence

References
  1. Terrace, Vincent (January 10, 2014). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. pp. 370–371. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  2. "Diane Brewster In 'Islanders' ABC-TV Sunday". The Titusville Herald. October 1, 1960. p. 7. Retrieved June 10, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Diane Brewster profile". Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  4. Diane Brewster at IMDb
  5. "Cimarron City". ctva.biz. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved September 7, 2012.
  6. "Diane Brewster; Film, TV Actress in 1950s, '60s". Los Angeles Times. November 18, 1991. Archived from the original on June 10, 2017. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
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