[Deathwatch] Madlyn Rhue, actress, 68

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

TV actress appeared in 'Murder, She Wrote,' many other shows
Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Madlyn Rhue, whose acting career spanned three decades and scores of TV
appearances on shows ranging from "Perry Mason" to "Murder, She Wrote,"
has died. She was 68.

Rhue, who had multiple sclerosis, died Tuesday from pneumonia and heart
failure at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital, where she
had lived since 1998, the hospital said.

"She was probably the most generous, loving and funny human being that
I've ever known," said her longtime friend, Faye Mayo.

"She had such a positive attitude and she loved life and being alive so
much that she put up with an awful lot of pain and suffering just to
stay around."

Born in Washington, D.C., Rhue moved as a teenager to Los Angeles and
later went to New York to pursue acting. At one point, she was a
showgirl at the famed Latin Quarter nightclub, Mayo said.

Rhue made her television debut in the late 1950s on shows such as "Have
Gun_Will Travel" "Cheyenne" and "Gunsmoke."

She went on to appear scores of times as a guest or supporting actress
as well as playing small parts in movies such as 1959's "Operation
Petticoat" and 1963's "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."

She had recurring roles in the TV series "Bracken's World," "Houston
Knights" and "Days of Our Lives" and as the Cabot Cove librarian in
"Murder, She Wrote."

"She was a good, solid, working character actress, which was the way
she liked to think of herself," Mayo said. "She could play anything
from a hooker to a corporate executive and anything in between."

In the last two decades, she began to take painting lessons and became
good enough that her art was exhibited at some group shows, Mayo said.

She was married to actor Tony Young but they divorced. He died last
year.

Rhue is survived by a sister, Carol. Funeral services will be private.