[Deathwatch] Mary Stuart, Actress, 75

Tue, 5 Mar 2002 20:21:24 -0800 (PST)

Soap opera star Mary Stuart dead at 75
March 5, 2002 Posted: 12:12 PM EST (1712 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/05/stuart.obit.reut/index.html

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Mary Stuart, one of daytime
drama's most enduring leading ladies and grand dame of the popular CBS
daytime soap opera "Search for Tomorrow" throughout its 35-year run,
has died, associates said Monday. She was 75. 

Stuart, who played stalwart Joanne "Jo" Gardner Barron on "Search" and
ended up Jo Gardner Barron Tate Vincente Tourneur, having been widowed
three times by the time the soap was cancelled in the 1980s -- died
Thursday at her home in New York from complications from a stroke, CBS
spokeswoman Renee Ickson-Young said. 

Stuart also played Meta Bauer on CBS's "Guiding Light" from 1996 until
her death. 

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Mary Stuart," Lucy Johnson,
CBS Entertainment senior vice president for daytime programming, said.
"She was a master of her craft." 

"Mary Stuart was a model of professionalism to which all of us young
whippersnappers on 'Search for Tomorrow' aspired," said Christopher
Goutman, executive producer of the CBS soap "As the World Turns," who
once played young, handsome Marc D'Antoni on "Search." 

"She was a den mother, a teacher, a ruler of the roost, forever helpful
yet always challenging us to give our best. I was lucky enough to have
benefitted directly from her great spirit and generosity," Goutman
said. 

"Always and everywhere she was a consummate professional first and
foremost," said Wayne Tippit, who played Ted Adamson, the rogue
businessman on "Search." 

Born on July 4, 1926, in Miami and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Stuart
briefly worked as a reporter for the Tulsa Tribune before finding work
as a model and a contract player for MGM studios while still a
teenager. 

Longest-running U.S. soap
After bit parts in nearly two dozen 1940s films, Stuart was cast as a
starry-eyed, long-suffering boarding house matron in 1951 on the CBS
daytime drama "Search for Tomorrow," which, when cancelled by rival
network NBC in 1986 was U.S. television's longest running soap, and was
credited with launching the careers of such actors as Ellen Barkin,
Morgan Fairchild, Kevin Bacon, Sandy Duncan, Roy Scheider, Jill
Clayburgh, Hal Linden, Don Knotts, Kevin Kline and Susan Sarandon.

The show was cancelled by CBS in 1982 but then jumped to NBC where it
was finally put to rest after lagging in the ratings. 

Asked in the final episode what she was searching for, Stuart's
character said: "Tomorrow." 

Set in the fictitious midwestern town of Henderson, Stuart's character
mirrored average women of her times. Early on in the show she wore an
apron and with her hair swept up in a bun as she set about cooking and
cleaning for a series of boarders. 

Through the course of the show her character went on to work as a
librarian, personnel director, inn director and councilwoman. She was
also kidnapped three times, widowed three times, and had two
mastectomies through the course of the show. 

Stuart was the first daytime actress to have her real-life pregnancy
written into the show. After giving birth to a fictitious son on the
show in 1956 the television baby was killed off in an accident a short
time later. 

Stuart was the first daytime performer to be nominated for an Emmy
Award in 1962. She subsequently received four Daytime Emmy nominations.
In 1995 she was inducted into the Soap Opera Hall of Fame. In 1983 she
received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television
Arts and Sciences for her work on "Search." She was an advocate of
children's literacy and frequently read to students in the New York
City schools. 

Divorced twice in real life, she is survived by her husband Wolfgang
Neumann, two children and two grandchildren. 