Meg Wyllie (Margaret Gillespie Wyllie)

Meg Wyllie

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, she grew up in the Philippines, where her father worked as an engineer in sugar plantations and moved to New York City in the 1940s. In 1960, she was cast as Mrs. Shafer in the episode “The Captain’s Dilemma” of the CBS military sitcom/drama series, Hennesey, starring Jackie Cooper as a United States Navy physician and Abby Dalton as nurse Martha Hale. Between 1962-1966 Wyllie made four guest appearances on Perry Mason. Her most substantial role of these was as Minerva Stone in the episode, “The Case of the Nebulous Nephew” (1963). In the 1963-1964 season, Wyllie had a recurring role as Mrs. Kissel in eighteen episodes of ABC’s family western series, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, starring child actor Kurt Russell in the title role. Mark Allen played Matt Kissel, her husband, in nineteen episodes. In nine episodes, four of The Osmonds were cast as the singing sons of the Kissel family, all with given names of books of the Old Testament, Micah, Deuteronomy, Lamentations, and Leviticus. She played the first-ever villain in Star Trek, the Talosian “Keeper” in the pilot episode, “The Cage” (1964). Not broadcast in its original form for many years, this material was used in the two-parter, “The Menagerie” (1966). A more complete explanation of the creation of the Talosians is here.

Wylie appeared on ABC’s General Hospital as three different characters-Nurse Doris Roach (1974) who revealed to Lesley Faulkner that her daughter (Laura Vining) was still alive; Antique shop proprietor Hester Frumpkin (1982) who worked for Laura’s kidnapper, David Gray; and a brief replacement for Anna Lee as Lila Quartermaine (1994). She also played several different characters on both Golden Girls and Designing Women. Wyllie died in 2002, at the age of eighty-four in Glendale, California, from heart failure.

Born

  • February, 15, 1917
  • USA
  • Honolulu, Hawaii

Died

  • January, 01, 2002
  • USA
  • Glendale, California

Cause of Death

  • heart failure

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