Elinor Donahue
Biography
Elinor Donahue is a retired American actress who worked as a child in vaudeville and was taking dancing chorus parts in movies by the age of five. As a teenager she had small film roles, including Tea for Two (1950) and Love Is Better Than Ever (1952). Born in Tacoma, Washington, she became a star as Betty Anderson, the eldest child on the sitcom Father Knows Best, which aired from 1954 to 1960. On television she later played pharmacist Ellie Walker for one season of The Andy Griffith Show and Miriam Welby on The Odd Couple, and she appeared on Get a Life, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and Eek! the Cat, where she voiced the mother. Her movies include Girls Town (1959), Pretty Woman (1990) and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). She published a memoir, In the Kitchen with Elinor Donahue, in 1998, and in 2015 played Mrs. Chumley in a stage production of Harvey.
89years old
Turns 90 on April 19in 188 days
- Born Tacoma
- Star sign: AriesLast day of the sign, on the Taurus cusp
Movie Career
- Films
- 6
- Career span
- 41 years1950 to 1991
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Early training
From the age of five, Donahue appeared in dancing-chorus film roles, and at one point she was a ballet-school classmate of Barrie Chase, who later partnered Fred Astaire.
A role that slipped away
Donahue was in the main cast of CBS's The Andy Griffith Show for its first season, playing Ellie Walker, Andy's pharmacist love interest. She appeared in the opening credits ahead of Don Knotts. After that season, which ran 1960 to 1961, she requested release from her three-year contract.
Behind the camera
Donahue released a memoir in 1998 called In the Kitchen with Elinor Donahue. In it she shared over 150 of her recipes and looked back on some of her Hollywood memories.
Beyond film
In 2015, Donahue took the part of Mrs. Chumley in the Judson Theatre Company staging of Harvey, the Pulitzer Prize play by Mary Chase, and she described that role as her swan song.
Elinor Donahue movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
- Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare1991 Comedy, Horror, Thrilleras Orphanage Woman
IMDb rating 4.756K votes
Worked with
Elinor Donahue made one film with each of them. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Johnny Depp's page
Tom Arnold's page
Kathleen Freeman's page
Robert Englund's page
Richard Gere's page
Julia Roberts's page
All films by Garry Marshall
All films by Rachel Talalay
All films by David Butler
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.