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Dina Merrill, Actress and Philanthropist, Dies at 93


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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/movies/dina-merrill-dead-actress-and-heiress.html

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An elegant presence in most of her 30 or so mid-20th-century movies, Ms. Merrill played the betrayed wife who loses both her husband, Laurence Harvey, and her mink coat to Elizabeth Taylor in “Butterfield 8” (1960); the chic fashion consultant who loses Glenn Ford to Shirley Jones in “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” (1963); and the steadfast socialite wife of an assistant district attorney played by Burt Lancaster in “The Young Savages” (1961).

In the submarine comedy “Operation Petticoat” (1959), her stranded Navy nurse ends up married to a slick lieutenant played by Tony Curtis.

The daughter of the Wall Street broker E. F. Hutton and the cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, Ms. Merrill grew up in luxury, spending up to six months a year on the Sea Cloud, the family yacht. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were among the guests on what has been described as a “floating palace” equipped with fireplaces, marble bathrooms, a barber shop and a wine cellar.

Home during the winter was the 115-room Mar-a-Lago estate, which was bought by Donald J. Trump in 1985 and converted into a private club. (Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump slept in the same children’s suite that Ms. Merrill had used.)

Married to the actor Cliff Robertson in 1966, she was partly responsible for bringing down the head of a Hollywood studio. When David Begelman, the president of Columbia Pictures, embezzled $10,000 by forging Mr. Robertson’s name to a check, no one paid much attention, Ms. Merrill said, until she called her friend Katharine Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post.

“Cliff took the telephone and told the whole story,” she recalled. “Kay put an investigative reporter on it, and then it really became public.”

With an inheritance from her parents estimated at more than $50 million, Ms. Merrill became a philanthropist. A liberal Republican, she was vice chairwoman of the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition, an advocate on women’s health issues and vice president of the New York Mission Society. After her son David, who had diabetes, died in a boating accident at age 23 in 1973, Ms. Merrill created a yearly award for scientific excellence in his name for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

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Somebody already has!

Dina Merrill always tripped me out as a kid watching her on the Goodson-Todman shows, kinda like Kitty Carlisle, only younger, a LOT hotter, and just oozing this kind of....WEALTH that a kid who didn't know what wealth meant could still sense.

No doubt, the whole Golden Era of Goodson-Todman (from the 50s through the early 70s, when their stuff was on daytime (daily) AND in Prime Time left its own imprint. I'd probably not give tow shits about Dina Merril if she hadn't done those games shows. But she did, and what I know now just grows the imprint.

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1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Somebody already has!

 

By now, yes ... ;)

FWIW, over here films such as "Operation Petticoat" and "Butterfield 8" were known and are remembered, but her name probably would mostly elicit just a "who??", except from extreme cineasts. One of those names that somehow never stuck, maybe because that ONE standout role on international screens (or late-night TV repeats) never happened. Contrary to others who would be long forgotten too, such as Tippi Hedren or Paula Prentiss a.o., if it had not been for .... ;)

Or maybe it was bcause in the 50s there were quite a lot of female actors cast (literally?) in that (visual) mold?

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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I only knew her from game shows, but I knew her well from there. Did not know here as a "real actress" except loooong after that, and by then, didn't really care. She was Dina Merril form the games shows, then, now, and always.

As for Roger, his death was announced to where I could see it after Dina Merril's, but apparently not before somebody else saw it. I'm not looking to be the only RIP guy here, so I'm glad somebody got to it in a timely manner.

Although, I've always like game shows more than James Bond movies, so I really don't feel bad about it, other than, of course, you know, RIP.

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1 hour ago, JSngry said:

As for Roger, his death was announced to where I could see it after Dina Merril's, but apparently not before somebody else saw it. I'm not looking to be the only RIP guy here, so I'm glad somebody got to it in a timely manner.

Hey I was just poking fun (a little). I had read about the death of Roger Moore before seeing this post and way before Soulpope started HIS Roger Moore RIP thread. And since you had at one time IIRC been promoted to the "unofficial resident RIP thread starter" role around here one thing led to another ... ^_^

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It was an inquirious third-party suggestion that I did not either embrace or encourage!

I'm not accessing news regularly this week, and did not see any Roger Moore obit when I did. Not sure that I would have jumped on it even if I had, becuase, you know, everybody knows Roger Moore. He's "general interest". . It takes a special freak to recall Dina Merril, and that kind of a special freak is what I am. Especially when it comes to obits!

God, I can watch this shit forever...

 

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I will probably best remember her for her "guest villain" appearance on Batman.  She played Calamity Jan alongside husband Cliff Robertson's western outlaw, Shame.

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I never knew that about her family background.  She definitely gave the impression of some one coming from "class".  I never would have guessed she was still alive.  May she Rest In Peace.

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10 hours ago, GA Russell said:

Steve, what was the Paula Prentiss film you were referring to?

"Man's Favorite Sport?" with Rock Hudson (1964)

For one reason or another, it showed here several times on TV through the years. You do or don't like her role in that movie but it certainly sticks in your mind. :D

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