We didn't get a chance yesterday to bid a Happy 88th Birthday to actress/comedienne Cara Williams, a pert redhead who was a very well-liked star of sitcoms in the early 1960s.
In addition to her TV work, Williams was a talented dramatic actress who received an Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in the Sidney Poitier/Tony Curtis film The Defiant Ones (1959). Her trademark gorgeous red hair was a crowd-pleaser and it's too bad her TV series were in black & white. She also had a big role in comedian Danny Kaye's 1963 movie The Man from the Diners Club.
TV audiences were exposed to her first as co-star of the CBS situation comedy Pete and Gladys, playing opposite actor Harry Morgan who later would achieve pop culture immortality both for his role opposite Jack Webb on TV's Dragnet 1967 and later as beloved Col. Potter on M*A*S*H. Pete and Gladys was a spin-off from the December Bride sitcom which ran on CBS from 1954 - 1959, in which Morgan played Pete who always talked about his ditzy wife Gladys who was never seen on the show. After the cancellation of December Bride, the two characters were spun-off into Pete and Gladys which ran for two seasons beginning in Fall of 1960.
Opening credits from Pete and Gladys:
After Pete and Gladys was cancelled, Cara went on to star in her eponymous sitcom The Cara Williams Show for one season:
For a chance to see Cara Williams in all her red-headed singing and dancing glory, check out this club from the 1958 feature Meet Me in Las Vegas:
A very Happy Belated Birthday to Cara Williams, one of TV's funny ladies!
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