Posted on 09/28/2017 8:20:21 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Anne Jeffreys, the actress and opera singer who likely had her greatest impact on TV audiences as Marion Kerby “the ghostess with the mostess” in the 1950s TV series “Topper,” has died. She was 94.
Jeffreys, whose husband, actor Robert Sterling, died in 2006, died peacefully in her sleep at her Los Angeles home on Wednesday evening, her manager Don Gibble said Thursday.
More recently, she spent two decades playing Amanda Barrington on “General Hospital” She was featured in the role of the wealthy on more than 350 episodes of the soap opera from 1984 until 2004.
In “Topper,” she and Sterling starred as fun-loving husband and wife George and Marion Kerby who, after dying in a Swiss avalanche, return as ghosts to their mansion and comically haunt its new occupant, actor Leo G. Carroll as staid banker Cosmo Topper.
Each week they were introduced to viewers as George, “that most sporting spirit,” and Marion, “the ghostess with the mostess.”
They were among many varied roles in a long career in films, television, opera and on Broadway for Jeffreys, who continued to work well into her 70s. Her final on-screen appearance was on the HBO series “Getting On.”
Early in her career, she appeared opposite John Wayne in “Flying Tigers.” In later years, she appeared on such TV shows as “L.A. Law” and “Murder, She Wrote” and played David Hasselhoff’s mother on “Baywatch.”
(Excerpt) Read more at losangeles.cbslocal.com ...
I've never seen the TV show, but the movies were great. All the actors were great in the first one.
I really liked Topper . . . my favorite and most remembered scene is where they are trapped in the cabin after an avalanche.
And the St. Bernard.
His name was Neal, as I recall.
Who were the two actors that played Cosmo on television?
As a kid in the 50s Topper was my favorite TV show, so I knew the TV show long before the movie. The movie was much better but the TV show was good. I’m still trying to figure out what kind of car the movie Kirbys were killed in was based on.
I remember the ghost dog loved his martinis and was always drunk.
The only TV Cosmo I remember was Leo G. Carroll. The movie one was Roland Young.
He was a great TV dog!
Leo G. Caroll is the one I remember.
Yep, and how about Cary Grant being the first George Kerby. Robert Sterling I don’t remember so much about (though I wonder if there was any relation to Rod).
You’re right . . . the first one was a movie (a series of movies actually).
It was custom-built by Bohman & Schwartz using a 1936 Buick Roadmaster chassis. I guess they used the Buick body because it had more places to hide the camera.
RIP
RIP.
Wow, she looks amazing in those pictures. I vaguely remember the show.
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