Elizabeth MacRae, ‘General Hospital’ & ‘Days of Our Lives’ Actress, Dies at 88
Veteran actress Elizabeth MacRae, best known for appearing in soap operas such as General Hospital and Days of Our Lives, has died. She was 88.
According to her obituary at CityViewNc.com, MacRae passed away peacefully on Monday, May 27, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. A cause of death was not provided.
Born on February 22, 1936, in Columbia, South Carolina, MacRae later moved to Fayetteville with her family and then to Washington D.C., where she attended Holton-Arms, an independent college-preparatory school for girls.
After graduating, MacRae decided to pursue an acting career, moving to New York City in 1956 to study with Uta Hagen at the Herbert Berghof Studio. She gained experience playing various characters in off-Broadway and summer-stock productions.
She landed her first television role in 1958 in the courtroom series The Verdict Is Yours. From there, MacRae would appear in numerous TV dramas and sitcoms, including 77 Sunset Strip, Burke’s Law, Dr. Kildare, The Andy Griffith Show, The Untouchables, Rawhide, Gunsmoke, The Fugitive, Kojak, and more.
From left: Elizabeth MacRae, Jim Nabors, Carol Burnett in Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.; Everett Collection
Her most memorable roles came as Lou-Ann Poovie in The Andy Griffith Show spin-off Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and as Meg Baldwin on General Hospital, a role she played from 1969 to 1973, when the character was killed off.
She also appeared in the soaps Another World, Days of Our Lives, Guiding Light, and Search for Tomorrow.
MacRae’s film credits include Live in a Goldfish Bowl, Everything’s Ducky, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and Frances Ford Coppola’s The Conversation. Her last film credit came in the 1989 movie Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!
According to The Hollywood Reporter, after acting, MacRae worked as a drug and alcohol counselor with the Freedom Institute in New York before returning to Fayetteville in the late 1990s with her third husband, Charles Day Halsey Jr., whom she wed in 1969. He died earlier this year on March 29.
She is survived by five stepchildren, Terry Halsey, Peter Halsey, Hugh Halsey, Cate Halsey, and Alex Halsey Topper. She is also survived by her nieces and nephews, Marie MacRae Sutherland, James C. MacRae, Jr., Samual H. MacRae, Katherine MacRae Parnell, Julie Vallery Merrill, R. Colton Vallery, Jr., Carolyn Vallery Gore, Elizabeth H. Vallery, and many great nieces and nephews.
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