Wikipedia

Lesley Woods

Lesley Woods (August 22, 1910 – August 2, 2003) was an American radio, stage and television actress. She was a graduate of the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago.[1]

Lesley Woods
Woods in 1946
Born(1910-08-22)August 22, 1910
Berwick, Iowa, U.S.
DiedAugust 2, 2003(2003-08-02) (aged 92)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma materGoodman School of Drama
OccupationActress
Years active1936–2001
Known for
SpouseRichard McMurray
ChildrenSam McMurray (stepson)

Early years

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Woods was born in Berwick, Iowa, and enrolled in a midwestern dramatic school.[2]

Personal life and death

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Woods was married to actor Richard McMurray. Sam McMurray is her stepson.[3] She died on August 2, 2003. [4]

Stage

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When Woods was 19 years old she joined a summer stock theater company in Benton Harbor, Michigan. She went to New York, where a friend helped her to find work with a stock company in Spring Lake, New Jersey.[2]

Woods' acting on Broadway included being in Double Dummy (1936), Excursion (1937), Comes the Revelation (1942), The Assassin (1945), and A Case of Libel (1963–64).[5] She was a member of Theatre West. A Billboard review of Comes the Revelation summarized Woods' acting as follows: "Small, blond and attractive, Miss Woods plays with an honesty and restraint that are as rare as they are commendable. Quiet, sincere and tremendously effective, she does one of the finest jobs of the entire season."[6]

Radio

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Woods' roles on radio programs included those shown in the table below.

ProgramRole
Backstage WifeMaida[7]
Boston BlackieMary Wesley[3]
Bright HorizonRosie[8]
Margaret Anderson McCarey[7]
Bulldog Drummond"heroine roles"[9]
"the feminine lead"[10]
Casey, Crime PhotographerAnn Williams[11]
Guiding LightHelene Cunningham[12]
Joyce Jordan, Girl InterneMargot Sherwood[7]
The Man I MarriedEvelyn Waring[13]
MidstreamMeredith Conway[7]
Portia Faces LifeElaine Arden[14]
Road of LifeCarol Martin[1]
The Romance of Helen TrentTember Adams[7]
RosemaryAudrey Roberts[7]
The ShadowMargo Lane[15]
This Is Nora DrakePeg Martinson[7]
We Love and LearnMickey[7]
Woman in WhiteJanet Munson Adams[7]

Other programs on which Woods was a regular included Crime and Peter Chambers,[16] Inner Sanctum Mystery,[17] The Private Files of Rex Saunders,[18] Treasury Star Parade,[19] and It Can Be Done.[20]

Television

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A veteran of at least 10 daytime serials, Woods' daytime debut was as Claire Bannister Steele on Young Dr. Malone from 1959-1963 as the serial's leading villainess. Following that, she appeared on The Secret Storm as Evelyn Dark (1964), A Flame in the Wind as Miriam Bentley (1964–66), The Nurses (where she starred with McMurray) as Vivian Gentry (1965-1967), Search for Tomorrow as the original Andrea Whiting (1967), Bright Promise as Isabel Jones (1971-1972), Return to Peyton Place as Zoe Tate (1972-1973), and Days of Our Lives as Dorothy Kelly (1978). On General Hospital, she played the role of Edna Hadley (1977-1978, 1980), the New York landlady who arranged for Heather Grant to sell her baby, Steven Lars. She guest-starred in an episode of Gibbsville in 1976, originated the role of Amanda Ewing, Jock's first wife, on Dallas, and had a recurring role as Chase Gioberti's housekeeper, Mrs. Miller, on Falcon Crest (1984-1987). She played Langley Wallingford's first wife, Betty Miller (Hilary's mother) on All My Children in 1984, and was part of the original cast of The Bold and the Beautiful as Helen Logan from 1987 to 1989, and again in 2001, when her character was a great-great-grandmother.[3]

Television appearances

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YearProgramEpisode/source
1956Robert Montgomery Presents-----[21]

References

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  1. 1 2 "Noted Radio Actress". The Evening News. The Evening News. February 9, 1939. p. 22. Retrieved October 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  2. 1 2 Hearty, Jack (February 19, 1946). "Lesley Woods Kept Busy on Radio Shows". Courier-Post. New Jersey, Camden. p. 18. Retrieved February 27, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 "Lesley Woods". Variety. August 19, 2003. Retrieved March 14, 2008. Actress Lesley Woods died Aug. 2 of natural causes in Los Angeles. She was 90.
  4. ↑ Lentz III, Harris M. (October 24, 2008). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2003: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. ISBN 9780786452088 – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ "Lesley Woods". Playbill Vault. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  6. ↑ Burr, Eugene (June 6, 1942). "New Plays on Broadway: Comes the Revelation". Billboard. pp. 9–10. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Buxton, Frank and Owen, Bill (1972). The Big Broadcast: 1920-1950. The Viking Press. SBN 670-16240-x. Pp. 23, 40, 127, 160, 203, 204, 238, 253, 258.
  8. ↑ "(untitled caption)". The Centralia Enterprise and Tribune. The Centralia Enterprise and Tribune. February 9, 1945. p. 6. Retrieved October 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  9. ↑ "(untitled caption)". The Lincoln Star. October 19, 1941. p. 44. Retrieved October 8, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  10. ↑ "Has Feminine Lead". The Evening News. The Evening News. June 19, 1942. p. 18. Retrieved October 8, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  11. ↑ "'Casey' Cast". Harrisburg Telegraph. Harrisburg Telegraph. September 21, 1946. p. 17. Retrieved October 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  12. ↑ "In Medical Drama". The Evening News. The Evening News. March 28, 1940. p. 24. Retrieved October 8, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  13. ↑ "'The Man I Married'-New WHP Daytime Serial Starts Monday". Harrisburg Telegraph. Harrisburg Telegraph. July 19, 1941. p. 26. Retrieved October 8, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  14. ↑ Dunning, John (1998). "Portia Faces Life". On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. pp. 550–551. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  15. ↑ Sies, Luther F. (2014). Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition, Volume 2. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-5149-4. P. 596.
  16. ↑ Dunning, op. cit., "Crime and Peter Chambers" p. 184
  17. ↑ Dunning, op. cit., "Inner Sanctum Mystery" pp.346-347
  18. ↑ Dunning, op. cit., "The Private Files of Rex Saunders" p. 554
  19. ↑ Dunning, op. cit., "Treasury Star Parade" p. 680-681
  20. ↑ "In Edgar Guest Cast". The Evening News. The Evening News. October 4, 1938. p. 14. Retrieved October 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  21. ↑ Vernon, Terry (June 25, 1956). "Tele-Vues". Independent. Long Beach Independent. p. 28. Retrieved October 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
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