Beverly Garland

Short Biography

Born Beverly Fessenden in Santa Cruz, California on October 17, 1926, beautiful Beverly Garland sustained an amazing 50+ year career in Hollywood, starring in numerous cult-classic "B" films in the 1950s before switching to television and supporting roles in better pictures in the 1960s. Using her first husband's last name and billed as 'Beverly Campbell' in a few of her early film appearances, in 1952 she married actor Richard Garland and afterward used Garland as her professional name. However, the couple dissolved the union in 1956, at about the point that Beverly Garland's career kicked into high gear.Throughout the 1950s, Garland worked hard, making more than 20 films and starring in the TV series Decoy, in which she portrayed a female undercover cop. Following her 1959 film The Alligator People, Garland cooled her film career and married businessman and developer Fillmore Crank. By the mid 1960s, Garland began making many television appearances and took roles in several successful series, including The Bing Crosby Show (1964-1965) and the final three seasons of My Three Sons (1960-1972).Although audiences today largely recognize Garland from her prolific television work, cult film fanatics prize her horror and science fiction films from the 1950s. Her best horror and science fiction titles include It Conquered the World (1956; with Peter Graves and Lee Van Cleef), Not of This Earth (1957; with Paul Birch), and The Alligator People (1959; with Richard Crane and Lon Chaney Jr.). However, Garland was also known for starring in westerns, including Bitter Creek (1954; with Bill Elliott), Gunslinger (1956; with Allison Hayes), Badlands of Montana (1957; with Rex Reason), and The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958; with Rory Calhoun and Russell Johnson). Beverly Garland maintained her acting career to through 2004, even with her ownership of the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in Los Angeles, just a few blocks from the entrance of Universal Studios. Garland's hotel is also the Los Angeles site of Ray and Sharon Court's famed autograph conventions. In terms of acting, Garland had a recurring role on the WB's long-running family drama 7th Heaven (1996-2006), and her final film appearance was in Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure (2003; with Randy Quaid and Fred Willard). Sadly, Beverly Garland passed away on December 5, 2008, at the age of 82. She was survived by a daughter, a son, two stepsons, and a host of grandchildren.