Shelley Fabares, ‘Johnny Angel’ singer and actor in ‘The Donna Reed Show’ and ‘Coach,’ dies at 82

Shelley Fabares, an actor who was a fixture on tv for many years from her days as a younger teenager on “The Donna Reed Show,” by “One Day at a Time” and “Coach,” has died. She was 82.

She died Saturday in Los Angeles, her household mentioned in an announcement to The Associated Press. No trigger was given.

“To her family and friends, Shelley was a source of love, strength, laughter, and comfort,” her household wrote. “She had a remarkable ability to make people feel welcomed, valued, and cared for.”

Fabares was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1944, and began appearing as a younger baby. Her first tv credit score got here at age 10 when she appeared on “The Loretta Young Show.” Many films and tv reveals adopted: She acted with Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra and Eva Marie Saint in a Producers Showcase manufacturing of “Our Town”; was within the Rosalind Russell film “The Girl Rush” and the Rock Hudson drama “Never Say Goodbye.” Other early credit embrace “Annette,” “Captain Midnight” and the “Black Leather Jackets” episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

Her largest break got here when she was solid as Mary Stone on “The Donna Reed Show,” the place she was an everyday from 1958 by 1963. During that point she additionally received a recording contract and had two Top 40 hits together with “Johnny Angel.” In the early Nineteen Sixties, she additionally co-starred in three films with Elvis Presley: “Girl Happy,” “Spinout” and “Clambake.”

“I think the years on ‘The Donna Reed Show,’ the years from 14 to 19, were so incredibly important,” Fabares instructed the Los Angeles Times in 1993. “Donna Reed was simply an extraordinary woman, a woman of great strength, kindness, integrity and compassion. I am not trying to make her sound like a saint, but she had the most profound influence on me. I carry her with me today.”

In the late Nineteen Seventies, Fabares made an impression as Francine Webster on the CBS sitcom “One Day at a Time.” She additionally performed James Caan’s spouse in “Brian’s Song.” One of her largest roles got here when she was solid as Christine Armstrong in “Coach,” though the present took a minute to search out its viewers.

“I did always feel from the very beginning if they could find the right spot for us, this was a show that would last,” she mentioned within the 1993 Los Angeles Times interview.

Fabares married twice, first to producer Lou Adler in 1964. She had been married to “MASH” actor Mike Farrell since 1984. She was additionally a faithful advocate for Alzheimer’s consciousness, which affected her mom.

In early 1999, a go to to the emergency room for an esophageal bleed revealed that she had progressive liver failure. After spending 22 months on a ready record, she had liver transplant surgical procedure in October 2000.

In an interview with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles three years after the transplant, she mentioned she’d been “changed by the experience” and was eternally grateful to Farrell who was along with her “every step of the way.”

Her household, of their assertion, mentioned “we will remember Shelley for her kindness, loyalty, wit, courage, and beautiful spirit. We will miss her deeply — not only as a celebrated performer, but as the loving and extraordinary person she was in our everyday lives.”

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