Alice Backes

Alice Mayrine Backes (May 17, 1923 – March 15, 2007) was an American actress who performed on radio, television, and in films from the 1940s to the 1990s. Standing , she worked chiefly on television during her long career. She appeared in over 80 television series and made-for-television movies, specializing in character roles and dialects for scripts.

Early life Alice Mayrine Backes was born in 1923 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the first daughter of Charles Cameron Backes and Lela Mayrine (née Maxwell) Backes, both natives of Montana. According to the United States Census of 1940, 17-year-old Alice was still living that year with her parents in Salt Lake City, along with her two sisters, Lorraine and Virginia. The 1940 census further documents that her father was at that time a salesman of rock-wool insulation.

Career Following the war, Backes moved to Hollywood, where by the late 1940s, she began finding steady employment as an actor. In 1948, she performed in an uncredited role as a Swedish immigrant girl in the film Up in Central Park. The bulk of her work, however, in this early stage of her career was as a voice-actor on radio. Between 1946 and 1950, she was a cast member on a variety of popular radio programs such as This is Your FBI, NBC University Theater, Dangerous Assignment, and Family Theater.

Backes continued performing regularly on radio for at least another six years, even after her increasing work on television had become her principal focus. Some of the other radio programs on which she played a variety of characters were The Whistler, The Halls of Ivy, Dragnet, Suspense, and Romance.

By the 1980s, she began to curtail her acting commitments, although she still appeared on Barnaby Jones, Barney Miller, Knight Rider, Mr. Belvedere, and a few other popular series in that decade. Nine years after her 1988 appearance on Mr. Belvedere, she made her last credited performance on television as Harriet Jenkins in an episode of Columbo, titled "A Trace of Murder".

Films She was cast in no fewer than a dozen feature films, continuing to display in those roles her ability to play a wide range of characters, such as a telephone operator, prison nurse, a farmer's wife, dentist, teacher, a newspaper gossip columnist, and women in other occupations. Her films include the science-fiction comedy The Twonky (1953), I Want to Live! (1958), It Started with a Kiss (1959), That Touch of Mink (1962), The Glory Guys (1965), The Third Day (1965), Snowball Express (1972), The Man from Independence (1974), Half a House (1975), Gable and Lombard (1976), and The Cat From Outer Space (1978).

Charities and professional organizations Outside of her acting assignments, Backes contributed her time and money to various charities, advocacy groups for children and wildlife welfare, and to professional organizations. She promoted the work and served on boards and committees of the United Nations' International Children's Emergency Fund, Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, Whidbey Animals' Improvement Foundation, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Theatre West, and Pioneer Broadcasters. Backes was also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and in 2008, the year after her death, SAG formally recognized her contributions to the industry at the guild's televised 14th annual awards ceremony.

Personal life and death Backes married only once, to Milton Citron, a native of New York, who was a Hollywood sound-effects specialist and editor for both film and television productions. The couple married in 1961 and remained together for over 20 years, until Milton's death in April 1983. They had no children. After her retirement from acting in the late 1990s, Backes continued to devote her time to charities and to her lifelong passion for music, studying the works of the classical masters, as well as Broadway scores and early choral compositions.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1948 Up in Central Park Swedish Immigrant Girl Uncredited 1952 Gang Busters Secretary TV series 1952 Dragnet Nurse Lenihan TV series 1953 The Twonky Offended Phone Operator #1 1954 Mr. & Mrs. North Claudia Blair TV series 1955 Medic Miss Harris TV series 1957 The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Woman in Drug Store TV series 1957 Date with the Angels Mrs. Fletcher TV series 1957 The Real McCoys Miss Small TV series 1957 Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal TV series 1957–1958 Bachelor Father Vickie TV series, 13 episodes 1958 Studio 57 TV series 1958 M Squad Switchboard Operator / Maid TV series, 2 episodes 1958 I Want to Live! Barbara, San Quentin Nurse 1959 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Jennifer Gifford Season 4 Episode 26: "Cheap Is Cheap" 1958–1959 Lux Playhouse Mrs. Dolman TV series, 2 episodes 1959 Schlitz Playhouse of Stars Martha TV series 1959 It Started with a Kiss Sally Meriden 1959 The Ann Sothern Show Arlene TV series 1959 Law of the Plainsman Abbey Hollis TV series 1959–1960 Startime Aunt Pauline / Esther TV series, 2 episodes 1959–1962 Leave It to Beaver Miss Lawrence / Nurse TV series, 2 episodes 1959–1962 General Electric Theater different roles TV series, 5 episodes 1959–1966 The Donna Reed Show Mrs. McCracken / Mrs. Brandon TV series, 2 episodes 1959–1966 Gunsmoke Widow Folsome / Cora TV series, 2 episodes 1960 The Rifleman Isabel Dent TV series 1960 Goodyear Theatre Pauline /Miss Williams TV series 1960 Riverboat Mrs. Gaines, the Farmer's Wife 1960 Hennesey Miss Dobbs /Ethel Peterson TV series, 2 episodes 1960 Thriller Carolyn TV series 1960 The Tom Ewell Show Miss Finley TV series 1960–1962 The Detectives Different roles TV series, 4 episodes 1961 Bringing Up Buddy Secretary TV series 1961 Dr. Kildare Miss Ames TV series 1961 Ben Casey Mrs. Torrance TV series 1961–1966 Hazel Different roles TV series, 3 episodes 1962 Ichabod and Me Mrs. Hoskins TV series, 1 episode 1962 87th Precinct Jane TV series, 3 episodes 1962 Outlaws Mrs. Arbush TV series 1962 That Touch of Mink Miriam TV series, uncredited 1962 Disneyland Mrs. Cass TV series 1962 The Virginian Coralee Darby TV series 1962–1963 The Jack Benny Show Bride / Mother TV series, 2 episodes 1963 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Policewoman Season 1 Episode 23: "The Lonely Hours" 1963 Going My Way The Grand Dame TV series 1963 The Dick Powell Show TV series 1963 The Andy Griffith Show Olive, the waitress TV series 1963–1965 Wagon Train Different roles TV series, 3 episodes 1964 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Mrs. Tridden Season 2 Episode 17: "The Jar" 1964 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Martha Hinchley Season 2 Episode 29: "Bed of Roses" 1964 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Doctor Season 3 Episode 11: "Consider Her Ways" 1964 My Favorite Martian Miss Maxwell TV series 1964 Breaking Point Mrs. Carson TV series 1964–1965 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Maggie / Miss Reddy TV series, 2 episodes 1964–1966 Bewitched June Foster / Betty TV series, 3 episodes 1965 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Helen Fiske Season 3 Episode 27: "The Second Wife" 1965 The Rogues Watkins TV series 1965 Burke's Law Wife TV series 1965 The Munsters Miss Fairchild TV series 1965 The Glory Guys Mrs. Doris Poole 1965 The Third Day Nurse Uncredited 1965 Barney TV movie 1966 Katy Saleswoman TV series 1968 The Big Valley Housekeeper TV series 1968–1973 Here's Lucy Mrs. Barnes / Woman TV series, 2 episodes 1969 The Outsider Telephone Operator TV series 1969 The Ghost & Mrs. Muir Mrs. Peterson TV series 1969 Dragnet 1967 Bertha Johnson TV series 1970 Doris Day Show Agnes Albright TV series 1970 Bill Cosby Angela TV series 1970 Lancer Mrs. Stafford TV series 1970–1971 Mayberry R.F.D. Miss Pringle /Miss Fawcett TV series, 2 episodes 1972 Women in Chains Mrs. Foster TV movie 1972 Room 222 Mrs. Webster TV series 1972 Snowball Express Miss Ogelvie 1973 Mannix Mrs. Oliver TV series 1973 Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law Ida 1973–1974 Adam-12 Estelle Graybill / Woman TV series, 2 episodes 1974 Ironside Maggie Moreland TV series 1974 The Man from Independence Teacher TV movie 1974 Maude Woman TV series 1974 Kolchak: The Night Stalker Dr. Shropell /Elena Muñoz TV series, 2 episodes 1974–1997 Columbo Harriet Jenkins / Mrs. Moyland TV series, 2 episodes 1975 Winner Take All TV movie 1975 Half a House 1975 Fear on Trial TV movie 1976 Gable and Lombard 1976 Baretta Foley, Nurse 1977 Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis? Mrs. Lazlo TV movie 1977 Welcome Back, Kotter Mrs. Hansen TV series 1977 James at 15 Middle-Aged Woman TV series 1978 Switch Librarian TV series 1978 Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid Farmer's Wife 1978 Project U.F.O. Nurse TV series 1979 Turnabout TV series 1979 The Best Place to Be Kitty Rawlings TV movie 1980 Barnaby Jones Lillian Bennoit TV series 1981 Barney Miller Miss Louise Shawcross TV series 1983 The Greatest American Hero Eleanor Pilburn TV series 1983 Amanda's TV series 1984 Knight Rider Judge TV series 1984 The Fisher Family TV series 1988 Mr. Belvedere Mrs. Meyers TV series