Diane Brewster

Diane Brewster (March 11, 1931 – November 12, 1991) was an American television actress most noted for playing three distinctively different roles in television series of the 1950s and 1960s: confidence trickster Samantha Crawford in the Western Maverick with James Garner; pretty young second-grade teacher Miss Canfield in Leave It to Beaver; and doomed wife Helen Kimble in The Fugitive. Brewster was a direct descendant of William Brewster, a Pilgrim and Governor of the Plymouth Colony.

Early years Brewster's father was Phillip Sloan Brewster, a trial lawyer in Missouri; her mother was Geraldine (née Craddock); she had an older brother, Paul. She was born in Kansas City, Missouri and went to Shawnee Mission High School. Her 1949 senior class yearbook lists a nickname, "Dissy". She was a Pep Club member, Class Secretary, Cheerleader and Homecoming Queen Attendant. Later, Brewster studied liberal arts at the University of Kansas. Following her sophomore year at the university, she took a job as a secretary at a radio station.

Career Brewster moved to Los Angeles from the Kansas City area around 1955. Her first job in entertainment was as MC for a teenage radio program. Work in commercials, fashion commentary, and even weather programs soon followed.

In 1957, she co-starred with George Montgomery in the Western film Black Patch, playing his former and future love interest. On January 31, 1959, Brewster played Lisa Caldwell in the episode "Runaway Train" of NBC's Cimarron City Western television series starring George Montgomery. That same year, Brewster appeared in The Young Philadelphians playing the mother of Paul Newman's character. (Newman was six years her senior.)

She made almost 50 appearances in various other television and film roles, including episodes of Crusader starring Brian Keith, Wanted: Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen, Tombstone Territory (as "Julie Dixon" in season 1 episode 33), Tales of Wells Fargo (as "Dr Alice" S2/E25) with Dale Robertson, and Harbor Command with Wendell Corey. In 1959, she played the girlfriend of Ronald Reagan's character in an installment of the General Electric Theatre anthology series, "Nobody's Child", and portrayed Marian Dell in the episode "Law of the Badlands" of the syndicated series Frontier Doctor starring Rex Allen.

Brewster subsequently guest starred on Empire and in The Rifleman episode, "The Jealous Man" in 1962; on The Dakotas with Jack Elam in 1963; on the 1963 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Potted Planter" with Raymond Burr, and in the premiere episode of Kentucky Jones (1964) with Dennis Weaver and Harry Morgan.

Brewster appeared several times in flashbacks as the murdered wife Helen Kimble in The Fugitive, most prominently in episode 14 of season 1, "The Girl from Little Egypt", broadcast December 24, 1963. She appeared in two episodes of Death Valley Days, in a 1967 episode of Family Affair, and in an installment of Ironside (1968) before retiring. She reappeared in four episodes of The New Leave It to Beaver.

Personal life and death In California, Brewster married Jabe Z. Walker, an oral surgeon from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. They had a son, Dean C. Walker, and a daughter, Lynn D. Walker. Both children were born in Los Angeles. Jabe Walker died in February 2013.

Brewster died from heart failure in 1991, aged 60.

Filmography