Winifred Deforest Coffin

Winifred "Winnie" Deforest Coffin (October 16, 1911– December 18, 1986) was an American character actress who did not start her Hollywood career until 1960 at age 50. Coffin attended Connecticut College and earned her bachelor's degree in 1933.

Career Coffin started acting while in college and continued to act in community theatre productions following graduation, but she became serious about it in the early 1950s, when her younger sons were teenagers. Light Up the Sky (1950); Carousel (1950); Courage Was the Fashion (1951); The Child Buyer (1964); Scott was impressed and called his agent Al Kingston after the show to tell him about Coffin. The couple rented an apartment on Hollywood Boulevard on a property formerly owned by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. She also taught acting at Oakland University's Division of Continuing Education.

Final years and death After 10 years of living in the Los Angeles smog and a lifetime of smoking, Coffin developed a degenerative lung condition and emphysema, and she and her husband moved back to Detroit in 1972. At her death, she was survived by her 5 children, 6 grandchildren, 2 great-grandchildren, and a niece. One of his sons, Alexander, was diagnosed with cancer as a young child and met Ronald Reagan in 1985 after writing him to sympathize with his cancer diagnosis. Alexander raised $6,000 for the American Cancer Society's Ta-Kum-Ta, a camp for kids with cancer, and died in June 1986 at age 14 from a brain tumor. and their son Fred died in 2003 of lung cancer.

Filmography TV Year Title Role Episodes Notes Ref ?? Gunsmoke The Ann Sothern Show Miss Bentley 2 Bewitched Nanny Witch "My Grandson, the Warlock" Bonanza Widow Smith/Edna Brown 2 1970 The Beverly Hillbillies Mrs. Bertha Hewes "The Clampett-Hewes Empire" Lancer Anne 'Gus' Guthrie "The Lorelei" 1971—1972 Adam-12 Mrs. Ruth Fowler/Mrs. Kovacs/Mrs. Sullivan 3 1967 Eight on the Lam 1971 The Million Dollar Duck Agitated Woman Driver Uncredited 1972 Now You See Him, Now You Don't Secretary Uncredited