Lois Nettleton

The small screen has provided more ongoing opportunities. Among Nettleton's early roles was that of Lucille (played by June Lockhart in the feature) in CBS' adaptation of "Meet Me In St. Louis" (1959). Her first primetime series was the forgotten "An Accidental Family" (NBC, 1967), in which she was neighbor to the widowed Jerry Van Dyke and Nettleton seemed to relish her role as the cheating executive married to mousy "housefrau" Chuck McCann in the gender-switching late-night comic serial "All That Glitters" (syndicated, 1977). She played the wife of an unscrupulous Anthony Zerbe in "Centennial" (NBC, 1978) and was a scatterbrained Penny Sycamore in the 1987 syndicated series version of the stage classic "You Can't Take It With You." She also spent a year (1988-89) opposite Carroll O'Connor on the CBS drama "In the Heat of the Night."Nettleton's work in TV longforms began with "Any Second Now" (ABC, 1969), in which she was a photographer's rich wife who loses her memory--and along with it the knowledge that her husband has tried to kill her. Her subsequent TV movies and miniseries have included "Washington: Behind Closed Doors" (ABC, 1977), and a turn as a blacklisted actress (based on real-life Kim Hunter) in the 1975 CBS effort, "Fear on Trial." From 1996 to February 1998, she had the recurring role of Virginia Benson, the adoptive mother of troublemaker Carly (Emmy-winner Sarah Brown), on the ABC daytime drama "General Hospital."