Ruth McDevitt

Ruth McDevitt started off on the popular sitcom "Mister Peepers" (featuring the situational and physical comedy of a high school science teacher). She was also a scene-stealer as the gun-slinging Grandma Effie Hanks on the short-lived series "Pistols 'n' Petticoats." This Western-themed sitcom was popular, but after the death of one of the stars, Ann Sheridan (Warner Bros.'s red-haired bombshell, dubbed "The Oomph Girl" by her fawning male fans), "Pistols 'n' Petticoats" was canceled after only one season. McDevitt went on to star in "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," a series about a newspaper reporter solving (often supernatural) mysteries. Actor Darren McGavin played the reporter Kolchak, whose only friend was a fellow columnist played by McDevitt. Again, the show was popular with home audiences, but nevertheless was not renewed for a second season. The premise of the show--a lone man searching for answers and beset on all sides by skeptics (with the exception of one woman, in this case McDevitt)--was in many ways an inspiration for "The X-Files," a long-running UFO (and monster) conspiracy show that came to television almost two decades later.