Beverly Wills

Beverly Wills (June 7, 1933 – October 24, 1963) was an American television and film actress.

Beverly Wills
Wills and Tom Peters on the set of I Married Joan, 1954.
Born	Beverly Josephine Williams (1933-06-07)June 7, 1933 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	October 24, 1963(1963-10-24) (aged 30) Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Spouses	Lee Bamber ​ ​ (m. 1952; div. 1953)​ Alan Grossman ​ ​ (m. 1954; div. 1958)​ Martin Colbert ​ (m. 1960)​
Children	2

Biography

She was born in 1933 as Beverly Josephine Williams in Los Angeles to actress and comedian Joan Davis and actor and writer Si Wills. Wills made her film debut in George White's Scandals (1945) when she was age 11.^[1] Mickey (1948) followed three years later.

In 1952, at age 18, Wills appeared with her mother and Jim Backus in the TV comedy I Married Joan (1952–1955). She played the younger sister of her real-life mother.^[2] After the series ended its run, Wills appeared in four more films, including Some Like It Hot (1959) and Son of Flubber (1963).

Wills married three times before the age of 30. Her first marriage was to Lee Bamber, a Pasadena fireman, in 1952. Bamber and Wills eloped to Carson City, Nevada. The couple divorced in 1953. She later married Alan Grossman on July 11, 1954; the couple had two sons. Wills and Grossman divorced, and she married Martin Colbert.^[3][4][5]

On October 24, 1963, Wills died in a house fire with her grandmother, Nina Davis, and both children from her second marriage, sons Guy (age 7) and Larry (age 4) Grossman. The fire started due to the 30-year-old Wills smoking in bed.^[3][6][7] Her mother, Joan, had died of a heart attack two years earlier at age 48.^[8]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1938	Anaesthesia	Little girl	short, uncredited
1945	George White's Scandals	Joan as a child
1948	Raw Deal	Girl	uncredited
	Mickey	Cathy Williams
1952	Skirts Ahoy!	Boots	uncredited
1953	Small Town Girl	Deidre
	The Life of Riley	Audrey	1 episode
1953-1955	I Married Joan	Beverly Grossman	5 episodes
1954	The Student Prince	Flirt	uncredited
1956	The Millionaire	Barbara	episode: "The Louise Williams Story"
	The People's Choice	Mandy's girlfriend	episode: "Sock and the Mayor's Election"
1957	Matinee Theater		episode: "Out of the Frying Pan"
	Tales of Wells Fargo	Sissy Stillwell	episode: "Man in the Box"
1958	Date with the Angels		episode: "Wheeler at the Cabin"
	Buckskin	Cassie	episode: "Lament for Durango"
1959	Some Like It Hot	Dolores
1961	The Ladies Man	Miss Hypochondriac
1962	The Tall Man		episode: "The Impatient Brides"
1963	Son of Flubber	Mother in commercial
	Vacation Playhouse	Clara Boone	episode: "Hooray for Love"
	Petticoat Junction	Mrs. Norton	episode: "Uncle Joe's Replacement"
1964	Mister Ed	Judy Price	episode: "Ed the Shish Kebab"

References

1. "Beverly Wills' Stage Goal: Be Herself". The Milwaukee Sentinel. July 4, 1948. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
2. Bloom, Ken; Vlastnik, Frank; Lithgow, John (2007). Sitcoms: The 101 Greatest TV Comedies of All Time. Black Dog Publishing. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-57912-752-7.
3. "Fire Kills Joan Davis' Relatives". The Evening Independent. October 24, 1963. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
4. "Joan Davis' Daughter Elopes". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. June 27, 1952. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
5. "Beverly Wills, Actress, Weds". Herald-Journal. July 12, 1954. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
6. "Fire Kills 4 Members Of Joan Davis Family". St Petersburg Times. October 25, 1963. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
7. "Fire Kills Joan Davis' Kin". The Milwaukee Journal. October 24, 1963. Retrieved July 13, 2012.^{[permanent dead link]}
8. Tucker, David C. (2007). The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms. McFarland. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-7864-2900-4.

External links

• Beverly Wills at IMDb