Actress Jeff Donnell, 66, Dies

Jeff Donnell, the wide-eyed ingenue in nearly 50 films who became George Gobel’s beleaguered wife, Alice, when his popular television show went on the air in 1954, has died of an apparent heart attack.

Her son, Phineas Anderson, said his mother was 66 and died at her home in Hollywood on Monday. A star or featured player in more than 50 movies, she portrayed Gidget’s mother in that series. She later was seen on television on “The U.S. Steel Hour” and “Playhouse 90” and most recently had played the role of Stella Fields, a housekeeper and maid on the daytime series “General Hospital.”