Sharon Farrell obit

Sharon Farrell, Actress in ‘It’s Alive,’ ‘Marlowe’ and ‘The Reivers,’ Dies at 82

She also was known for her turns in 'The Stunt Man,' 'Lone Wolf McQuade,' 'Can't Buy Me Love,' 'Hawaii Five-O' and 'The Young and the Restless.' 

She was not on the list.

Sharon Farrell, who starred as the mother of a murderous infant in It’s Alive and contributed strong supporting turns opposite James Garner and Steve McQueen, respectively, in the 1969 films Marlowe and The Reivers, has died. She was 82.

Farrell died unexpectedly May 15 of natural causes at a hospital in Orange County, her son, Chance Boyer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Farrell also played a movie hairstylist in Richard Rush‘s The Stunt Man (1980), the ex-wife of Chuck Norris’ Texas Ranger in Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) and the mother of the cheerleader portrayed by Amanda Peterson in Can’t Buy Me Love (1987).

On television, Farrell recurred as Det. Lori Wilson on the final season (1979-80) of CBS’ Hawaii Five-O and was Florence Webster, mother of Tricia Cast’s Nina Webster, on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless from 1991-97.

In the horror thriller It’s Alive (1974), written and directed by Larry Cohen and featuring special effects make-up from Rick Baker, Farrell’s Lenore Davis feverishly tries to protect the hideously deformed child she just had, even though the infant has escaped from the hospital and is killing people around town.

Farrell sets the story in motion in Marlowe when her character, a Kansas woman named Orfamay Quest, hires private eye Philip Marlowe (Garner) to find her brother, and she played the love interest of McQueen’s Boon Hogganbeck in The Reivers, directed by Mark Rydell.

Sharon Forsmoe was born on Christmas Eve in 1940 in Sioux City, Iowa. She joined the American Ballet Company, worked in a road production of Oklahoma! and moved to New York, where she acted and modeled.

She made her film debut alongside Elaine Stritch in Kiss Her Goodbye (1959), then danced on Broadway in 1960 in Josh Logan’s There Was a Little Girl, starring Jane Fonda and Dean Jones.

In 1962, Farrell starred alongside Nick Adams on the short-lived NBC newspaper drama Saints and Sinners and appeared with Tony Curtis and Suzanne Pleshette in the comedy film 40 Pounds of Trouble.

Farrell was quite busy with TV guest-starring roles over the decades, showing up on everything from My Favorite Martian, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Wild Wild West to The F.B.I., The Six Million Dollar Man, McCloud, Police Woman, Matlock and JAG.

Her film résumé also included A Lovely Way to Die (1968), Not With My Wife, You Don’t! (1966), Jacqueline Susann’s The Love Machine (1971) and Night of the Comet (1984).

In the 2018 book Bruce Lee: A Life, author Matthew Polly notes that the martial arts legend and McQueen were involved in “a love triangle” with Farrell that resulted in Lee and McQueen not doing a movie together.

Farrell also had relationships with actors Andrew Prine and John F. Boyer, producer Ron DeBlasio and director Dale Trevillion, but she never married them or anyone else, her son noted. “That’s something they do in Hollywood, to say that they’re married,” he said.

In addition to Chance, who played a surfer on the 1991-93 syndicated TV series Harry and the Hendersons and was on General Hospital and in Frank Marshall’s Arachnophobia (1990), survivors include her grandson, Wayde, and daughter-in-law Mandi.

Filmography

 

Film

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1959    Kiss Her Goodbye            Emily Watson           

1962    40 Pounds of Trouble            Dolores           

1965    The Spy with My Face     Sandy Wister 

1968    A Lovely Way to Die       Carol   

1969            Marlowe            Orfamay Quest           

1969    The Reivers Corrie 

1971    The Love Machine            Maggie Stewart           

1974    It's Alive    Lenore

1976    The Premonition            Sheri Bennett

1978    The Fifth Floor            Melanie           

1980    Out of the Blue            Kathy  

1980    The Stunt Man            Denise 

1981            Separate Ways Karen Haskell

1983    Sweet Sixteen Kathy Hopkins          

1983    Lone Wolf McQuade            Molly McQuade        

1984    Night of the Comet            Doris   

1987    Can't Buy Me Love            Mrs. Mancini           

1989    One Man Force            Shirley 

1991    Lonely Hearts  Louise 

1993    Arcade            Alex's Mom    Video

1995    Beyond Desire  Shirley 

1995    A Gift from Heaven            Ma Samuels           

1996            Timeless Obsession            Mrs. Sparrow          

1997    Last Chance Love            Mrs. Worthington    

Television

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1961    Naked City      Actress (uncredited)            Episode: "The Hot Minerva"

1962    Alfred Hitchcock Presents            Lolly Wilkens            Episode: "The Matched Pearl"

1962    Wagon Train    Judy            Episode: "The Orly French Story"

1962-1963            Saints and Sinners            Polly Holloran            12 episodes

1963    Empire            Lisa Barry            Episode: "Stopover on the Way to the Moon"

1963    My Favorite Martian            Gloria Trimble            Episode: "There Is No Cure for the Common Martian"

1963    Death Valley Days            Cara Franklin            Episode: "The Holy Terror"

1963    Kraft Suspense Theatre Althea Winton            Episode: "Are There Any More Out There Like You?"

1963    The Lieutenant            Pam Canford            Episode: "Alert"

1963    Ben Casey   Michael Ann Bowersox            Episode: "The White Ones Are Dolphins"

1963            Gunsmoke      Lottie

Belle            Episode: "With a Smile"

Episode: "Quint's Trail"

1964    Arrest and Trial            Angela            Episode: "Onward and Upward"

1964    Wagon Train    Pearlie Garnet            Episode: "The Pearlie Garnet Story"

1964    Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Melissa            Episode: "A Slow Fade to Black"

1964            Gunsmoke      Annie            Episode: "Trip West"

1964    The Fugitive            Elvie            Episode: "Corner of Hell"

1964    Burke's Law     Libby Hale            Episode: "Who Killed the Surf Broad?"

1964    The Alfred Hitchcock Hour    Melanie Rydell            Episode: "The Second Verdict"

1964    Dr. Kildare Jeanne Sawyer            Episode: "Night of the Beast"

1964    The Man from U.N.C.L.E.            Sandy Wister            Episode: "The Double Affair"

1964    Ben Casey   Ellen Hardin            Episode: "For a Just Man Falleth Seven Times"

1965    Ben Casey   Penny Carson            Episode: "The Day They Stole County General"

1965    The Alfred Hitchcock Hour    Rosie            Episode: "Final Performance"

1965    The Beverly Hillbillies            Kitty Devine            Episode: "The Movie Starlet"

1965    The Fugitive            Elvie            Episode: "Corner of Hell"

1965            Rawhide          Billie Lou            Episode: "Hostage for Hanging"

1965    I Dream of Jeannie Nina Ferguson            Episode: "The Yacht Murder Case"

1965    My Three Sons            Cathy            Episode: "My Son, the Ballerina"

1965    Dr. Kildare Glenda Hester

Rachel Field            3 episodes

1966    The Wackiest Ship in the Army                   Episode: "Girl in Polka-Dot Swimsuit"

1966    Run for Your Life            Jenny

Louise            Episode: "The Night of Terror"

Episode: "The Sex Object"

1966    The Man from U.N.C.L.E.            Leslie Stemmler            Episode: "The Minus-X Affair"

1967    Iron Horse   Carrie            Episode: "The Pembrooke Blood"

1967    The Man from U.N.C.L.E.            Jacqueline Midcult            Episode: "The Pieces of Fate Affair"

1967    The Virginian            Mavis            Episode: "Execution at Triste"

1968    The Wild Wild West    Cloris Colton            Episode: "The Night of the Amnesiac"

1968    Insight              Episode: "Look Back to the Garden"

1968            Premiere          Joan Mears            Episode: "Lassiter"

1969    The Name of the Game   Jesse Boone            Episode: "A Hard Case of the Blues"

1970            Quarantined     Ginny Pepper TV movie

1970            Medical Center            Linda Atwood            Episode: "Between Dark and Daylight"

1970    Men at Law     Donna Brooks            Episode: "Easy to Be Hard"

1971    The Name of the Game            Sandrelle            Episode: "LA 2017"

1971    Dr. Simon Locke            Maggie            Episode: "Target Ms. Blue"

1971    The D.A.     Georgia Young            Episode: "The People vs. Edwards"

1972    The Eyes of Charles Sand    Emily Parkhurst            TV movie

1972    Banyon            Wanda            Episode: "Meal Ticket"

1972    Marcus Welby, M.D.            Cecile Ramsey            Episode: "He Could Sell Iceboxes to Eskimos"

1973    The New Perry Mason  Pat Morrisey            Episode: "The Case of the Murdered Murderer"

1973    Police Story    Bobbie            Episode: "Requiem for an Informer"

1973    Wide World Mystery            Linda            Episode: "A Little Bit Like Murder"

1974    Wide World Mystery            Madeline Rivera            Episode: "The Cloning of Clifford Swimmer"

1974    Love, American Style            Sheila            Episode: "Love and the Flying Finletters"

1974    The F.B.I.   Lee Thomas            Episode: "The $20,000,000 Hit"

1974    Police Story    Bobbie            Episode: "The Hunters"

1974    Chase            Elaine            Episode: "Remote Control"

1974    Insight            Susan            Episode: "The Theft"

1974    The Underground Man     Marty Nickerson            TV movie

1974            Petrocelli          Arlene Johnson            Episode: "A Life for a Life"

1974    The Six Million Dollar Man     Angie Walker            Episode: "Stranger in Broken Fork"

1974    Police Woman            Marcia Gordon            Episode: "The Cradle Robbers"

1975            Emergency!            Catherine            Episode: "Smoke Eater"

1975    Harry O         Pauline            Episode: "For the Love of Money"

1975            Kolchak: The Night Stalker Lila Morton            Episode: "Chopper"

1975    Police Story    Kathy Sherman            Episode: "The Execution"

1975            McCloud        Holly Dayton            Episode: "Showdown at Times Square"

1975    Bronk               Episode: "The Pickoff"

1976    Police Woman            Hallie            Episode: "The Death of a Dream"

1976            Gibbsville         Mildred            Episode: "Afternoon Waltz"

1977-1980            Hawaii Five-O Det. Lori Wilson            13 episodes

1978    Hawaii Five-O Frankie Demara           

1978    Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color            Mamma Doyle            Episode: "The Young Runaways"

1978    Match Game '78            Herself            5 Episodes

1978    Man from Atlantis            Charlene Baker            Episode: "Deadly Carnival"

1979    The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang            Flo Quick   TV movie

1979    Mrs. Columbo            Dorothy Hunt            Episode: "Falling Star"

1980    Rage!            Dottie            TV movie

1981    Born to Be Sold            Joan Helick  TV movie

1983    T. J. Hooker            Irene Gordon            Episode: "Sweet Sixteen and Dead"

1983    Small & Frye Rita            Episode: "The Case of the Street of Silence"

1984-1985            Rituals            Cherry Lane     TV series

1989            Freddy's Nightmares            Mrs. Wax            Episode: "Do You Know Where Your Kids Are?"

1991-1996            The Young and the Restless            Florence Webster            TV series

1992            Matlock          Rose Ballou            Episode: "The Abduction"

1993    Sworn to Vengeance            Sylvia Haskell TV movie

1995    Yakuza Connection            Lois            TV movie

1999    JAG            Mary Hanratti            Episode: "Dungaree Justice"

2013–2014            Broken at Love            Grandma Geraldine            2 episodes