Janet Landgard obit

Janet Landgard Dies: ‘The Donna Reed Show’ Regular And ‘The Swimmer’ Costar Was 75

 She was not on the list.

Janet Landgard, who played Paul Petersen’s love interest for three seasons on The Donna Reed Show and later costarred with Burt Lancaster in film drama The Swimmer, died Nov. 6 at age 75 of brain cancer, according to several friends on social media.

On Facebook, actor Petersen called her “The best TV girlfriend my alternate ego, Jeff Stone, ever had. Janet was gorgeous, inside and out … a flawless Scandinavian beauty that literally stunned jaded Hollywood types into silence. We were always close no matter the time or distance.”

Born on Dec. 2, 1947, Landgard was raised in Pasadena and worked for the William Adrian Modeling Agency. She made her onscreen debut in 1963 on The Donna Reed Show while still in high school, playing a girl named Sabrina on a fifth-season episode. She also appeared on ABC’s My Three Sons that year.

That led to a recurring role as Petersen’s girlfriend, Karen, on 11 installments of The Donna Reed Show.

In the 1968 Columbia Pictures drama The Swimmer, Landgard played a former babysitter to Burt Lancaster’s character, Ned Merrill. She accompanies him on a tour of swimming pools, but flees when he tries to get too intimate.

After that, Langard appeared in Land Raiders (1969), starring Telly Savalas, George Maharis and Arlene Dahl; in the 1971 ABC telefilm The Deadly Dream, starring Lloyd Bridges and Janet Leigh; and in Moonchild (1972), starring Victor Buono.

She left acting after that.

No information on survivors or memorial plans was immediately available.

Actress

Moonchild (1972)

Moonchild

3.5

Girl

1972

 

The Deadly Dream (1971)

The Deadly Dream

6.8

TV Movie

Betty

1971

 

Land Raiders (1969)

Land Raiders

5.3

Kate Mayfield

1969

 

Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer (1968)

The Swimmer

7.6

Julie Hooper

1968

 

Shelley Fabares, Donna Reed, Carl Betz, and Paul Petersen in The Donna Reed Show (1958)

The Donna Reed Show

7.4

TV Series

Karen

Sabrina

1963–1965

12 episodes

 

Tim Considine, William Frawley, Don Grady, Stanley Livingston, and Fred MacMurray in My Three Sons (1960)

My Three Sons

7.1

TV Series

Georgia Fleck

1963

1 episode