Gloria Stroock obit

Gloria Stroock, ‘McMillan & Wife’ and ‘Fun With Dick and Jane’ Actress, Dies at 99

A member of a great showbiz family, she was predeceased by her husband, Emmy-winning writer-producer Leonard B. Stern, and her sister, actress Geraldine Brooks. 

She was not on the list.

Gloria Stroock, who played Rock Hudson’s secretary on McMillan & Wife and appeared in films including Fun With Dick and Jane, The Competition and The Day of the Locust, has died. She was 99.

Stroock died May 5 of natural causes in Tucson, Arizona, her daughter, Kate Stern, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Stroock was married to Emmy-winning writer-producer Leonard B. Stern (Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion, The Phil Silvers Show, The Honeymooners, Get Smart and much more) from 1956 until his death in 2011 at age 87.

Her late younger sister was Geraldine Brooks, a Tony nominee and Warner Bros. contract player (Cry Wolf, Embraceable You).

Stroock recurred as Maggie, the secretary of Hudson’s San Francisco police commissioner Stewart McMillan, on the final three seasons (1974-77) of McMillan & Wife, the NBC series created by her husband.

She portrayed the wife of Richard Dysart’s art director in John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust (1975), starring Donald Sutherland and Karen Black; the wife of Ed McMahon’s embezzling boss in Ted Kotcheff’s Fun With Dick and Jane (1977), starring George Segal and Jane Fonda; and the mother of Richard Dreyfuss’ struggling pianist in Joel Oliansky’s The Competition (1980).

Gloria Jane Stroock was born in Manhattan on July 10, 1924. Her father, Jimmie, owned the Brooks Costume and Uniform Co., then the foremost maker of theatrical costumes in New York. Her mother, Bianca, designed modern clothes for the stage. Thus, she and her sister went to Broadway openings, the Ziegfeld Follies and the circus all the time.

While attending Camp Fernwood in Poland, Maine, Stroock she wrote a song that campers still sing today, her family noted.

She made it to Broadway in 1945, appearing in Oh, Brother and as Meg in a revival of Little Women; worked on such TV anthology shows as Kraft Theater, Starlight Theater and Studio One; modeled for Look and Life magazines; and sat for portraits painted by renowned artist Eugene Speicher.

She came to Los Angeles after marrying Stern in a ceremony at the St. Regis Hotel in New York. (Phil Silvers was an usher in their wedding party.)

Stroock played Rose Kennedy in the 1977 ABC telefilm Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy and also showed up on episodes of Mama, Martin Kane, The Snoop Sisters, Baretta, Operation Petticoat and Archie Bunker’s Place and in Kotcheff’s 1983 film Uncommon Valor.

As a member of Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills, she starred in Driving Miss Daisy and other plays for 35 years. Her memoir, Cast of Characters, was published when she was 93, and she had a solo exhibition of her sculpting work at 95.

“An elegant, gracious and radiant woman, Gloria disliked freeways and bad grammar, never met a bar of dark chocolate she didn’t love and had an uncanny memory for song lyrics,” her family wrote.

“When asked in her mid-90s to what she owed her longevity, she said, ‘I wake up every day singing and go to bed the same way, and that puts me in a good mood for the day and gives me pleasant dreams at night.’”

She died at the home of her son, Emmy-nominated film editor Michael Stern (The X-Files, Angel, Orange Is the New Black).

In addition to her son and daughter, survivors include her daughter-in-law, Laura; grandchildren Ryan and Dylan; and great-grandchildren Gabriella, Jackson, Grayson, Noir and J.J.

Brooks, 15 months younger than Stroock, died in 1977 at age 51 of a heart attack while undergoing treatment for cancer. She was married to Emmy-winning screenwriter-producer Herb Sargent (co-creator of “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live) and novelist and Oscar-winning screenwriter Budd Schulberg.

Actress

No Easy Way (1996)

No Easy Way

8.9

Alice Jacobson (as Gloria Stoock)

1996

 

Missing Pieces (1991)

Missing Pieces

5.2

Woman at Concert

1991

 

Richard Crenna and Joanne Woodward in Passions (1984)

Passions

6.6

TV Movie

Theona

1984

 

Uncommon Valor (1983)

Uncommon Valor

6.3

Mrs. MacGregor

1983

 

Martin Balsam, Carroll O'Connor, Danielle Brisebois, and Jean Stapleton in Archie Bunker's Place (1979)

Archie Bunker's Place

6.4

TV Series

Darcy Green

1982

1 episode

 

The Patricia Neal Story (1981)

The Patricia Neal Story

7.1

TV Movie

Gloria Stroock

1981

 

Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving in The Competition (1980)

The Competition

6.6

Mrs. Dietrich

1980

 

Seed of Innocence (1980)

Seed of Innocence

5.3

Sophie, Danny's Mother

1980

 

City in Fear (1980)

City in Fear

6.3

TV Movie

Publisher's Assistant

1980

 

Death Car on the Freeway (1979)

Death Car on the Freeway

5.4

TV Movie

Dr. Rita Glass

1979

 

Jamie Lee Curtis, John Astin, Bond Gideon, Richard Gilliland, Melinda Naud, and Dorrie Thomson in Operation Petticoat (1977)

Operation Petticoat

6.6

TV Series

Mrs. Sommers

Elaine Summers

1977–1978

3 episodes

 

Robert Blake in Baretta (1975)

Baretta

6.7

TV Series

Mrs. Outerbridge

1978

1 episode

 

ABC Afterschool Specials (1972)

ABC Afterschool Specials

7.1

TV Series

Mrs. Arthur

1977

1 episode

 

Peter Strauss in Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy (1977)

Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy

7.8

TV Movie

Rose Kennedy

1977

 

Squire Fridell and Tony Roberts in Rosetti and Ryan (1977)

Rosetti and Ryan

7.3

TV Series

Mrs. Blaine

1977

1 episode

 

Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in McMillan & Wife (1971)

McMillan & Wife

7.2

TV Series

Maggie

Mac's Secretary

1974–1977

6 episodes

 

Fun with Dick and Jane (1977)

Fun with Dick and Jane

6.4

Mildred Blanchard

1977

 

John Schuck in Holmes and Yoyo (1976)

Holmes and Yoyo

5.9

TV Series

Mrs. Thornhill

1976

1 episode

 

Karen Black in The Day of the Locust (1975)

The Day of the Locust

6.9

Alice Estee

1975

 

Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick in The Snoop Sisters (1972)

The Snoop Sisters

7.8

TV Series

Pinke Allen

1972

1 episode

 

Studio One (1948)

Studio One

7.6

TV Series

Alice

Lydia

Sally Spence

1950–1955

3 episodes

 

Judson Laire and Peggy Wood in Mama (1949)

Mama

8.3

TV Series

1955

1 episode

 

Robert Montgomery Presents (1950)

Robert Montgomery Presents

7.9

TV Series

Joan Martin (as Gloria Strovck)

1955

1 episode

 

Modern Romances

TV Series

1955

1 episode

 

Kraft Theatre (1947)

The United States Steel Hour

8.0

TV Series

Ellen

1955

1 episode

 

Spotlight

TV Series

1954

1 episode

 

Newsstand Theatre

TV Series

1952

1 episode

 

Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949)

Captain Video and His Video Rangers

6.6

TV Series

Vially

1952

1 episode

 

Martin Kane (1949)

Martin Kane

6.8

TV Series

Maryann

1951

1 episode

 

Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950)

Armstrong Circle Theatre

7.8

TV Series

1950

1 episode

 

Kraft Theatre (1947)

The Philco Television Playhouse

7.6

TV Series

1950

2 episodes

 

Starlight Theatre (1950)

Starlight Theatre

7.9

TV Series

1950

1 episode

 

The Girls

3.0

TV Series

Cornelia Otis Skinner (Feb-Mar)

1950

 

NBC Presents (1949)

NBC Presents

5.5

TV Series

1949

1 episode

 

Kraft Theatre (1947)

Kraft Theatre

8.0

TV Series

1948

1 episode