Betty Anne Rees obit

Betty Anne Rees, Actress in ‘The Unholy Rollers' and ‘Sugar Hill,' Dies at 81

 She was not on the list.

Betty Anne Rees, who portrayed tough women who weren't very nice in The Unholy Rollers and Sugar Hill, two 1970s offerings from the B-movie factory American International Pictures, has died. She was 81.

Rees died Monday at her home in Hemet, California, after a series of falls and a possible stroke, her niece, Kathleen Loucks, told The Hollywood Reporter. She also was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1990s.

The Ohio native played Janet Ingram, the secretary for Fred MacMurray's Steve Douglas, on the last of My Three Sons' 12 seasons in 1971-72. (Abby Dalton was Janet on an episode three years earlier.)

In The Unholy Rollers (1972), directed by Vernon Zimmerman, Rees portrayed Mickey Martinez, a star of the Los Angeles Avengers roller derby team who does not get along with popular new player Karen Walker (1970 Playboy Playmate of the Year Claudia Jennings).

The film, executive produced by Roger Corman and edited by Martin Scorsese, was rushed into production to take advantage of the publicity generated by MGM's big-budget roller derby movie, Kansas City Bomber, starring Raquel Welch.

Paul Maslansky's cult blaxploitation film Sugar Hill (1974) starred Marki Bey as Diana "Sugar" Hill, a woman who enlists a voodoo priestess (Zara Cully of The Jeffersons) to bring back long-dead African slaves to take revenge on the Southern mob boss (Robert Quarry) responsible for her fiancé's death.

As Celeste, the mobster's racist girlfriend, Rees gets into a fight in a bar with Sugar and (spoiler alert) gets carried off by the zombies at the end.

Elizabeth Anne Rees was born on April 14, 1943, in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Her father, James, was an attorney who owned racehorses, and her mother, Margaret, was a homemaker.

She graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1961 and attended the University of Miami before studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse and appearing on the daytime soap operas General Hospital and The Doctors. In New York, she roomed with future Benson star Caroline McWilliams, later the wife of Michael Keaton.

Rees showed up on a 1966 episode of the ABC series Shane, starring David Carradine, then made her way onto two films released the following year, The Cool Ones and Banning.

Rees went on to appear on such other shows as Adam-12, Medical Center, Mannix, Mod Squad, The F.B.I., Police Woman, S.W.A.T., The Streets of San Francisco, Lou Grant, Barnaby Jones and, in 1978 for her last credit, The Incredible Hulk.

Later, she ran Gloria Marshall Figure Salons, designed kitchens and was said to have invented a goofy '80s gift for bosses called the "Executive Teething Ring."

In addition to her niece, survivors include her sister, Barbara; her nephew, Brian; and her cats, Honey Bear and Lovey, who need a home. (Please email Loucks at keloucks620@gmail.com if you can help.)

Rees never married, but her niece said she had a romance in the 1960s with Art Modell, who had recently acquired the NFL's Cleveland Browns.

 

Actress

Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby in The Incredible Hulk (1978)

The Incredible Hulk

7.0

TV Series

Molly Margo

1978

1 episode

 

Buddy Ebsen in Barnaby Jones (1973)

Barnaby Jones

6.9

TV Series

Miriam Powers

Sherry McLeod

Judy Mason

1976–1977

3 episodes

 

Edward Asner in Lou Grant (1977)

Lou Grant

7.3

TV Series

Laurette Wycliffe

1977

1 episode

 

This Is the Life (1952)

This Is the Life

6.8

TV Series

1977

1 episode

 

The Streets of San Francisco (1972)

The Streets of San Francisco

7.3

TV Series

Yvone

Angela Chaffee

1973–1977

2 episodes

 

Robert Forster, David Birney, and Richard E. Kalk in Police Story (1973)

Police Story

7.5

TV Series

Roberta

1977

1 episode

 

S.W.A.T. (1975)

S.W.A.T.

6.7

TV Series

Janie Carew

1975

1 episode

 

The Photographer (1974)

The Photographer

6.0

Karri Stephenson

1974

 

Angie Dickinson in Police Woman (1974)

Police Woman

6.6

TV Series

Betty

1974

1 episode

 

The F.B.I. Story: The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One (1974)

The F.B.I. Story: The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One

6.2

TV Movie

Mary

1974

 

Claude Akins, Frank Converse, and Merle Haggard in Movin' On (1974)

Movin' On

7.3

TV Series

Terry

1974

1 episode

 

Sugar Hill (1974)

Sugar Hill

5.8

Celeste

1974

 

Bill Bixby in The Magician (1973)

The Magician

7.5

TV Series

Malina

1974

1 episode

 

The F.B.I. (1965)

The F.B.I.

7.4

TV Series

S.A. Joyce Hanafin

Clerk

1970–1973

2 episodes

 

The Unholy Rollers (1972)

The Unholy Rollers

5.4

Mickey

1972

 

Deathmaster (1972)

Deathmaster

5.2

Esslin

1972

 

"The Smith Family" Janet Blair, Henry Fonda, Darleen Carr, Ron Howard, Michael-James Wixted

The Smith Family

6.6

TV Series

Laura Ellis

1972

1 episode

 

My Three Sons (1960)

My Three Sons

7.1

TV Series

Janet Ingram

1971–1972

3 episodes

 

Bearcats! (1971)

Bearcats!

7.5

TV Series

Katherine Costello

1971

1 episode

 

Peggy Lipton, Michael Cole, and Clarence Williams III in Mod Squad (1968)

Mod Squad

6.9

TV Series

Kate

1971

1 episode

 

John Forsythe, Melanie Fullerton, Joyce Menges, and Susan Neher in To Rome with Love (1969)

To Rome with Love

7.4

TV Series

Sally

1971

1 episode

 

Mike Connors in Mannix (1967)

Mannix

7.4

TV Series

Cora Hayden

1971

1 episode

 

James Daly in Medical Center (1969)

Medical Center

7.1

TV Series

Technician

Wife

1970

2 episodes

 

Kent McCord and Martin Milner in Adam-12 (1968)

Adam-12

7.7

TV Series

Ann Calvelli

1970

1 episode

 

Jill St. John, Robert Wagner, Susan Clark, and Anjanette Comer in Banning (1967)

Banning

5.7

Girl in Car (uncredited)

1967

 

The Cool Ones (1967)

The Cool Ones

4.4

Girl on Tony's Staff (uncredited)

1967

 

Shane (1966)

Shane

7.1

TV Series

Rose (credit only)

1966

1 episode