Ena Hartman obit

Ena Hartman, ‘Dan August’ and ‘Terminal Island’ Actress, Dies at 93

After modeling and making history with a contract at NBC, she appeared on the big screen in ‘Our Man Flint,’ ‘Games’ and ‘Airport.’ 

She was not on the list.

Ena Hartman, a pioneering Black actress who had a regular role opposite Burt Reynolds on the 1970-71 ABC cop show Dan August, has died. She was 93.

Hartman died April 16 of natural causes at her home in Van Nuys, her goddaughter Lorraine Foxworth told The Hollywood Reporter.

Hartman also is known for her starring turn as the tough girl Carmen Simms alongside Tom Selleck, Don Marshall, Roger E. Mosley, Phyllis Davis and Marta Kristen in the cult prison-set film Terminal Island (1973), written and directed by Stephanie Rothman. She assisted Lee J. Cobb’s character in the spy spoof Our Man Flint (1966), starring James Coburn; played a party guest in Games (1967), starring James Caan, Simone Signoret and Katharine Ross; and was a flight attendant in Airport (1970).

And in firsts for NBC in 1968, she appeared on the inaugural episode of Adam-12 and in the telefilm Prescription Murder, which starred Peter Falk in his initial outing as Columbo.

In one of the rare regular TV roles given to Black actresses back then, Hartman stood out as the smart, no-nonsense police dispatcher Katy Grant on Dan August, which starred Reynolds as the titular cop investigating homicides in his hometown of Santa Luisa, California.

However, the series, which also featured Richard Anderson and Norman Fell, lasted just one season and 26 episodes.

Earlier, Hartman had a chance to hit it big when famed actress-singer Dorothy Dandridge picked her to play her in a planned biopic that was to star Sidney Poitier as well. Poitier, though, decided in the final stages to pass on the film, and it was never made.

(Hartman did get to be Poitier’s guest at the 1964 Academy Awards when he became the first Black man to win the Oscar for best actor.)

Later, she was said to be in the running to play Lieutenant Uhura on NBC’s Star Trek and one of the nuns in Elvis Presley’s Change of Habit (1969), but she lost out to Nichelle Nichols and Barbara McNair, respectively. (She would appear on the first-season Trek episode “The Corbomite Maneuver.”)

The daughter of sharecroppers, Gerthaline Henry was born on April 1, 1932, in Moscow, Arkansas. Raised by her grandparents, she moved to Buffalo, New York, when she was 13 to live with her mother.

She dropped out of high school to open a restaurant and would earn enough money to go to New York City, where she would adopt a stage name, become a top model in town and study drama with Josh Shelley and A Raisin in the Sun director Lloyd Richards.

Hartman participated in an NBC-sponsored talent competition for young actors and actresses, and that got her a talent contract from the network — said to be the first such deal for any Black actor. (Ebony magazine in 1962 reported that the “grooming” contract was for five years at $12,000 a year. “It’s the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said.)

In 1964, she made her onscreen debuts on an episode of Bonanza and in the sequel feature The New Interns. And after NBC, she signed a contract with Universal and was named honorary mayor of Universal City in 1968.

Hartman also showed up on such series as Profiles in Courage, The Farmer’s Daughter, Tarzan, Ironside, It Takes a Thief, Dragnet 1967, The Name of the Game, The Outsider, Ironside and, for her final onscreen credit, a 1975 episode of Police Story.

In addition to her goddaughter, survivors include her son, Doug, and daughter-in-law, Kimberly.

Actress

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

Police Story

7.5

TV Series

Margaret

1975

1 episode

 

Terminal Island (1973)

Terminal Island

5.3

Carmen Simms

1973

 

Burt Reynolds and Norman Fell in Dan August (1970)

Dan August

7.1

TV Series

Katy Grant

1970–1971

26 episodes

 

Burt Lancaster, Jacqueline Bisset, Van Heflin, George Kennedy, Dean Martin, Barbara Hale, Helen Hayes, Barry Nelson, Lloyd Nolan, Jean Seberg, Maureen Stapleton, and Dana Wynter in Airport (1970)

Airport

6.6

Ruth

1970

 

Raymond Burr and Barbara Sigel in Ironside (1967)

Ironside

6.9

TV Series

Janet HolmesMillie RobertsBetty Masterson

1967–1969

3 episodes

 

Darren McGavin in The Outsider (1968)

The Outsider

7.9

TV Series

Eleanor Springer

1968

1 episode

 

It Takes a Thief (1968)

It Takes a Thief

7.5

TV Series

Jasmin

1968

1 episode

 

The Name of the Game (1968)

The Name of the Game

7.6

TV Series

Valerie

1968

1 episode

 

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

Adam-12

7.7

TV Series

Mrs. Fred Warner

1968

1 episode

 

Peter Falk, Nina Foch, Gene Barry, Katherine Justice, and William Windom in Prescription: Murder (1968)

Prescription: Murder

7.9

TV Movie

Nurse

1968

 

Harry Morgan and Jack Webb in Dragnet 1967 (1967)

Dragnet 1967

7.7

TV Series

Ida Walters

1967

1 episode

 

James Caan, Katharine Ross, Marjorie Bennett, Simone Signoret, and Don Stroud in Games (1967)

Games

6.4

Party Guest

1967

 

Stuart Rosenberg in Fame Is the Name of the Game (1966)

Fame Is the Name of the Game

7.3

TV Movie

Marcia Davenport

1966

 

Tarzan (1966)

Tarzan

7.0

TV Series

Laneen

1966

1 episode

 

Jean Arthur, Ron Harper, and Leonard Stone in The Jean Arthur Show (1966)

The Jean Arthur Show

7.5

TV Series

Edna

1966

2 episodes

 

Our Man Flint (1966)

Our Man Flint

6.4

WAC

1966

 

Inger Stevens and William Windom in The Farmer's Daughter (1963)

The Farmer's Daughter

7.4

TV Series

Corrine

1965

1 episode

 

Profiles in Courage (1964)

Profiles in Courage

8.1

TV Series

Ann Eliza Hammond

1965

1 episode

 

The New Interns (1964)

The New Interns

6.1

Party Guest (uncredited)

1964

 

Bonanza (1959)

Bonanza

7.3

TV Series

Caroline

1964

1 episode

 

Self

From Hartman to Carmen

Short

2021

 

Archive Footage

Dan August: The Trouble with Women (1980)

Dan August: The Trouble with Women

6.5

TV Movie

Katy Grant (archive footage, as Ena Hartmann)

1980

 

Dan August: Murder, My Friend (1980)

Dan August: Murder, My Friend

5.5

TV Movie

Katy Grant (archive footage, as Ena Hartmann)

1980

 

Dan August: The Jealousy Factor (1980)

Dan August: The Jealousy Factor

6.7

TV Movie

Katy Grant (archive footage, as Ena Hartmann)

1980

 

Dan August: Once Is Never Enough (1980)

Dan August: Once Is Never Enough

5.9

TV Movie

Katy Grant (archive footage, as Ena Hartmann)

1980