Barbara Britton

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Barbara Britton (September 26, 1919 - January 17, 1980) was a film and television actress. She was the first actress to play Laura Petrie on television on the pilot program, "Head of the Family" which was retooled and became The Dick Van Dyke Show with the role taken over by Mary Tyler Moore. The California native signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures in 1941. Most of her film roles from that point on were small and forgettable. She starred in the 1950s television show Mr. and Mrs. North, a Thin Man-like mystery show. She was probably best known for being the spokesman for Revlon products in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in ads and commercials including live spots on The $64,000 Question. One of Barbara's last roles was on the daytime soap One Life to Live in 1979, a year before she died of cancer. Barbara and her husband lived for many years in a charming, rambling red shingled house in the Fairfield County town of Bethel, Connecticut before moving to the now antique-gallery-enclave of Woodbury, Connecticut.