Whitney Blake

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Whitney Blake (February 20, 1925 - September 28, 2002) was a film and television actress, and mother of actress Meredith Baxter. She also directed films and was co-creator of the television sitcom One Day at a Time, with her third husband, writer Allan Manings.

The attractive blonde actress (born Nancy Whitney) appeared on a number of television programs but is probably best remembered for playing Dorothy ("Mrs. B.") Baxter, an interior designer and wife of a successful attorney (Don DeFore), on the sitcom Hazel (1961) starring Shirley Booth. After demand for her in television and films dwindled, Blake became a hostess of a Los Angeles television talk show. After that, Blake reinvented herself again and became a film and TV director, producer and writer.

She appeared on the first episode of the long running television program Perry Mason and appeared in the first film version of a Mike Hammer novel when she starred in My Gun Is Quick in the 1950s.

She died of cancer at her home in Edgartown, Massachusetts at the age of 77.