Cynthia Pepper

Cynthia Pepper (born September 4, 1940) is an American actress whose principal work was accomplished during the early 1960s. Born Cynthia Anne Culpepper in Hollywood, California, she was the daughter of entertainer Jack Pepper (Edward Jackson Culpepper, 1902–1979), and Pepper's second wife, Dawn.^[1][2]

She is retired from television and film but still makes personal appearances arranged through her website.^[3]

In 1960, Pepper appeared in three episodes of two ABC/Warner Brothers detective series, Bourbon Street Beat, with Andrew Duggan and Richard Long, and 77 Sunset Strip with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roger Smith, and Edd Byrnes.^[4]

In 1960-1961, she was cast as next-door teenager Jean Pearson, the romantic interest of young Mike Douglas, played by Tim Considine, in Fred MacMurray’s long-running My Three Sons.^[2] The next year, Pepper starred in her own 26-week series, Margie in the role of the Roaring Twenties teenager Margie Clayton.^[2] Pepper was actually twenty-one at the time Margie went on the air. Margie followed My Three Sons on the ABC Thursday night schedule. Her costars on Margie included Penny Parker as her friend Maybelle Jackson and Tommy Ivo as boyfriend Haywood Botts. Character actor Dave Willock played her father, Harvey Clayton. Wesley Marie Tackitt portrayed her mother, Nora Clayton.^[4]

On February 2, 1962, just weeks before Margie ended its run, Pepper appeared as herself on the program Here's Hollywood with hostess Helen O'Connell. The program interviewed celebrities, often at their homes.^[4] After Margie, Pepper appeared in 1964 as PFC Midge Riley with Elvis Presley in the film Kissin' Cousins. In 2002-2003, she appeared in television documentaries about Presley’s life and recalled her own experiences with him.^[4]

On December 2, 1963, Pepper appeared as Paula, the daughter of Sandra Cummings (Rhonda Fleming) in the 90-minute ABC western series, Wagon Train in the episode entitled "The Sandra Cummings Story". Years after using her considerable charms to escape from a Confederate prison camp, singer Sandra Cummings joins the wagon train, along with her musical troupe and her daughter Paula. From the time he first sees Sandra, Cooper Smith Robert Fuller begins acting strangely and initiates a relationship with Paula despite Sandra's excessive objection that her daughter see any men. Coop's behavior alienates him from Duke Shannon (Denny Miller) and others on the wagon train, and Sandra has members of her troupe try to beat up Coop. The reasons for the attitudes of both Coop and Sandra stem from Coop's younger brother, Jefferson Smith (Jack Easton, Jr.), who had aided Sandra's release from prison and was hanged for letting a prisoner escape. Coop learned of these developments because his younger brother had written him a letter of explanation before he was hanged.

In 1964, Pepper returned to My Three Sons for a final guest appearance. In the story line, she returns to fictitious Bryant Park to see Mike Douglas one more time but learns that Mike is engaged to Sally Ann Morrison. That year she also appeared on Perry Mason as Annalee Fisher in "The Case of the Drifting Dropout." Thereafter, her roles were limited to guest appearances on such series as The Addams Family with John Astin, Julia with Diahann Carroll and Lloyd Nolan, The Flying Nun with Sally Field, and the short-lived The Jimmy Stewart Show in 1972.^[4]

Pepper resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[5]

References