RIP Dee Hartford

SAG-AFTRA Magazine

Summer 2020

Dee Hartford (born Donna Higgins) is a retired American television actress. She was married to Howard Hawks from 1953 to 1959. Hartford was a model turned actress who became the third wife of director Howard Hawks. She initially achieved fame in the late '40s as a model for Vogue magazine. Hartford was cast in one big-screen credit in her early career, with a role in the 1952 Groucho vehicle A Girl in Every Port, directed by Chester Erskine. She married Hawks, who was more than 30 years her senior, the following year, and did no acting during the six years they were together. They divorced in 1959, but the director gave her a small uncredited role in his 1965 film Red Line 7000. She had already resumed her acting career by then, appearing on such television programs as Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, Burke's Law, The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone. Her later work included appearances on Batman, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants and Lost in Space. Her work on the latter three series may have came about partly as a result of her younger sister Eden's marriage to Groucho Marx (from 1954 to 1969). Marx was one of the primary investors in Irwin Allen's production company, which was responsible for all three programs. Her performance as the android Verda in the 1966 Lost in Space episode "The Android Machine" led to her return in the same role in a sequel, "Revolt of the Androids". As a result of "Revolt of the Androids", Hartford became one of the most popular female guest stars in the three-year run of the series. Her last screen role to date was in Michael Campus' 1976 thriller Survival.

HARTFORD, Dee (Donna Beatrice Higgins)

Born: 4/21/1928, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.

Died: 10/21/2018, Palm Desert, California, U.S.A.

Dee Hartford’s western – actress:

Gunsmoke (TV) – 1963 (Tillie)