Madlyn Rhue

 Posted on June 19, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  603 words  |  Martina Birk

Actress

Actress Madlyn Rhue, whose acting career spanned three decades and scores of TV appearances on shows ranging from “Perry Mason” to “Murder, She Wrote,” died Dec. 16 of pneumonia and heart failure at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 68.

Rhue was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1977 but continued working into the 1990s. She also appeared in a campaign for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Washington, D.C., native moved as a teenager to Los Angeles and later went to New York to pursue acting. At one point, she was a showgirl at the famed Latin Quarter nightclub.

She made her television debut in the late 1950s, appearing on shows including “Have Gun, Will Travel” “Cheyenne” and “Gunsmoke.”

She had many guest or supporting roles, and played small parts in movies such as 1959’s “Operation Petticoat” and 1963’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”

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She had recurring roles in the TV series “Bracken’s World,” “Houston Knights” and “Days of Our Lives” and portrayed the Cabot Cove librarian in CBS’ long-running “Murder, She Wrote.”

She was married to actor Tony Young but they divorced; he died last year.

Rhue is survived by a sister.

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