Jena Engstrom | |
|---|---|
 Jena Engstrom as Betty on the April 19, 1961 episode of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet titled "Selling Rick's Drums" | |
| Born | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1960 - 1964 |
| Parent | Jean Engstrom |
Jena Engstrom (born in Los Angeles, California) is an American former television actress. She appeared in more than three dozen episodes of various television series between 1960 and 1964.
Jena Engstrom began acting after graduating from high school [1] and first appeared on television in the 1960 episode "Adopted" of the ABC crime drama, The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor . She appeared in 37 television programs[ citation needed ] before making her final appearance opposite guest star Robert Culp in the 1964 episode, "The Stallion", of NBC's The Virginian . [2] She played a girl who had a crush on Steve Douglas in an October 19, 1961 episode of My Three Sons .
Jena Engstrom is the daughter of actress Jean Engstrom [ citation needed ] whose television career (1955-1966) [3] overlapped her daughter's and whose career also included movie and regional stage appearances. [3] [4] Most on-line databases and this article have listed only two of the three TV shows in which they appeared together.
The first of the two shows listed is the April 1961 episode of the CBS program Rawhide titled "Incident of the Lost Idol" in which they appeared as mother and daughter. They had only one brief scene together as the story was not about their relationship.
The second show listed is the January 1962 episode "To Sell Another Human Being" of ABC's The New Breed , starring Leslie Nielsen, [3] in which mother Jean played a wealthy woman who with her husband (played by Richard Arlen) adopt a baby through an adoption mill. The police get involved when the baby's natural mother, played by daughter Jena, tries to get her baby back.
The third television show in which they appeared together is an unidentified 30-minute religious program presented in 1961 in which they played mother and daughter. In this story a girl (Jena) has trouble relating to her parents until a session with teenagers at a church is recorded and the recording made available to the parents to listen to. Appearing in this show with Jean and Jena Engstrom are Robert Stevenson as Jena's father and Richard Evans as her boyfriend. This film, minus the opening and closing credits, has been posted on-line. [5]
Twenty-one of Engstrom's thirty-seven roles were in television westerns. She appeared three times each on Have Gun, Will Travel , and Wagon Train , as well as Rawhide , twice each on Bonanza , Gunsmoke , and Laramie , and once each on The Tall Man , Death Valley Days , Frontier Circus , and Outlaws , as well as her final performance as an actress in The Virginian.
In "The Education of Sarah Jane" episode of Have Gun, Will Travel , Engstrom appeared as Sarah Jane. In the "Milly" episode of Gunsmoke , she played Milly Glover. In the episode "Chester’s Indian", Engstrom plays Callie Dill. In 1962, in one of her three appearances on Rawhide , she had the title role of "The Child-Woman" in an episode. In 1961, she portrayed Laurie Manson in "The Incident of the Lost Idol". She retired from acting in 1964, not long after appearing on Wagon Train and in an episode of Perry Mason in which she plays Vera Janel in "The Case of the Illicit Illusion". Her final television appearance was on The Virginian in an episode broadcast in September 1964, "The Black Stallion".
Engstrom left acting in 1964, possibly because of health considerations. In 1963, she was cast in what was to have been a recurring role of Jennie in the series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters , starring Kurt Russell, [6] but had to give up the role because of illness and was replaced by Donna Anderson. [7] [8]
In June 1964, she was replaced again because of ill health by Davey Davison in the episode "Children of Calamity" of Richard Crenna's CBS drama series, Slattery's People . [9]
The acting credits of mother Jean and daughter Jena were confused at the time they were active in the business resulting in mixed credits in newspapers and problems with pay checks. [1] For a long time the credits were confused on many Internet databases, and while some errors still exist, many have been corrected.[ citation needed ]
Several of the television series listed below have been released by their studios on DVDs that are available for sale or for rent.
Note: "Episode" column: 2.9 indicates Season 2, Episode 9, etc.
| AIR DATE [10] | SHOW | EPISODE | EPISODE TITLE | CHARACTER | NOTES | DVD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 25, 1960 | The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor | 2.9 | "Adopted" [11] | Ann Martin | 1st of 2 appearances on this show. | |
| Feb. 5, 1961 | Shirley Temple Theatre | 2.19 | "The Fawn" [12] | Kathy | ||
| Feb. 25, 1961 | Have Gun, Will Travel | 4.23 | "Fatal Flaw" [13] | Cassandra Langford | 1st of 3 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Mar. 14, 1961 | The Red Skelton Hour | 10.17 | "Freddy and the Baby" [14] | Young Woman (Baby's Mother) | Yes | |
| Apr. 19, 1961 | The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet | 9.30 | "Selling Rick's Drums" [15] | Betty Hamilton | Yes | |
| Apr. 28, 1961 | Rawhide | 3.24 | "Incident of the Lost Idol" [16] | Laurie Manson | 1st of 3 appearances on this show. Mother Jean Engstrom also appears in this episode. | Yes |
| Jun. 11, 1961 | The Asphalt Jungle | 1.11 | "The Kidnapping" | Karen Meriden | ||
| Sep. 23, 1961 | Have Gun, Will Travel | 5.2 | "The Education of Sarah Jane" [17] | Sarah Jane Darrow | 2nd of 3 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Oct. 1, 1961 | Bonanza | 3.2 | "Springtime" [18] | Ann | 1st of 2 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Oct. 12, 1961 | My Three Sons | 2.3 | "The Crush" [19] | Mary Beth Jackson | Yes | |
| Oct. 14, 1961 | The Tall Man | 2.6 | "An Item for Auction" [20] | Mary Susan Naylack | Yes | |
| Oct. 23, 1961 | Death Valley Days | 10.7 | "Storm Over Truckee" [21] | Maggie Woolf | Billed as Jenna Engstrom. | |
| Oct. 30, 1961 | The Everglades | 1.4 | "Primer for Pioneers" [22] | Memory Jacks | The series is listed as "Everglades!" in the opening credits. | |
| Nov. 1, 1961 | Wagon Train | 5.6 | "The Jenna Douglas Story" [23] | Sue Thompson | Yes | |
| Nov. 2, 1961 | Outlaws | 2.5 | "The Night Riders" [24] | Louise Nichols | ||
| Nov. 25, 1961 | Gunsmoke | 7.9 | "Milly" [25] | Milly Glover | 1st of 2 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Dec. 26, 1961 | Laramie | 3.13 | "The Lawless Seven" [26] | Ginny Hawks | 1st of 2 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Jan. 16, 1962 | The New Breed | 1.16 | "To Sell Another Human Being" [3] | Mother Jean Engstrom also appears in this episode. | ||
| Mar. 2, 1962 | The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor | 3.20 | "Night Boat" [27] | Frances | 2nd of 2 appearances on this show. | |
| Mar. 14, 1962 | Wagon Train | 5.24 | "The Amos Billings Story" [28] | Loan | 2nd of 2 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Mar. 17, 1962 | Have Gun, Will Travel | 5.26 | "Alice" [29] | Maya Ferguson | 3rd of 3 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Mar. 23, 1962 | Rawhide | 4.24 | "The Child-Woman" [30] | Posie Mushgrove | 2nd of 3 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Apr. 5, 1962 | Frontier Circus | 1.20 | "Mighty Like Rogues" [31] | Betsy Ross Jukes | Yes | |
| May 12, 1962 | Gunsmoke | 7.32 | "Chester's Indian" [32] | Callie Dill | 2nd of 2 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Oct. 26, 1962 | Rawhide | 5.5 | "Incident of the Four Horsemen" [33] | Amy Galt | 3rd of 3 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Nov. 5,1962 | Stoney Burke | 1.6 | "A Matter of Pride" [34] | Meryle Hill | Yes | |
| Nov. 13, 1962 | Laramie | 4.7 | "The Sunday Shoot" [35] | Nancy Tilford | 2nd of 2 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Dec. 2, 1962 | Bonanza | 4.10 | "The Deadly Ones" [36] | Molly Reed | 2nd of 2 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Jan. 11, 1963 | Route 66 | 3.16 | "You Can't Pick Cotton in Tahiti" [37] | Elva Dupree | Yes | |
| Feb. 7, 1963 | Dr. Kildare | 2.18 | "Good Luck Charm" [38] | Marcia Laverly | Yes | |
| Apr. 17, 1963 | The Eleventh Hour | 1.27 | "Try to Keep Alive Until Next Tuesday" | Marian Snyder | Yes | |
| May 23, 1963 | The Doctors and the Nurses | 1.30 | "Bitter Pill" [39] | Jean Wheeler | The show was called The Nurses during the first season. | |
| Sep 15, 1963 | The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters | 1.1 | "The Day of Leaving" [40] | Jennie | Jena Engstrom was replaced after this pilot episode because of illness | |
| Feb. 7, 1964 | 77 Sunset Strip | 6.20 | "Queen of the Cats" [41] | Marian Armstrong | Final episode of this series.77 Sunset Strip | |
| Mar. 30, 1964 | Wagon Train | 7.20 | "The Santiago Quesada Story" [42] | Kim Case | 3rd of 3 appearances on this show. | Yes |
| Apr. 9, 1964 | Perry Mason | 7.25 | "The Case of the Ilicit Illusion" [43] | Vera Janel | Yes | |
| Sep. 30, 1964 | The Virginian | 3.3 | "The Black Stallion" [2] | Jodie Wingate | Episode also called "The Stallion" | Yes |
The year 1967 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in 1967.
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centered on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.
Bonanza is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, Bonanza is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on U.S. network television, and one of the longest-running, live-action American series. The show continues to air in syndication. The show is set in the 1860s and centers on the wealthy Cartwright family, who live in the vicinity of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe. The series initially starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and Michael Landon and later featured Guy Williams, David Canary, Mitch Vogel and Tim Matheson. The show is known for presenting pressing moral dilemmas.
John Donovan Cannon was an American actor. An alumnus of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, he is best known for his co-starring role of Chief of Detectives Peter B. Clifford in the television series McCloud with Dennis Weaver from 1970 until 1977, and for his part as the witness Lloyd Chandler who cleared Dr. Richard Kimble in "The Judgment", the series finale of The Fugitive.
Robert Martin Culp was an American actor and screenwriter widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy (1965–1968), the espionage television series in which co-star Bill Cosby and he played secret agents. Before this, he starred in the CBS/Four Star Western series Trackdown as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman in 71 episodes from 1957 to 1959. The 1980s brought him back to television as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell on The Greatest American Hero. Later, he had a recurring role as Warren Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond, and was a voice actor for various computer games, including Half-Life 2. Culp gave hundreds of performances in a career spanning more than 50 years.
Wagon Train is an American Western television series that aired for eight seasons, first on the NBC television network (1957–1962) and then on ABC (1962–1965). Wagon Train debuted on September 18, 1957 and reached the top of the Nielsen ratings. It is the fictional adventure story of a large westbound wagon train through the American frontier from Missouri to California. Its format attracted famous guest stars for each episode appearing as travelers or residents of the settlements that the regular cast encountered. The show initially starred supporting film actor Ward Bond as the wagon master and Robert Horton as the scout.
Stafford Alois Repp was an American actor best known for his role as Police Chief Miles Clancy O'Hara on ABC's Batman television series.
Anne Helm is a retired Canadian-born actress and children's author, who primarily appeared in guest roles on episodes of various American television series. Her few film roles include playing Elvis Presley's love interest in the 1962 film Follow That Dream. Helm had two recurring roles, playing Molly Pierce in five episodes during the 85-episode run of the mid-1960s series Run for Your Life and playing the minor role of nurse Mary Briggs in an unknown number of episodes of the daily soap opera General Hospital from 1971 to 1973.
Jewel Franklin Guy, known professionally as James Best, was an American television, film, stage, and voice actor, as well as a writer, director, acting coach, artist, college professor, and musician. During a career that spanned more than 60 years, he performed not only in feature films but also in scores of television series, as well as appearing on various country music programs and talk shows. Television audiences, however, perhaps most closely associate Best with his role as the bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the action-comedy series The Dukes of Hazzard, which originally aired on CBS between 1979 and 1985. He reprised the role in 1997 and 2000 for the made-for-television movies The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! and The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood (2000).
Gloria Talbott was an American film and television actress.
Eugene Barton Evans was an American actor who appeared in numerous television series, television films, and feature films between 1947 and 1989.
Claude Aubrey Akins was a character actor with a long career on stage, screen, and television. He was best known as Sheriff Lobo on the 1979–1981 television series B. J. and the Bear, and later The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, a spin-off series.
Albert Salmi was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Best known for his work as a character actor, he appeared in over 150 film and television productions.
Lawrence Dobkin was an American television director, character actor and screenwriter whose career spanned seven decades.
Jeanette Nolan was an American actress. Nominated for four Emmy Awards, she had roles in the television series The Virginian (1962–1971) and Dirty Sally (1974), and in films such as Macbeth (1948).
Rawhide is an American Western television series starring Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood. The show aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965 before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until December 7, 1965, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes. The series was produced and sometimes directed by Charles Marquis Warren, who also produced early episodes of Gunsmoke. The show is remembered by many for its theme song, "Rawhide".
Peter Whitney was an American actor in film and television. Tall and heavyset, he played brutish villains in many Hollywood films in the 1940s and 1950s.
Donald Hood Keefer was an American actor known for his versatility in performing comedic, as well as highly dramatic, roles. In an acting career that spanned more than 50 years, he appeared in hundreds of stage, film, and television productions. He was a founding member of The Actors Studio, and he performed in both the original Broadway play and 1951 film versions of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. His longest-lasting roles on television were in 10 episodes each of Gunsmoke and Angel.
Lane Bradford was an American actor. He appeared in more than 250 films and television series between 1940 and 1973, specializing in supporting "tough-guy" roles predominantly in Westerns but also in more contemporary crime dramas such as Dragnet, The Fugitive, and Hawaii Five-O.
Jean Engstrom was an American actress active in regional theater, movies, and television in the 1950s and 1960s.
