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Beverlee McKinsey (August 9, 1935 – May 2, 2008) was an American actress.

Career

McKinsey was born as Beverlee Magruder in McAlester, Oklahoma on August 9, 1935.^[1] She started her career in off Broadway theater, often appearing alongside James Earl Jones and Doris Belack.

After several appearances in episodic television shows in the late 1960s, she landed her first contract role as Julie Richards on Love is a Many Splendored Thing in 1970.

She made a brief appearance as Emma Frame on Another World in May 1972. Her appearance so impressed then-head writer Harding Lemay that he subsequently cast her in a drastically different role from dowdy Emma - that of manipulative, scheming Iris Cory. McKinsey played that role from December 1972 to July 1980, and also played Iris on Another World spinoff Texas from August 1980 to November 1981. During much of her tenure on Another World, McKinsey's portrayal of Iris was part of an unconventional triangle - the character was trying to break up her father and his new wife. When she appeared on Texas, she was given star billing in the show's opening credits.

After leaving the cast of Texas in late 1981, McKinsey was wooed back to daytime by former Texas producer Gail Kobe to Guiding Light, which Kobe was now producing. McKinsey played powerful Alexandra Spaulding on Guiding Light from February 1984 until August 1992.

McKinsey's exit from Guiding Light consisted of leaving on a planned eight-week vacation. McKinsey then informed Procter & Gamble that she did not intend to return to the show. She had an "out clause" meaning she could quit the show after every six month period, a clause that even executive producer Jill Farren Phelps was unaware of.

Soap Opera Digest calls McKinsey one of the finest actresses ever to work on soap operas, and TV Guide soap columnist Michael Logan wrote in 1992 that she was the "greatest actress ever to grace daytime drama."

Personal life

Her son, Scott McKinsey, is a director on the soap opera General Hospital (on which she briefly appeared in 1994).

She had resisted all entreaties to return to daytime television. After some health issues, including a kidney transplant, McKinsey retired to Southern California and made few public appearances; Michael Logan famously described McKinsey as "[making] Greta Garbo look like a chatterbox!"

McKinsey died of complications due to a kidney transplant on May 2, 2008.

References

External links

• Beverlee McKinsey at the Internet Movie Database
• 1992 TV Guide Interview with McKinsey
• Irises: The Unofficial Beverlee McKinsey and Carmen Duncan Home Page
• 'Iris' character bio from Eddie's AW Home Page
• Clips from Texas episodes
• Beverlee McKinsey Tribute from Respectance.com
• Bio/obituary from FindAGrave.com
• Obituary from the New York Times