HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Actress Gloria McMillan, best known for her role as Harriet Conklin in “Our Miss Brooks,” died Jan. 19 at the age of 88 at her home in Huntington Beach, California.
Friends of the radio, television and movie star confirmed her passing on Facebook.
“She was, indeed, a beautiful, talented and loving person,” Ron Cocking, her husband of 35 years, told The Hollywood Reporter, confirming that she had been diagnosed in November with a cancerous tumor in her bile duct.
McMillan, whose career began in the late 1930s, was born in Portland, Oregon, but moved with her family to Hollywood as a child, THR reported.
According to the entertainment news outlet, McMillan voiced Harriet Conklin on the radio version of “Our Miss Brooks” from 1948 until 1957, a role which she reprised for both the TV series of the same name from 1952 to 1956 and the 1956 feature film. She performed her first radio role at the age of 4.
McMillan also appeared on a 1966 episode of “Dr. Kildare,” as a judge in the Barbara Feldon beauty-pageant satire “Smile” in 1975 and in the 1978-79 miniseries “Centennial.” Her final role was an appearance on “Perfect Strangers” in 1990, THR reported.
McMillan is survived by Cocking, their five children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.