"Mr. Ed" Actress Connie Hines 2009 Westwood Village Cemetery

Connie Hines (March 24, 1931 – December 18, 2009) was an American actress, best known for playing Alan Young's wife, Carol Post, on the 1960s sitcom Mister Ed.

Biography

Hines was one of four children born in Dedham in Norfolk County in eastern Massachusetts to an actress mother and a Boston-based teacher/acting coach father.[2] As a child, she appeared in many of her father's stock-company plays. A member of the class of 1948 at Dedham High School, she was voted the most popular girl in her class. She dated the captain of the football team and was class secretary. She tried out unsuccessfully for a part in the senior class play.[3]

After her father's death, she went on to marry an insurance agent and moved to Jacksonville, Florida. She worked as a model there and as a radio and stage actress, having programs of her own on WMBR-TV,[4] and joined a stock company in Miami. By the time she was divorced, Hines traveled to New York City to study with the Helen Hayes Equity Group. When she came to Hollywood, she lived in an apartment, rented a car and began acting with a role on an episode of the syndicated television series, Whirlybirds. Hines's first film role was in 1960's Thunder in Carolina. She also appeared in an episode of Sea Hunt in 1960 (S3E33), and in an 1960 episode of M Squad called "Burglar's Nightmare."

She made a guest appearance on the CBS western series Johnny Ringo as Lily in the episode "The Assassins." She also made a guest appearance on an episode of Bachelor Father starring John Forsythe and two guest appearances on Perry Mason. In 1960 she played defendant Lucy Stevens in "The Case of the Singular Double," then later played Sandra Dalgran, the wife of a murder victim, in a 1962 episode, "The Case of the Counterfeit Crank." Hines was cast as Lucy Bridges in the 1960 episode "Chicota Landing" of the Darren McGavin NBC western series Riverboat, along with Richard Chamberlain as a United States Army lieutenant.[5]

Mister Ed

Hines auditioned and won the role of wife, Carol Post, on Mister Ed, which was arguably her best-known character. Hines considered her role to be just getting a steady paycheck as the storylines focused more on the relationship of Wilbur and Mister Ed (the talking horse) than her. She also said that playing the same role wasn't the greatest part in the world. Around the same time, she took some acting, dancing and music classes. She continued playing that role until 1966. 

After the series ended she took guest parts on such television shows as Bonanza and The Mod Squad before she retired in 1971. Young and Hines performed together in 1996 in Irvine in the two-person play Love Letters, which deals with the correspondence of a man and woman over fifty years.

Family

A divorcee, she remarried in 1970 to Lee Savin, an entertainment lawyer and producer. They remained together until Lee Savin's death in 1995.[6]

Death

Hines died from heart problems on December 18, 2009 at her home in Beverly Hills, California.[7] A plaque bearing her name has been placed in the rose garden at Westwood Village Cemetery.

References

1. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/22/local/la-me-connie-hines22-2009dec22
2. "Connie Hines--From Dedham to Hollywood". Pottstown Mercury. Pennsylvania, Pottstown. September 9, 1969. p. 6.
3. Percy Shain (Sep 14, 1961). "Home Grown Talent Stars This Season" (pdf). The Boston Globe. p. 23. I remember trying out for the senior class play and not making it. What would Miss Grant say now?
4. Musel, Robert (August 28, 1969). "Connie Hines watches for September 21" (Redlands Daily Facts). California, Redlands. United Press International. p. 14.
5. ""Chicota Landing", Riverboat, December 5, 1960". Internet Movie Data Base.
6. "Connie Hines dies; costar on TV's 'Mister Ed'". Los Angeles Times. 2009-12-22.
7. Los Angeles Times obituary, ibid.