Reta Shaw

Reta Shaw
Shaw in The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1968)
Born	Reta Marguerite Shaw (1912-09-13)September 13, 1912 South Paris, Maine, U.S.
Died	January 8, 1982(1982-01-08) (aged 69) Encino, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1935–1975
Spouse	William A. Forester (divorced)
Children	1

Reta Marguerite Shaw (September 13, 1912 – January 8, 1982) was an American character actress known for playing strong, hard-edged, working women in film and on many of the most popular television programs of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States. She may be best remembered as the housekeeper, Martha Grant, on the television series The Ghost & Mrs. Muir and as the cook, Mrs. Brill, in the 1964 film Mary Poppins.^[1][2]

Reta M. Shaw was born in South Paris, Maine, on September 13, 1912,^[3] to Howard Shaw. Her father was an orchestra leader. Shaw's younger sister was actress Marguerite Shaw.^[4] The daughter and granddaughter of women who believed in spiritualism, Shaw reportedly once told a newspaper interviewer that she had been "brought up on a ouija board."^[1]

Shaw graduated from Paris High School in 1929, and was awarded the Alumni Prize, as well as a varsity letter for her role as manager of the girls track team, at commencement.^[5] She sang at the South Paris Congregational Church^[6] and participated in amateur theatricals,^[7][8] and would later study acting and graduate from the Leland Powers School of the Theater in Boston, Massachusetts.^[9]

After attending Leland Powers School, Shaw pursued professional theater as a performer, accompanist, music director, and teacher, including time on the faculty of the Bishop-Lee School^[10][11] of theatre and platform art, which opened in the fall of 1934, an outgrowth of the Berkshire Theatre Workshop,^[12] conducted by "Mrs. Bishop and Mrs. Lee (Emily Perry Bishop, Adele Hoes Lee), long at Leland Powers School".^[13][14] in Boston, and several seasons of summer stock in Malden Bridge, NY.^[15] In 1936–1937, Shaw spent a year as vocal coach and teaching acting for children at the Studio Theater School in Buffalo, New York, as well as performing with Studio Theater players in plays including "Spring Dance" by Philip Barry,^[16] She directed the one-act play, "So's Your Old Antique" by Clare Kummer for Studio Theater Workshop,^[17] and also performed on local radio in Buffalo. Shaw subsequently did comedy work in night clubs, and during World War II joined the Red Cross Entertainment Unit, serving for three years, mostly overseas, including 18 months in Iceland.^[18][19]

Shaw's first credited appearance on the Broadway stage was in 1947's It Takes Two.^[1] She then appeared in Virginia Reel and on Broadway in a comedic role as Mabel in the original production of The Pajama Game in 1954, as well as in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Picnic, and Annie Get Your Gun, the last on tour with Mary Martin. She had featured roles in several motion pictures, including Picnic, The Pajama Game, Mary Poppins, Pollyanna, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, Bachelor in Paradise and Escape to Witch Mountain.^[2]

She appeared in the first season (1958–1959) of The Ann Sothern Show in the role of Flora Macauley, the overbearing wife of Jason Macauley, played by Ernest Truex. She appeared in Pollyanna in 1960 as Tillie Langerlof. In the 1960–1961 season, she played the housekeeper Thelma on The Tab Hunter Show. She played a housekeeper in the 1961–1962 series Ichabod and Me^[2] and the Wiere Brothers′ landlady Mrs. Stansfield in Oh! Those Bells in 1962.^[20][21][22]

In 1961, she was cast as Cora in the episode "Uncle Paul's New Wife" of Pete and Gladys, starring Harry Morgan and Cara Williams. In that installment, Uncle Paul is played by Gale Gordon, a semi-regular on the series.^[2] During the 1964–1965 season, she was reunited with Williams with a recurring role on The Cara Williams Show as Mrs. Burkhardt, the wife of a business executive.^[23][24]

Shaw appears in a 1962 episode of the series Outlaws with Barton MacLane. She also plays a comic role for The Lucy Show as a grandmother who sits on a $500 bill that Lucy lost and soon after sits on Lucy's hand in the episode "Lucy Misplaces $2,000". Thereafter, she guest starred in the CBS anthology series The Lloyd Bridges Show. She appears too as the bar hostess Teeney in the 1964 episode "The Richard Bloodgood Story" of the series Wagon Train. Shaw's character of Bertha/Hagatha, a matronly witch, is a recurring character on TV's Bewitched, and she performed as Miss Gormley in an episode of The Brian Keith Show.^[2]

Shaw appeared twice in CBS's The Andy Griffith Show, as escaped convict Big Maude Tyler ("Convicts at Large") and as Eleanora Poultice, the educated voice teacher of Barney Fife ("The Song Festers"). She guest-stars as well as Aunt Clara in the 1965 episode "Return from Outer Space") of Lost in Space. In the 1966 feature film The Ghost and Mr. Chicken Shaw portrays the banker's wife and leader of the "Psychic Occult Society", Mrs. Halcyon Maxwell. In 1967, she played a THRUSH Agent, "Miss Witherspoon", in an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.^[2]

On television, Shaw was also seen in Mister Peepers, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Millionaire. In 1965, she appeared on The Dick Van Dyke Show as an unemployment office worker. In 1965, she also appeared in an episode of My Three Sons. She played a housekeeper named Fredocia whom Steve had hired after Bub took a trip to Ireland. That particular episode was Uncle Charley's first appearance. In 1966, she appeared in a bit part on That Girl as a department-store organist. In 1966, she appeared as Bessie, an undercover agent, in the episode of I Spy titled "Lisa".

Shaw co-starred on the sitcom The Ghost & Mrs. Muir where she played housekeeper Martha Grant. The show took place in the fictional fishing village of Schooner Bay, Maine while Shaw was born in South Paris, Maine.

Shaw appeared in a season 4 episode of I Dream of Jeannie titled "Jeannie and the Wild Pipchicks", in which she played a strict Air Force dietician who has her innermost inhibition released (in her case a beautiful butterfly). In The Odd Couple, she appeared as a nanny who was a former army colonel in the episode "Maid for Each Other", which aired on November 23, 1973. In 1973 she played country nurse Ozella Peterson in the Emergency! episode "Snakebite". She also played in an episode of the crime drama Barnaby Jones, 1973 season 2 episode 2 titled Death Leap. She played an old friend of Barnaby's and owned a Fruit market, when Barnaby turned to her for information on a case he was investigating. In 1974, on Happy Days, she played the babysitter Mrs. McCarthy in the episode titled "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do". Her final performance came in the 1975 film Escape to Witch Mountain in the role of Mrs. Grindley, owner of the orphanage where Tia and Tony are sent after the death of their foster parents.^[2]

Shaw married and divorced actor William Forester. While married, the couple had one child, daughter Kathryn Anne Forester.^[9]

Shaw died in 1982 at age 69 from emphysema in Encino, California.^[1][9]

• Media related to Reta Shaw at Wikimedia Commons
• Reta Shaw at IMDb
• Reta Shaw at the Internet Broadway Database
• Reta Shaw at the TCM Movie Database (archived)
• Reta Shaw at Find a Grave