Elizabeth MacRae Passes On

Elizabeth MacRae, perhaps best known for playing Gomer Pyle's girlfriend Lou-Ann Povie on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., died on May 27 2024 at the age of 88. She also made frequent guest appearances on television in the Sixties and Seventies.

Elizabeth MacRae was born on February 22 1936 in Columbia, South Carolina. She grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Growing up she was fascinated by movies and movie stars such as Rita Hayworth and Elizabeth Taylor. She attended the college-prep school Holton-Arms in Washington, DC. After graduating from the school, she went to Atlanta, Georgia to audition for the title role in Saint Joan (1957). She did not get the part, but she received encouragement from director Otto Preminger. Miss MacRae then moved to New York City where she studied under  Uta Hagen at the Herbert Berghof Studio. During this time she appeared in off-Broadway and summer stock productions. She also studied drawing and painting at the Art Students League in Manhattan.

Elizabeth MacRae made her television debut in an episode of TV show The Verdict is Yours.In the late Fifties she guest starred on the shows Rendezvous and Naked City. In 1961 ahe made her film debut in Love in a Goldfish Bowl. During the Sixties she appeared in the films Everything's Ducky (1961), The Wild Westerners (1961), Wild is My Love (1963), and For Love or Money (1963). She was the voice of Ladyfish in the movie The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1963). On television she appeared in four episodes of Gunsmoke as April Clomley, the girlfriend of Deputy Festus Hagen. Later in the Sixties she had the recurring role of Gomer's girlfriend Lou-Ann on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Still later she appeared in the role of Meg Bentley on the soap opera General Hospital. She guest starred on the shows Harrigan and Son, Maverick, The Asphalt Jungle, Surfside 6, 77 Sunset Strip, Dr. Kildare, Hawaiian Eye, The Untouchables, Sam Benedict, Stoney Burke, Death Valley Days, Burke's Law, Route 66, Rawhide, The Fugitive, The Virginian, I Dream of Jeannie, The Andy Griffith Show, Bonanza, and Judd for the Defense.

In the Seventies Miss MacRae appeared as Phyllis Anderson on the day time soap opera Days of Our Lives and as Gertrude Beaudine on the daytime soap opera Another World. She guest starred on the shows Mannix, Petrocelli, Kojak, Barnaby Jones, and Rhoda. She appeared in the movies The Conversation (1974) and The House of the Dead (1978). In the Eighties she had recurring roles on the soap operas The Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow, and Another World. She made her last on-screen appearance in the movie Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! (1989).

Following her acting career, Elizabeth MacRae was a  a drug and alcohol counsellor with the Freedom Institute in New York. She later returned to North Carolina.

Chances are good that Elizabeth MacRae will always be best remembered as Lou-Ann  on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and, to a lesser degree, April on Gunsmoke. While Elizabeth MacRae excelled at playing sweet, but somewhat naive girls, she could play many more roles. Indeed, in The Conversation she played a role about as far from Lou-Ann or April as one can get. Meredith was a somewhat duplicitous seductress In the Fugitive episode "Dark Corner" she played Clara Braydon, whose blind sister Mattie (Tuesday Weld) is somewhat mentally disturbed (to put it mildly). In the Kojak episode "Secret Snow, Deadly Poison," she played Robin, a woman who has cheated on her husband and due to plastic surgery looks much younger than she really is. Elizabeth MacRae was great at playing sweet, good-natured women, but as an actor she had such depth that she could play some very complicated, sometimes none too nice characters. Quite simply, she was a great talent.