Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Judy Lewis Dead At 76; Starred in THE SECRET STORM & GENERAL HOSPITAL; Produced TEXAS; Wrote SEARCH FOR TOMORROW, Daughter of Loretta Young & Clark Gable

Judy Lewis, the daughter of Loretta Young and Clark Gable, died of cancer Friday, Nov. 25, at Waverly Heights, a retirement community in Gladwyne, according to Philly.com.

Her longest running soap opera role was Susan Ames on THE SECRET STORM from 1964-1971. She also played Barbara Vining on GENERAL HOSPITAL in the 1970s. Her first soap role was Molly Scharf on KITTY FOYLE.

Behind the camera, Lewis was a producer on TEXAS, and she won a Writer's Guild Award in 1985 for her work on SEARCH FOR TOMORROW.

In between soap gigs Lewis appeared in a number of films, TV movies and television series.

In her 1994 best seller, "Uncommon Knowledge," Lewis reported that she was conceived in 1935 when Young and Gable were filming a Yukon adventure, The Call of the Wild.

Gable was married to his second wife and Young was single at the time. Because she had a morals clause in her contract with 20th Century Fox, Young hid the pregnancy and birth, and 19 months later told the public she had adopted a daughter. When Young married Thomas Lewis in 1940, her daughter took his name, but he never adopted her.

Lewis is survived by her daughter Maria Tinney Dagit and grandsons Michael and Gregory, as well as half brothers Christopher and Peter Lewis; half brother John Clark Gable; and her longtime partner, Steve Rowland.

A Memorial Mass will be at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, at St. John Vianney Church, Youngsford Road and Route 23, Gladwyne. Friends may call from 11 a.m.



Lewis is pictured above with SECRET STORM co-stars Lori March (Valerie), Eleanor Phelps (Grace) and Lynne Adams (Amy).

5 comments:

  1. Remind me who Barbara Vining was.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amy Vining's mother

    ReplyDelete
  3. oThe Vinings came to GH because they were the adoptive parents of Laura, the baby that Lesley gave up for adoption.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Judy Lewis was a terrific actress. I communicated with her several years ago and she was amazed at how much I remembered of her role as "Susan Ames Dunbar Carver" on "The Secret Storm." I had told her how I recalled one storyline of her character's drug addiction and how convincing I thought she played it,

    Miss Lewis told me she only had one videotape of herself on "The Secret Storm," another testament to the shortsighted practice by TV networks of wiping video of their daily programming. She also recommended I get her book "Uncommon Knowledge," even though it was officially out-of-print by then and she would not profit from it financially. I think I may have told her I was really adopted, so had an interest in issues concerning that subject.

    I could tell from our brief communication Miss Lewis was a genuinely decent person. I was sorry to have learned of her death, as I had hoped to someday meet her, or at least communicate with her again.

    ReplyDelete