Legendary Actress Gwen Van Dam, Known for 70 Years of Iconic Roles, Passes Away at 96

Gwen Van Dam passed away after a 70-year career as a character actress in movies, TV shows, and theater that includes roles in Stir Crazy, Coming Home, Halloween, True Confessions, and The Trip to Bountiful. She was ninety-six. According to her son Dirk Smillie, Van Dam, who had approximately 140 acting credits listed on IMDb, passed away at her West Los Angeles home on December 19 following a cancer recurrence, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Van Dam continued to be a busy actress until the death, making appearances in two episodes of Hulu’s Interior Chinatown last year, the first five episodes of Prime Video’s Homecoming in 2018, and Netflix’s Grace and Frankie in 2019. She also just finished a play.

The Brady Bunch, Mannix, Maude, House Calls, Days of Our Lives, Moonlighting, 227, Knots Landing, Star Trek: Generations, ER, Gilmore Girls, Charmed, New Girl, Criminal Minds, Angie Tribeca, and Modern Family were among the shows in her TV resume. Despite her lack of familiarity with the bands, she spent the last ten years appearing in music videos for U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Panic! at the Disco, and Mastodon, according to her son. She starred in a rare production of Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful in 2011 with the Los Angeles Group Rep.

A reviewer for the L.A. Stage Times said, “Gwen Van Dam has big shoes to fill in the lead role of Carrie Watts — Geraldine Page (the film) and Lillian Gish (the play).” A reviewer for the L.A. Stage Times stated, “Gwen Van Dam has big shoes to fill in the lead role of Carrie Watts — Geraldine Page (the film) and Lillian Gish (the play).” “Ms. Van Dam makes the wise decision to forge her own route and draw on her own resources and expertise. She plays the part with sweetness and vulnerability. You will enjoy going on this significant adventure with her. Throughout her career, she performed for 14 theater groups in Los Angeles.

Gwendolyn Greta Van Dam was born on November 5, 1928, in San Francisco, the third of three children. At San Jose State, she fell in love with acting, and in 1950, she wrote to Gertrude Lawrence to ask for advice on how to get parts in New York. After the English actress advised her to get in touch with her husband, producer Richard Aldrich, he cast her in his traveling theatrical production, The Guardsman. She received a contract with Columbia Pictures and a screen test for a part in From Here to Eternity (1953) while she was a student of renowned acting instructor Mira Rostova at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York.

But when Montgomery Clift, a fellow Rostova student, asked Van Dam, “Are you sure you want to move to Hollywood?,” she declined. It might ruin you. She would acknowledge that it was her worst professional error. She persisted, though, and in her first big-screen performances, she portrayed a nurse in Jean Seberg’s Lilith (1964) and appeared in John Cassavetes’ Husbands (1970). She persisted, though, and in her first big-screen performances, she portrayed a nurse in Jean Seberg’s Lilith (1964), appeared in John Cassavetes’ Husbands (1970), and appeared in Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker’s The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977).

Actors Len Lesser, Marvin Kaplan, and Tina Louise were regular visitors to the celebration that Van Dam and her late husband, Scottish-born actor Bill Smillie, threw at their house every New Year’s Day. Smillie was the property manager on The Guardsman when she first met him. They stayed together until his death in November 2003 at the age of 81. They were married in Carmel in October 1959. A week after her death, her sister Jeanie passed away at the age of 94. A week after her death, her sister Jeanie passed away at the age of 94. Her children, Claudia, and grandchildren, Lorelei, Amanda, and Crystal, are among the survivors, along with her son. Next month, there will be a memorial service in Hollywood.