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Jeanne Bal

{{Short description|American actress and model (1928–1996)}}

{{More citations needed|date=May 2012}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Jeanne Bal

| image = Jeanne Bal Mr .Novak.JPG

| caption = Bal as Jean Pagano in Mr. Novak.

| birth_date = {{birth-date|May 3, 1928}}

| birth_place = Santa Monica, California, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1996|04|30|1928|05|03}}

| death_place = Sherman Oaks, California, U.S.

| occupation = Actress

| years_active = 1955–1971

| spouse = {{unbulleted list|{{Marriage|Ross Bowman|1953|1956|reason=divorced}}|{{Marriage|Edward Lee|1963|1992|reason=d}}}}

}}

Jeanne Bal (May 3, 1928 – April 30, 1996) was an American actress and model who worked primarily in 1960s television.

Early years

A Chicago native,{{cite news|last1=Carrollton|first1=Betty|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20643178/jeanne_bal|title=Jeanne Bal Dropped Journalism Study To Make Musical Comedy Headlines|date=March 26, 1954|work=The Atlanta Constitution|accessdate=June 3, 2018|location=Georgia, Atlanta|page=14|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} Bal was an only child, the daughter of Joseph Peter Bal (1899–1981), a Monogram Pictures scenic designer, and Bessie Lee Bozeman Bal (1902–1967). She was raised in California, attending high school and junior college in Santa Monica. She worked as a fashion model for a year and a half.{{cite news|last1=Jones|first1=Will|title=Boy, What She'd Do With Lessons|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20642143/jeanne_bal|work=Star Tribune|date=December 4, 1951|location=Minnesota, Minneapolis|page=29|via=Newspapers.com|accessdate=June 3, 2018}} {{Open access}}

Career

Bal was a regular cast member on the ABC comedy Sid Caesar Invites You (1958).{{r|etvs|page1=966}} In the 1959–60 season, she featured in the short-lived NBC sitcom Love and Marriage, which ran during the 1959 season, as Pat Baker, the business partner of her father (William Demarest), the founder of a failing music publishing company.{{cite book|last1=Terrace|first1=Vincent|title=Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010|date=2011|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0-7864-6477-7|page=626|edition=2nd}}

In 1961, Bal became a regular on the sitcom Bachelor Father, but left shortly afterwards. Her other television credits include four appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Dr. Linda Carey in the 1962 episode, "The Case of the Angry Astronaut", and murder victim Vera Wynne in the 1965 episode, "The Case of the Telltale Tap". In 1963, she guest-starred as Melissa, an overly ambitious saloon girl, on Bonanza in the episode "The Saga of Whizzer McGee." Bal also appeared in guest roles on Wagon Train, Riverboat, and I Spy. In "The Man Trap" (1966), the very first episode of the original Star Trek series, she played a lethal shape-shifting alien which craves salt.

On Mr. Novak Bal portrayed Assistant Vice Principal Jean Pagano during the 1963–64 season. Initially, plans called for increasing her role for the 1964–65 season, promoting her to second billing on the show, but the producer instead cut the number of episodes in which she was to appear. The result was that she left the program.{{cite journal|last1=Harter|first1=Chuck|title=Mr. Novak: A Landmark of Dramatic Television|journal=Classic Images|date=April 2018|issue=514|pages=62–68}}

Bal's first stage appearance came in Gypsy Lady.{{cite news|title='South Pacific' Stars Jeanne Bal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20641093/jeanne_bal|work=The Montgomery Advertiser|date=February 7, 1954|location=Alabama, Montgomery|page=27|via=Newspapers.com|accessdate=June 3, 2018}} {{Open access}} She also appeared on Broadway in the musical The Gay Life,{{cite web|title=Jeanne Bal profile|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/jeanne-bal-90871|website=Internet Broadway Database|publisher=The Broadway League|accessdate=June 4, 2018|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20180604011146/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/jeanne-bal-90871|archivedate=June 4, 2018|url-status=live}} introducing the song "Why Go Anywhere At All?" During the run, Bal was given a different song to sing in the same spot, "You're Not the Type."{{Citation needed|date=June 2018}}

Her other Broadway credits include Call Me Madam (1950), Great to Be Alive! (1950), and Alive and Kicking (1950).

She also toured the United States in productions of Guys and Dolls and South Pacific, among other shows.

Personal life

In 1953, Bal married Ross Bowman, a stage manager for the show in which she was appearing.{{cite news|last1=Humphrey|first1=Hal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20644323/jeanne_bal|title=Television and Radio|date=May 8, 1954|work=The Marion Star|accessdate=June 3, 2018|location=Ohio, Marion|page=13|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} The pair divorced in 1956.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfWaDwAAQBAJ&q=jeanne+bal+obituary&pg=PT58|title=Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2018|first=Harris M. III|last=Lentz|date=May 24, 2019|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476670331|via=Google Books}} Her second husband was attorney Edward Richard Lee. They were married from 1963 until his death in 1992.[https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/9659062:1144 California, U.S., Marriage Index, 1960-1985] Their son Michael was born in 1965.

Death

Bal died three days before her 68th birthday from metastasized breast cancer.{{Citation needed |date=February 2022}}

Filmography

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References

{{reflist}}

External links

{{Portal|Biography|California|Los Angeles|Television}}

  • {{IMDb name|0049284}}
  • {{IBDB name|90871}}

{{Memory Alpha}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bal, Jeanne}}

Category:1928 births

Category:1996 deaths

Category:American television actresses

Category:Deaths from breast cancer in California

Category:Actresses from Los Angeles

Category:20th-century American actresses