Mary Stuart (July 4, 1926 — February 28, 2002) was an American actress and singer/songwriter. She was born Mary Stuart Houchins in Miami, Florida and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her middle name and eventual stage name was her mother's maiden name.

Career

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Film

After appearing in various bit parts in several movies throughout the 1940s, Warner Brothers offered her a three-year contract in 1948. She appeared with such stars as Ronald Reagan (in The Girl from Jones Beach), Errol Flynn (in The Adventures of Don Juan), Clark Gable (in The Hucksters), Esther Williams (in This Time for Keeps) and Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball (in The Big Street).

Television

After her contract was terminated, CBS offered her a role in a new undertaking that would become known as the soap opera, or daytime serial. Their first project, The First Hundred Years, was short lived. It had been canceled after just one year on the air. The executives at CBS were wary of launching a second show, but they saw a future in soaps in the person of Mary Stuart after her screen test. It was then that they commissioned a second series. Stuart was cast as a midwestern housewife called Joanne. The new serial was called Search for Tomorrow and it turned out to be very successful. Stuart would become synonymous with the show and her character.

Search for Tomorrow ran for thirty-five years until 1986 when it was finally canceled. After taking bit roles in other soap operas, Stuart settled into a retirement, having worked nearly 40 years without breaks. But in 1996, she came out of retirement and accepted the role of Meta Bauer on Guiding Light. She would play the role until her death six years later.

Music

A capable vocalist, Stuart collaborated with Percy Faith for an album in 1956 and with Michel Legrand in 1973. She also played guitar and she penned and sang songs on Search for Tomorrow.

Private life

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Stuart's private life was not entirely a happy one. She was married to CEO of Time/Life Richard Krolik in 1951 to and she gave birth to son Jeffrey in 1955 and daughter Cynthia in 1956. She and Krolik were divorced in 1966 and she later alleged in her book All My Afternoons that Krolik was a frequently verbally abusive husband. She recounted that she had secretly been writing a children's book and when she told Krolik, he threw the manuscript across the room, yelling, "How do you expect to write a book if you've never read one?" The incident discouraged Stuart and she never sought out a publisher.

After her divorce, Stuart cut her hair. Her character on Search for Tomorrow was known for her bun hairdo and the more modern hairstyle necessitated a major change in the storyline.

Stuart remained single for two decades afterwards before marrying Wolfgang Neumann in 1986. When she died in 2002 of a stroke, it was revealed that Stuart was also suffering from gastric cancer and bone cancer.

External links

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Notes and references

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