Golden Age of Hollywood actress Carla Balenda, who played Mickey Rooney‘s girlfriend on the NBC sitcom Hey Mulligan and Timmy’s (Jon Provost) teacher Miss Hazlitt on CBS’ Lassie, has died. She was 98.
According to The Hollywood Reporter and confirmed by her grandson, Jim Martin, Balenda passed away on April 9 of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills.
Born Sally Bliss on November 22, 1925, in Carthage, New York, Balenda’s acting career started in summer stock theater before moving to Hollywood and signing with Columbia Pictures and appearing in films such as Swing in the Saddle (1944), Eadie Was a Lady (1945) and Rustlers of the Badlands (1945).
After getting married, she moved back to New York but later returned to acting with RKO Pictures. The studio head, Howard Hughes, asked her to change her name, and so she would go on to be credited as Carla Balenda throughout the 1950s.
From top left, Mickey Rooney, Carla Balenda, Regis Toomey, Claire Carleton; Hey Mulligan; The Everett Collection
Balenda starred alongside Dana Andrews and Claude Rains in the RKO Pictures thriller Sealed Cargo in 1951. She also appeared in other RKO films, such as Hunt the Man Down (1950), The Whip Hand (1951), and The Pace That Thrills (1952).
She was also known for her TV work, including her role as Pat Harding in Hey Mulligan, nurse Betty Leonard in The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu, and Miss Hazlitt on Lassie.
Balenda reverted to Bliss in 1957 and appeared in episodes of TV series such as The Gray Ghost, The Real McCoys, The Rebel, Perry Mason, and Wagon Train. After starring in the 1966 science fiction psychological horror film Seconds, Balenda left acting and became involved with a charity known as The Dolls.
She married her high school sweetheart, John Martin, in 1944, though the couple divorced in 1959. Balenda would go on to marry publisher William Rutter in 1965; Rutter passed away in 2012.
Balenda is survived by her children, Paul, Joanna, and Charles; 14 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
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