Elizabeth "Beth" Howland (May 28, 1941 - December 31, 2015) was an American actress. She worked on stage and television, and was best known for playing Vera Gorman in Alice, the sitcom inspired by the Martin Scorsese film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974).[1]

Howland originated the role of Amy in the original Broadway cast of Stephen Sondheim's Company, in which she introduced the patter song "Getting Married Today".[citation needed]

Howland was born on May 28, 1941, in Boston. At the age of 16, she left home and followed a dancer friend to New York City.[2] After a time of struggling, Howland made her Broadway debut in 1959 as Lady Beth in the Carol Burnett musical Once Upon a Mattress, which transferred from off-Broadway. She went on to have roles in the musicals Bye Bye Birdie, High Spirits, Drat! The Cat! and Darling of the Day.[3]

Career

Howland can be seen dancing and singing in the chorus of Li'l Abner (1959) as Clem's wife, alongside future television star Valerie Harper.[2] After appearing in Company, she left New York to relocate to California,[4] where she made guest appearances on television series such as Love, American Style; Cannon; The Mary Tyler Moore Show (twice—once as Bert Convy's wife, once as a hook-up of Ted Bessell); Little House on the Prairie; Eight Is Enough and The Love Boat.[5][6] For her work on Alice, Howland received four Golden Globe Award nominations. She later took on numerous telefilm roles, including You Can't Take It with You (as Essie) and A Caribbean Mystery.[7]

She remained on Alice throughout its nine seasons. After the sitcom ended in 1985, Howland went into semi-retirement. She made occasional guest appearances (including Murder, She Wrote; Chicken Soup for the Soul; Sabrina the Teenage Witch; and The Tick)[8] and starred in the ABC Afterschool Special, "Terrible Things My Mother Told Me".[9][10]

Personal life

From 1961 to 1969, Howland was married to character actor Michael J. Pollard, with whom she had a daughter.[11]

In 2002 she married actor Charles Kimbrough, an actor of Broadway and Murphy Brown fame, and remained married to him until her death in 2015. Kimbrough and Howland had appeared together in Company.[citation needed]

Death

Howland, who had been a smoker since she was a teenager until she finally quit in the early 2000's died of lung cancer on December 31, 2015, at age 74. Per her request, her death was not reported to the media and was not made public until May 24, 2016, four days before what would have been her 75th birthday. She was survived by her husband and her daughter from her first marriage.[2]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1959	Li'l Abner	Clem's wife	Uncredited Musical film based on the comic strip of the same name created by Al Capp and the successful Broadway musical of the same name that opened in 1956 and was produced by Norman Panama & directed by Melvin Frank.[12]
1974	Thunderbolt and Lightfoot	Vault Manager's Wife	Uncredited Crime film written and directed by Michael Cimino.[13]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1972	The Mary Tyler Moore Show	Linda Foster	Episode: "Have I Found a Guy for You" (S 3:Ep 10)
1973	The Ted Bessell Show	Margaret	Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Bill Persky.[14]
	Love, American Style	Rita	Episode: "Love and Carmen Lopez/Love and the Cover/Love and the Cryin' Cowboy" (S 5:Ep 13)
1975	Cannon	Secretary	Episode: "Nightmare" (S 5:Ep 1)
	The Rookies	Mrs. Ross	Episode: "Reading, Writing and Angel Dust" (S 4:Ep 2)
	Bronk	June Kramer	Episode: "Echo of Danger" (S 1:Ep 4)
	The Mary Tyler Moore Show	Joan	Episode: "Mary Richards Falls in Love" (S 6:Ep 11)
1976	Little House on the Prairie	Clerk	Episode: "The Pride of Walnut Grove" (S 2:Ep 14)
1976-85	Alice	Vera Louise Gorman	Contract role (202 episodes)
1977	Eight Is Enough	Mavis	Episode: "Is There a Doctor in the House?" (S 2:Ep 1)
1979	The Love Boat	Lee Noble	Episode: "Third Wheel/Grandmother's Day/Second String Mom" (S 2:Ep 27)
	You Can't Take It with You	Essie Carmichael	Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Paul Bogart.[15]
1980	The Wild Wacky Wonderful World of Winter	Stripper	Made-for-TV-Movie
1981	The Love Boat	Eloise Farnsworth	Episodes: "Farnsworth's Fling/Three in a Bed/I Remember Helen/Merrill, Melanie & Melanesia/Gopher Farnsworth Smith: Part 1" (S 5:Ep 8) "Farnsworth's Fling/Three in a Bed/I Remember Helen/Merrill, Melanie & Melanesia/Gopher Farnsworth Smith: Part 2" (S 5:Ep 9)
1982	American Playhouse	Housewife	Episode: "Working" (S 1:Ep 14)
1983	The Love Boat	Jeannie Davis	Episodes: "Hits and Missus/Return of Annabelle/Just Plain Folks Medicine/Caught in the Act/The Real Thing/Do Not Disturb/Lulu & Kenny (Country Music Jamboree): Part 1" (S 6:Ep 27) "Hits and Missus/Return of Annabelle/Just Plain Folks Medicine/Caught in the Act/The Real Thing/Do Not Disturb/Lulu & Kenny (Country Music Jamboree): Part 2" (S 6:Ep 28)
		Captain Bernice Tobin	Episode: "Youth Takes a Holiday/Don't Leave Home Without It/Prisoner of Love" (S 7:Ep 4)
	A Caribbean Mystery	Evelyn Hillingdon	Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Robert Michael Lewis.[16]
1985	Comedy Factory	Kate Weston	Episode: "It Takes Two" (S 1:Ep 6)
1988	ABC Afterschool Special	Eleanor Flemming	Episode: "Terrible Things My Mother Told Me" (S 16:Ep 5)[9]
	You Can't Take It with You	Anita Briggs	Episode: "For Whom the Phone Rings" (S 1:Ep 14)
1993	Murder, She Wrote	Sandy Oates	Episode: "Lone Witness" (S 9:Ep 19)
1997	Sabrina the Teenage Witch	Mrs. Ericson	Episode: "Cat Showdown" (S 1:Ep 19)
2000	Chicken Soup for the Soul	Diane	Episode: "Thinking of You/Mama's Soup Pot/The Letter" (S 1:Ep 17)
	Batman Beyond	Singer (voice)	Episode: "Out of the Past" (S 3:Ep 5)
2002	The Tick	Bea	Episode: "Arthur, Interrupted" (S 1:Ep 8)
	As Told by Ginger	Dr. Leventhal	Episode: "And She Was Gone" (S 2:Ep 23)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]