Actress. She is best remembered for her recurring portrayal of the larger-than-life fashionista Sally Spektra on the acclaimed soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful." Born into a traditional working-class family, she began her career as a leading lady on the stage in stock companies, appearing in such productions as "The Heiress," "The Baker's Wife," "Cryrano de Bergerac," and "The Night of the Iguana." Upon being noticed by director Alfred Hitchcock while attending a social function at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he was so impressed by her reddish good looks, hourglass figure, and remarkably dry sense of humor that he arranged for her to begin a career in the film industry beginning with her appearing under his supervision per a supporting role in "The Birds" (1963). From there, she would go on to flourish as a notable character actress, appearing in over 35 features. Often typecast as wives, mothers, relatives, landladies, neighbors, eccentrics, curmudgeons, authority figures, businesswomen, white-collared workers, educators, nurses, secretaries, and matriarchs. She appeared in such feature films as "Valley of the Dolls" (1967), "Faces" (1968), "Captain Milkshake" (1970), "Minnie and Moskowitz" (1971), "Lady Sings the Blues" (1972), "Play It As It Lays" (1972), "Prologue to a Wounded Knee" (1973), "Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July" (1979), "The Nashville Grab" (1981), "Tough Guys" (1986), and "The Return to Mombi" (1997). On television, she appeared in various guest spots on such syndicated sitcoms as "The Name of the Game," "Ironside," "The Bill Cosby Show," "Gunsmoke," "Longstreet," "Circle of Fear," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Jeffersons," "Capitol," "Little House on the Prairie," "Cagney & Lacey," "Days of Our Lives," "Robert Kennedy and His Times," "Murder, She Wrote," "Scarecrow and Mrs. King," "The Young and the Restless," "General Hospital," and "Highway to Heaven." During her career, she was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, was supportive of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, had been a politically active Democrat, was a regular parishioner of the Catholic church, had been among the several founding members of the Canyon Theatre Guild, was a celebrity spokeswoman for JCPenney and Olay, was the recipient of two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress, had been involved within her local charters of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and the American Red Cross, was a commercial model for the Ford Agency, and she was married to character actor Bill Woodson from 1959 to 1966 (their union ended in divorce and produced one child, actor Raymond Woodson). Following her retirement from acting in 2006, she spent the final year of her life living comfortably in the suburbs until her death from the complications from stomach cancer.