Ellen Miller (Lassie)
Encyclopedia
Ellen Miller is a fictional character in the long-running television series Lassie
(1954–1973). Ellen is a war widow living on a weatherbeaten midwestern farm with her young son Jeff and her father-in-law George Miller. The character was created by producer Robert Maxwell
and Lassie trainer Rudd Weatherwax, and was portrayed in the series by Jan Clayton
. Ellen makes her debut in the premiere episode, "The Inheritance" (1954) and her last appearance in the mid-fourth season episode, "Timmy's Family" (1957). Clayton was nominated for two Emmy Award
s for her performances as Ellen Miller on Lassie, and the series itself won two Emmys during her stint on the show.
's fictional rough collie
, Lassie
, made her film debut in MGM's Lassie Come Home
. The success of the film generated six more MGM Lassie films, and, with the seventh feature, The Painted Hills
(1951), Lassie's MGM career came to an end. Pal
, a male dog, played Lassie in all seven films, and, when his MGM career had run its course, Pal's owner and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax
, took all rights to the Lassie name and trademark in lieu of back pay. Weatherwax and Pal then toured America in an 18-minute program re-enacting Lassie's film exploits. Producer Robert Maxwell convinced Weatherwax that the dog's future lay television. The men developed a television scenario set on a small midwestern farm about a struggling war widow, her son, and her father-in-law.
was cast as her father-in-law, George Miller, and Tommy Rettig
as her eleven-year-old son, Jeff
. Rettig later remembered Clayton as a "second mother to me," and dialogue coach Lloyd Nelson remarked, "I adored Jan Clayton. She was wonderful, a real neighbor, a real friend."
was aware of the discontent and decided the series should strike a different course, with Rettig and Clayton eased out of the show in a three-part episode.
A new storyline was developed that brought child actor
Jon Provost
to the show as Ellen's seven-year-old foster child Timmy. Lassie and Timmy were teamed together and the boy began playing a greater role in episode plots as filming progressed. Rettig and Clayton expected to be released, but producers were pleased with the status quo and made little effort to write either performer out of the show. Hoping Clayton would change her mind and remain with the show, they proposed a plot in which Ellen would wed and adopt Timmy. Clayton rejected the idea.
A crisis was reached when series star George Cleveland
died suddenly on July 17, 1957. Producers were forced to completely rework the series. An episode called "Transition" was quickly scripted with a simple but believable plot: Ellen and Jeff sell the farm to Paul
and Ruth Martin, a young couple new to the area. The Martins adopt Timmy and Lassie. Ellen and her son leave the farm for life in the city where Ellen plans to teach music. Jeff was never referenced on the show again but Ellen made her final appearance in the episode immediately following "Transition". There, she returns to the farm at Ruth's invitation to advise her on raising a little boy. The Miller years of Lassie were almost immediately sold into worldwide syndication as Jeff's Collie.
for Lassie. Clayton also received a star on the Walk of Fame for Television at 6200 Hollywood Blvd.
Lassie won its only Emmy Awards (Best Children's Program 1955, and Best Children's Series 1956), during Ellen's years on the show. The show also received a 1956 Peabody Award
.
Lassie (1954 TV series)
Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female Rough Collie named Lassie and her companions, human and animal. The show was the creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12, 1954, to March 24, 1973...
(1954–1973). Ellen is a war widow living on a weatherbeaten midwestern farm with her young son Jeff and her father-in-law George Miller. The character was created by producer Robert Maxwell
Robert Maxwell (producer)
Robert Maxwell Joffe was an American radio and television producer, screenwriter, and entertainment executive...
and Lassie trainer Rudd Weatherwax, and was portrayed in the series by Jan Clayton
Jan Clayton
Jan Clayton was a film, musical theatre, and television actress.-Career:...
. Ellen makes her debut in the premiere episode, "The Inheritance" (1954) and her last appearance in the mid-fourth season episode, "Timmy's Family" (1957). Clayton was nominated for two Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s for her performances as Ellen Miller on Lassie, and the series itself won two Emmys during her stint on the show.
Role
Ellen Miller is a strong, loving, and intelligent woman. She is a widow whose husband John was killed in World War II. When the series opens, she lives on a small midwestern farm with her eleven-year-old son, Jeff and her father-in-law, George Miller. She attended college and entertains the daughter of a college friend in "The Ballerina." She is a musician and sometimes plays the organ in the farmhouse parlor. In one episode, she is offered a job as a singer on a radio station. Ellen provokes the jealousies of both Jeff and her father-in-law when she dates the local constable, Clay Horton. Ellen and her family provide a foster home for a seven-year-old runaway boy called Timmy. Following the death of her father-in-law, she and her son sell the farm to the Martins (who adopt Timmy and Lassie), and move to the city where she plans to teach music and Jeff plans to attend a science high school.Background
In 1943, Eric KnightEric Knight
Eric Knight was an author who is mainly notable for creating the fictional collie Lassie.Born on 10 April 1897, in Menston in Yorkshire, England, Eric Mowbray Knight was the third of four sons born to Frederic Harrison and Marion Hilda Knight, both Quakers...
's fictional rough collie
Rough Collie
The Rough Collie is a long coated breed of medium to large size dog that in its original form was a type of collie used and bred for herding in Scotland. Originating in the 1800's, it is now well known through the works of author Albert Payson Terhune, and through the Lassie novel, movies, and...
, Lassie
Lassie
Lassie is a fictional collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, the novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six...
, made her film debut in MGM's Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home
Lassie Come Home is a 1943 MGM film starring Roddy McDowall and canine actor, Pal, in a story about the profound bond between Yorkshire boy Joe Carraclough and his rough collie, Lassie. The film was directed by Fred M. Wilcox from a screenplay by Hugo Butler based upon the 1940 novel Lassie...
. The success of the film generated six more MGM Lassie films, and, with the seventh feature, The Painted Hills
The Painted Hills
The Painted Hills, also known as Lassie's Adventures in the Goldrush, is a 1951 action film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Harold F. Kress...
(1951), Lassie's MGM career came to an end. Pal
Pal (dog actor)
Pal was a Rough Collie actor and the first in a line of such dogs to portray the fictional female collie Lassie in film and television. Pal was born in California in 1940 and eventually brought to the notice of Rudd Weatherwax, a Hollywood animal trainer. In 1943, the dog was chosen to play Lassie...
, a male dog, played Lassie in all seven films, and, when his MGM career had run its course, Pal's owner and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax
Rudd Weatherwax
Ruddell Bird "Rudd" Weatherwax was an American actor and animal trainer. He and his brother Frank Weatherwax are best remembered for training dogs for motion pictures and television. Frank's collie, Pal, became the original Lassie, handled by Rudd for the 1943 MGM film Lassie Come Home...
, took all rights to the Lassie name and trademark in lieu of back pay. Weatherwax and Pal then toured America in an 18-minute program re-enacting Lassie's film exploits. Producer Robert Maxwell convinced Weatherwax that the dog's future lay television. The men developed a television scenario set on a small midwestern farm about a struggling war widow, her son, and her father-in-law.
Casting and characterization
Jan Clayton, a musical theater star and television quiz show panelist, was signed to a four year contract to play Ellen Miller, the show's war widowed mother. George ClevelandGeorge Cleveland
George Alan Cleveland was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in over 180 films between 1933 and 1954.-Career:...
was cast as her father-in-law, George Miller, and Tommy Rettig
Tommy Rettig
Thomas Noel "Tommy" Rettig was an American child actor,computer software engineer, and author. Rettig is best remembered for portraying the character "Jeff Miller" in the first three seasons of CBS's Lassie television series, from 1954–1957, later seen in syndicated re-runs as Jeff's Collie...
as her eleven-year-old son, Jeff
Jeff Miller (Lassie)
Jeff Miller is a fictional character in the long running television series Lassie . Jeff is an eleven-year-old boy living on a weatherbeaten farm in the American midwest with his war-widowed mother, Ellen Miller, and his paternal grandfather, George "Gramps" Miller...
. Rettig later remembered Clayton as a "second mother to me," and dialogue coach Lloyd Nelson remarked, "I adored Jan Clayton. She was wonderful, a real neighbor, a real friend."
Dogs
Ellen appeared with two dogs on the show: Pal, the star of the MGM films, and his son Lassie Junior thereafter. Pal appeared in only the two pilots. Lassie Junior was joined on the set by a stand-in rehearsal dog, a dog for long distance shots, and a "fight" dog for battles with other animals.Cancellation
As the fourth season approached, discontent was brewing. Rettig was a fifteen-year-old teen who wanted to leave the show in order to enjoy the life of a normal teenager. Clayton had suffered the death of a teenage daughter in a car wreck and was considering leaving the show to return to her roots in musical theater. The show's owner and producer Jack WratherJack Wrather
John Devereaux "Jack" Wrather, Jr. , was a petroleum millionaire who became a television producer and later diversified by investing in broadcast stations and resort properties...
was aware of the discontent and decided the series should strike a different course, with Rettig and Clayton eased out of the show in a three-part episode.
A new storyline was developed that brought child actor
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...
Jon Provost
Jon Provost
Jon Provost is a former child actor of film and television. He is best known for his role as young Timmy Martin in the CBS series, Lassie....
to the show as Ellen's seven-year-old foster child Timmy. Lassie and Timmy were teamed together and the boy began playing a greater role in episode plots as filming progressed. Rettig and Clayton expected to be released, but producers were pleased with the status quo and made little effort to write either performer out of the show. Hoping Clayton would change her mind and remain with the show, they proposed a plot in which Ellen would wed and adopt Timmy. Clayton rejected the idea.
A crisis was reached when series star George Cleveland
George Cleveland
George Alan Cleveland was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in over 180 films between 1933 and 1954.-Career:...
died suddenly on July 17, 1957. Producers were forced to completely rework the series. An episode called "Transition" was quickly scripted with a simple but believable plot: Ellen and Jeff sell the farm to Paul
Paul Martin (television character)
Paul Martin is a fictional character on the long running television series, Lassie . Paul is a farmer, and the husband of Ruth, a housewife. The couple are adoptive parents of Timmy, a foster child living on a small farm in the American midwest that the couple purchase...
and Ruth Martin, a young couple new to the area. The Martins adopt Timmy and Lassie. Ellen and her son leave the farm for life in the city where Ellen plans to teach music. Jeff was never referenced on the show again but Ellen made her final appearance in the episode immediately following "Transition". There, she returns to the farm at Ruth's invitation to advise her on raising a little boy. The Miller years of Lassie were almost immediately sold into worldwide syndication as Jeff's Collie.
Awards
In 1957, Clayton received an Emmy nomination for Best Continuing Performance by an Actress in a Dramatic Series for Lassie, and, in 1958, the actress received yet another Emmy nomination for Best Continuing Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic or Comedy Seriesfor Lassie. Clayton also received a star on the Walk of Fame for Television at 6200 Hollywood Blvd.
Lassie won its only Emmy Awards (Best Children's Program 1955, and Best Children's Series 1956), during Ellen's years on the show. The show also received a 1956 Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
.