Gloria Winters
Encyclopedia
Gloria Winters was an actress most remembered for having portrayed the well-mannered niece, Penny King, in the 1950s-1960s American
television series Sky King
.
of Los Angeles, but later moved to Hollywood with her family. A child actor
, she made her debut, she said in a mid-2000s radio interview, "when I was about five," with a small role in a Shirley Temple
movie. "I came running out to Shirley Temple, and she was supposed to help me, like I had just gone to the little girls' room." (Once source says she had appeared as a baby in the 1932 Carole Lombard
film Virtue
.)
Winters went on to a Pete Smith
movie short
, in a scene of her coming down a slide to the grass, where a black Scottie dog licked her face. She also appeared in an Our Gang
feature. She performed onstage, and took tap dance
classes, and in the late 1940s and early 1950s was first cast in Western
films such as Driftwood
(1947) and El Paso (1949), and in such television series as The Lone Ranger
and The Range Rider
. Her roughly twenty films, mostly Westerns, include The Lawless
(1950) and Gambling House (1950).
She portrayed daughter Babs Riley in the first season of the NBC
sitcom The Life of Riley
(1949 to 1950), starring Jackie Gleason
and Rosemary DeCamp
. The show was subsequently recast with William Bendix
in the lead.
Winters appeared too in a recurring role as Ruth Farley in the 1953-1955 ABC
sitcom with a variety show
theme, Where's Raymond?
, renamed The Ray Bolger Show
. Verna Felton
played her mother. The series starred Ray Bolger
as Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man who was repeatedly barely on time for his performances.
, starring Kirby Grant
as rancher and pilot Schuyler "Sky" King in contemporary Arizona
. Winters played the blond, baby-faced, perky but earnest and helpful teenage niece, Penny King, who lived with him at the Flying Crown Ranch and often became involved in her uncle's adventures. She played the role in 72 episodes from 1952 to 1959. Ron Hagerthy
, who is the same age as Winters, appeared in nineteen episodes during 1952 as Sky King's nephew
, Clipper King, but it was not clarified if Clipper was the brother or the cousin of Penny. Sky King, which ran on NBC
and ABC, was filmed in 1951-1952 and from 1955 through at least 1959, as sponsors changed. It ran thereafter in syndication
, but the actors received no residual
s.
During the run of Sky King, Winters and Kirby Grant performed as a song-and-dance team as headliners on the state fair
circuit. Winters recalled a Texas State Fair in Dallas
in which the two signed autographs. Waiting for their signatures were astronaut
s Gus Grissom
, Pete Conrad
, Alan Shepard
and Wally Schirra
in line with their children. As noted by the magazine publisher Airport Journal, the series Sky King inspired a number of youngsters to take up flying when they became older.
Winters married Dean Stevens Vernon (1926–2001), a sound engineer on Sky King
, and gave up acting following a 1960 appearance on Hugh O'Brian
's The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
.
In the interim, Winters had guest roles in series including Death Valley Days
, The Jack Benny Show, and Richard Diamond, Private Detective
; Racket Squad
; The Gene Autry Show
, where she made her singing debut in the 1951 episode "Warning! Danger!", The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
, Brave Eagle
, Four Star Playhouse
, General Electric Theater
, Frontier Doctor
, Judge Roy Bean
(in the episode "Four Ladies from Laredo
"), The Roy Rogers Show
, Sheriff of Cochise
, and Stories of the Century
.
During this time, she also appeared in movies including Hold That Line
(1952), starring the Bowery Boys
, and She Couldn't Say No
.
), an etiquette
book aimed at young girls, which inspired the alternative rock
band Nada Surf
's 1996 song and video "Popular
." As well, Jimmy Buffett
's song "Pencil Thin Mustache" contains a reminiscence of being about "bucktoothed and skinny ... writin' fan letters to Sky's niece Penny."
When her husband retired, the two moved to Vista, California. He died in 2001. Winters died of complications from pneumonia
at her home on August 14, 2010. She was survived by her sister-in-law Phyllis DeCinces, and was interred alongside her husband at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery
in San Diego
, California.
's Golden Boot Award
for her work in Western
films and television programs.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television series Sky King
Sky King
Sky King is a 1940s and 1950s American radio and television adventure series. The title character is Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King...
.
Early life and career
Gloria Winters grew up in the San Fernando ValleySan Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
of Los Angeles, but later moved to Hollywood with her family. A 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...
, she made her debut, she said in a mid-2000s radio interview, "when I was about five," with a small role in a Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
movie. "I came running out to Shirley Temple, and she was supposed to help me, like I had just gone to the little girls' room." (Once source says she had appeared as a baby in the 1932 Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...
film Virtue
Virtue (film)
Virtue is a 1932 romance film starring Carole Lombard and Pat O'Brien.-Plot summary:New York City streetwalker Mae is placed on a train by a policeman and told not to come back. However, she gets off, taking the cab of Jimmy Doyle , who doesn't think much of women. She slips away without paying...
.)
Winters went on to a Pete Smith
Pete Smith (film producer)
Pete Smith was a film producer and narrator of "short subject" films from 1931 to 1955....
movie short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
, in a scene of her coming down a slide to the grass, where a black Scottie dog licked her face. She also appeared in an Our Gang
Our Gang
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
feature. She performed onstage, and took tap dance
Tap dance
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sound of one's tap shoes hitting the floor as a percussive instrument. As such, it is also commonly considered to be a form of music. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses more on the...
classes, and in the late 1940s and early 1950s was first cast in Western
Western fiction
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the mid 20th century...
films such as Driftwood
Driftwood (film)
Driftwood is a 2007 horror film that was shown at the Screamfest LA International Horror Film Festival on October 20, 2006. The film was released on DVD on November 13, 2007...
(1947) and El Paso (1949), and in such television series as The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
and The Range Rider
The Range Rider
The Range Rider is an American Western television series that aired in syndication from 1951-1953. A single lost episode was first shown in 1959...
. Her roughly twenty films, mostly Westerns, include The Lawless
The Lawless
The Lawless is a 1950 American drama film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Macdonald Carey, Gail Russell and Johnny Sands. A newspaper editor in California becomes concerned about the plight of the state's fruit pickers, mostly illegal immigrants from Mexico...
(1950) and Gambling House (1950).
She portrayed daughter Babs Riley in the first season of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
sitcom The Life of Riley
The Life of Riley
The Life of Riley, with William Bendix in the title role, is a popular American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, a long-run 1950s television series , and a 1958 Dell comic book...
(1949 to 1950), starring Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
and Rosemary DeCamp
Rosemary DeCamp
Rosemary DeCamp was an American radio, film and television actress.DeCamp first came to fame in November 1937, when she took the role of Judy Price, the secretary of Dr. Christian in the long-running radio series of the same name. She made her film debut in Cheers for Miss Bishop and appeared in...
. The show was subsequently recast with William Bendix
William Bendix
William Bendix was an American film, radio, and television actor, best remembered in movies for the title role in the movie The Babe Ruth Story and for portraying clumsily earnest aircraft plant worker Chester A. Riley in radio and television's The Life of Riley...
in the lead.
Winters appeared too in a recurring role as Ruth Farley in the 1953-1955 ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
sitcom with a variety show
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
theme, Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond? is a 1953-1954 ABC situation comedy television series starring Ray Bolger as Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man who is consistently barely on time for his performances...
, renamed The Ray Bolger Show
Where's Raymond?
Where's Raymond? is a 1953-1954 ABC situation comedy television series starring Ray Bolger as Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man who is consistently barely on time for his performances...
. Verna Felton
Verna Felton
Verna Felton was an American character actress who was best-known for providing many female voices in numerous Disney animated films, as well as voicing Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law Pearl Slaghoople for Hanna-Barbera...
played her mother. The series starred Ray Bolger
Ray Bolger
Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
as Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man who was repeatedly barely on time for his performances.
Sky King
Winters' signature role was in the children's television series Sky KingSky King
Sky King is a 1940s and 1950s American radio and television adventure series. The title character is Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King...
, starring Kirby Grant
Kirby Grant
Kirby Grant, , was a long-time B movie and television actor. He is mostly remembered for playing the title role in the television series Sky King....
as rancher and pilot Schuyler "Sky" King in contemporary Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. Winters played the blond, baby-faced, perky but earnest and helpful teenage niece, Penny King, who lived with him at the Flying Crown Ranch and often became involved in her uncle's adventures. She played the role in 72 episodes from 1952 to 1959. Ron Hagerthy
Ron Hagerthy
Ronald F. "Ron" Hagerthy is a former American actor known primarily for his guest-starring and supporting roles on television westerns. In 1952, he portrayed Clipper King in the modern western series, Sky King, with Kirby Grant in the title role of Clipper's uncle, Schuyler "Sky" King, pilot of...
, who is the same age as Winters, appeared in nineteen episodes during 1952 as Sky King's nephew
Nephew
Nephew is a son of one's sibling or sibling-in-law, and niece is a daughter of one's sibling or a sibling-in-law. Sons and daughters of siblings-in-law are also informally referred to as nephews and nieces respectively, even though there is no blood relation...
, Clipper King, but it was not clarified if Clipper was the brother or the cousin of Penny. Sky King, which ran on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and ABC, was filmed in 1951-1952 and from 1955 through at least 1959, as sponsors changed. It ran thereafter in syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
, but the actors received no residual
Residual (entertainment industry)
A residual is a payment made to the creator of performance art for subsequent showings or screenings of the work. A typical use is in the payment of residuals for television reruns. The word is often used in the plural form.-Radio and television:The residual system started in U.S. network radio...
s.
During the run of Sky King, Winters and Kirby Grant performed as a song-and-dance team as headliners on the state fair
State fair
A state fair is a competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs....
circuit. Winters recalled a Texas State Fair in Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
in which the two signed autographs. Waiting for their signatures were astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s Gus Grissom
Gus Grissom
Virgil Ivan Grissom , , better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot...
, Pete Conrad
Pete Conrad
Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. was an American naval officer, astronaut and engineer, and the third person to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 12 mission. He set an eight-day space endurance record along with command pilot Gordon Cooper on the Gemini 5 mission, and commanded the Gemini 11 mission...
, Alan Shepard
Alan Shepard
Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was an American naval aviator, test pilot, flag officer, and NASA astronaut who in 1961 became the second person, and the first American, in space. This Mercury flight was designed to enter space, but not to achieve orbit...
and Wally Schirra
Wally Schirra
Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. was an American test pilot, United States Navy officer, and one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America's effort to put humans in space. He is the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs...
in line with their children. As noted by the magazine publisher Airport Journal, the series Sky King inspired a number of youngsters to take up flying when they became older.
Winters married Dean Stevens Vernon (1926–2001), a sound engineer on Sky King
Sky King
Sky King is a 1940s and 1950s American radio and television adventure series. The title character is Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King...
, and gave up acting following a 1960 appearance on Hugh O'Brian
Hugh O'Brian
Hugh O'Brian is an American actor, known for his starring role in the ABC television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp .-Early years and career:...
's The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp is a Western television series loosely based on the adventures of frontier marshal Wyatt Earp. The half-hour black and white series ran on ABC-TV from 1955 to 1961 and featured Hugh O'Brian as Earp. An off-camera barbershop quartet sang the theme song and hummed...
.
In the interim, Winters had guest roles in series including Death Valley Days
Death Valley Days
Death Valley Days is an American radio and television anthology series featuring true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was broadcast on radio until 1945. It continued from 1952 to 1975 as a syndicated television series...
, The Jack Benny Show, and Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Richard Diamond, Private Detective is an American detective drama which aired on radio from 1949 to 1953, and on television from 1957 to 1960.-Radio:...
; Racket Squad
Racket Squad
Racket Squad is an American TV crime drama series starring Reed Hadley as Captain John Braddock, a fictional detective working for the San Francisco, California Police Department....
; The Gene Autry Show
The Gene Autry Show
The Gene Autry Show is an American western/cowboy television series which aired for 91 episodes on CBS from July 23, 1950 until August 7, 1956, originally sponsored by Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum.-Overview:...
, where she made her singing debut in the 1951 episode "Warning! Danger!", The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok is an American Western television series which ran for eight seasons from 1951 through 1958. The Screen Gems series began in syndication, but ran on CBS from 1955 through 1958, and, at the same time, on ABC from 1957 through 1958.-Synopsis:The Adventures of Wild...
, Brave Eagle
Brave Eagle
Brave Eagle is a 26-episode half-hour western television series which aired on CBS from September 28, 1955, to March 14, 1956, with rebroadcasts continuing until June 6. Keith Larsen , who was of Norwegian descent, starred as Brave Eagle, a peaceful young Cheyenne chief...
, Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse
Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953...
, General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald W. Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.-Radio:...
, Frontier Doctor
Frontier Doctor
For the NBC program similarly named, see Frontier .Frontier Doctor is an American Western television series starring Rex Allen that aired in syndication from September 26, 1958, until June 20, 1959.-Synopsis:...
, Judge Roy Bean
Judge Roy Bean (TV series)
Judge Roy Bean is a syndicated American Western series starring Edgar Buchanan as the legendary Kentucky-born Judge Roy Bean, a justice of the peace known as "The law west of the Pecos".-Synopsis:...
(in the episode "Four Ladies from Laredo
Laredo, Texas
Laredo is the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 236,091 making it the 3rd largest on the United States-Mexican border,...
"), The Roy Rogers Show
The Roy Rogers Show
The Roy Rogers Show is an American Western television series that broadcast 100 episodes on NBC for six seasons between December 30, 1951 and June 9, 1957. The show starred Roy Rogers as a ranch owner, Dale Evans as the proprietor of the Eureka Cafe in fictional Mineral City, and Pat Brady as...
, Sheriff of Cochise
Sheriff of Cochise
Sheriff of Cochise , renamed U.S. Marshal , is a 58-episode syndicated western-themed crime drama set in Arizona and starring John Bromfield as law enforcement officer Frank Morgan. In the first two seasons, Morgan was sheriff of Cochise County...
, and Stories of the Century
Stories of the Century
Stories of the Century is a Western television series that ran in syndication through Republic Pictures between January 23, 1954, and March 11, 1955.-Synopsis:...
.
During this time, she also appeared in movies including Hold That Line
Hold That Line
Hold That Line is a 1952 comedy film starring The Bowery Boys. The film was released on March 23, 1952 by Monogram Pictures and is the twenty-fifth film in the series.-Plot:...
(1952), starring the Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys were fictional New York City characters who were the subject of feature films released by Monogram Pictures from 1946 through 1958....
, and She Couldn't Say No
She Couldn't Say No (1954 film)
She Couldn't Say No is a 1954 comedy-drama film starring Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons.-Plot:Wealthy Corby Lane visits the small American hamlet of Progress, Arkansas, whose residents had paid for a critical medical operation for her when she was a child. She decides to express her gratitude by...
.
Later life
In 1964, Winters wrote Penny's Guide to Teen-Age Charm and Popularity (Prentice HallPrentice Hall
Prentice Hall is a major educational publisher. It is an imprint of Pearson Education, Inc., based in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6-12 and higher-education market. Prentice Hall distributes its technical titles through the Safari...
), an etiquette
Etiquette
Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...
book aimed at young girls, which inspired the alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Nada Surf
Nada Surf
Nada Surf is an American alternative rock band. Formed in 1992, the New York band consists of Matthew Caws , Ira Elliot and Daniel Lorca .-Early years:...
's 1996 song and video "Popular
Popular (Nada Surf song)
"Popular" is a song by Nada Surf and the first single from their debut album High/Low. Each of the verses in '"Popular" presents, in spoken word format, sarcastic advice to teens. Initially offered in a calm, deadpan voice, the lyrics gradually build Kinison-style in teen angst and rage.The song...
." As well, Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett
James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...
's song "Pencil Thin Mustache" contains a reminiscence of being about "bucktoothed and skinny ... writin' fan letters to Sky's niece Penny."
When her husband retired, the two moved to Vista, California. He died in 2001. Winters died of complications from pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
at her home on August 14, 2010. She was survived by her sister-in-law Phyllis DeCinces, and was interred alongside her husband at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is situated in the city of San Diego, California, on the Fort Rosecrans Military Reservation. The cemetery is located approximately 10 miles west of downtown San Diego, overlooking the bay and the city...
in San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, California.
Awards
In 2002, she was awarded the Motion Picture & Television FundMotion Picture & Television Fund
The Motion Picture & Television Fund is a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries with limited or no resources...
's Golden Boot Award
Golden Boot Awards
The Golden Boot Awards honor actors, actresses, and crew members who have made significant contributions to the genre of Western television and movies. The award is sponsored and presented by the Motion Picture & Television Fund...
for her work in Western
Western fiction
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the mid 20th century...
films and television programs.