Barbara Pepper

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Barbara Pepper born Marion B Pepper May 31 1915 July 18 1969 was an American stage television radio and film actress She is best known as the first Doris Ziffel on the sitcom Green Acres Pepper was born in New York City the daughter of actor David Mitchell Dave Pepper and his wife Harrietta S Pepper At age 16 she started life in show business with Goldwyn Girls a musical stock company where she met lifelong friend Lucille Ball Pepper began making movies Among her later film parts were small roles in My Fair Lady and Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World She also performed radio parts In 1943 she married actor Craig Reynolds né Harold Hugh Enfield and the couple later had two sons After Reynolds died in 1949 in a California motorcycle accident Pepper was left to raise their children alone She never remarried After gaining weight her roles were mostly confined to small character parts on television including several appearances on I Love Lucy The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show Petticoat Junction and The Jack Benny Program She made four appearances on Perry Mason including the role of Martha Dale mother of the title character in the 1957 episode The Case of the Vagabond Vixen A longtime friend of Lucille Ball Barbara was considered for the role of Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy but was passed over due to the fact that she was reportedly a drinker William Frawley Fred Mertz was likewise reportedly a drinker and was already cast It was felt that having two drinkers in the cast might eventually cause difficulties so they auditioned and found Vivian Vance to play Ethel instead She may be best remembered as the first Doris Ziffel on Petticoat Junction in 1964 although her characters name on the Genghis Keane episode of Petticoat Junction was Ruth Ziffel Her role as Doris Ziffel continued on Green Acres from 1965 to 1968 until heart ailments finally forced her to leave that weekly series Veteran actress Fran Ryan replaced her on Green Acres which would continue to run for another three years Her final performance was in the 1969 film Hook Line Sinker in which she played Jerry Lewiss secretary