Anne Burr McDermott, 84; Stage, Early TV Star

Anne Burr McDermott, who under the name Anne Burr acted on Broadway and on radio in the 1940s and helped initiate live television shows including the “City Hospital” series in the early 1950s, has died. She was 84.

McDermott died Feb. 1 in Old Lyme, Conn., of respiratory failure.

Born in Boston, she began her acting career in summer theater and made her Broadway debut in 1941’s “Native Son.” The play was adapted by Paul Green and Richard Wright from Wright’s novel of the same title about the accidental killing of a white woman by a black man. Even though the two main characters were not a romantic couple, the play raised eyebrows in its day for casting a white woman opposite an African American man [Canada Lee].

Among McDermott’s other Broadway plays were “Plan M,” “Dark Eyes,” “While the Sun Shines,” “The Hasty Heart,” opposite Richard Basehart, and “Detective Story,” with Ralph Bellamy.

Under contract to RKO Radio for many years, McDermott acted in several radio dramas through the 1940s, including the anthology “Studio One,” which she followed to television a few years later. She made her TV breakthrough as Viola in “Twelfth Night,” the medium’s first full-length production of a Shakespeare play, and as Dr. Kate Morrow was the leading lady in the live series “City Hospital” in 1952 and ’53.

“The presence of a female doctor ... was rather uncommon for medical shows of this period,” notes “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows.”

Although blacklisted briefly during the McCarthy era, the actress returned to television as one of the first soap opera stars, playing Claire in “As the World Turns” from 1955 to 1959.

She gave up her career after moving to Los Angeles in 1959 with her late husband, Tom McDermott, a principal in Four Star Television along with Dick Powell, Charles Boyer and David Niven, and producer of such series as “Father Knows Best.”

Survivors include three children, Maggie, Burr and Michael; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for this spring in Connecticut.

The family has asked that any donations in her honor be sent to the Anne B. McDermott Memorial Fund at the Phoebe Griffith Noyes Library, 2 Library Lane, Old Lyme, CT 06371.