Elisabeth Fraser, 85; Actress Who Played Sgt. Bilko’s Love Interest

Elisabeth Fraser, durable character actress of stage, film and television who portrayed Sgt. Bilko’s love interest in the 1950s series “The Phil Silvers Show,” has died. She was 85.

Fraser died Thursday of congestive heart failure at the Motion Picture and Television hospital in Woodland Hills.

The Brooklyn native began her 40-year acting career in the 1940 Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “There Shall Be No Night” starring Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Montgomery Clift and Sydney Greenstreet.

Fraser’s role as the ingenue earned her a Warner Bros. film contract, and she soon was acting in such films as “The Man Who Came to Dinner” with Bette Davis and “One Foot in Heaven” with Fredric March and Martha Scott.

Among Fraser’s more than 30 films were “Young at Heart” with Doris Day and Frank Sinatra in 1954, “The Graduate” in 1967 and her last, “Nine to Five” in 1980.

The versatile actress also found success on television, from early 1950s live theater anthology programs such as “Four Star Playhouse” and “Kraft Television Theatre” through 1970s series including “Mannix” and “Maude.”

In addition to the Phil Silvers show, she was a series regular on the television version of “Fibber McGee and Molly,” broadcast in 1959 and 1960.

Fraser, who married and divorced actor-dancer Ray McDonald and screenwriter Charles K. Peck Jr., is survived by three daughters: Pat McDonald Zavad, Liza McDonald and Meg McDonald Seltzer.

A memorial service is planned for 1 p.m. May 20 in the Louis B. Mayer Theater at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills. Instead of flowers, memorial donations can be sent to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.