Onetime actress co-wrote ‘The Blob’

Kay Linaker, 94, a 1930s and ‘40s Hollywood actress who later co-wrote the 1958 science-fiction horror film “The Blob” under the name Kate Phillips, died after a brief illness Friday in Keene, N.H.

Discovered while appearing on stage in New York City, Linaker made her film debut opposite Ricardo Cortez in the 1936 mystery “The Murder of Dr. Harrigan.”

She appeared in more than 50 films over the next nine years, including “Drums Along the Mohawk,” “They Dare Not Love” and “Buck Benny Rides Again” -- as well as “Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo” and several other movies in the Chan series.

Turning to writing after marrying Howard Phillips in 1945, she and her husband wrote for radio and television series.

As a writer, she achieved a bit of screen immortality co-writing “The Blob,” starring a young Steve McQueen, for which she was paid $125 and, she later said, a promised 10% of the gross that never materialized.

From the early ‘80s until two years ago, she taught screenwriting, screen acting and other film courses at Keene State College.

Born in Pine Bluff, Ark., on July 19, 1913, Linaker attended New York University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.