FOUND A GRAVE

Actress. Born Eunice Quedens in Mill Valley, California to Lucille and Charles Peter Quedens. She left high school at 16 and joined a stock theater company. She appeared in a few films under her real name. Her Broadway debut came in 1934, when she was cast in the stage play “Ziegfeld Follies,” before entering radio in 1945 on “The Danny Kaye Show.” CBS President William S. Paley offered her the title role on a new series called “Our Miss Brooks.” She was a sensation. Her performance inspired letters from thousands of real-life teachers and led to speaking engagements before the PTA and other educational groups. The show lasted from 1948 to 1957 on radio, with overlapping success on television from 1952 to 1956. She won a radio listeners’ poll by Radio Mirror magazine as the top ranking comedienne of 1948-1949. Her many memorable screen roles include a supporting role in 1945’s Mildred Pierce,” for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress, and in 1959’s “Anatomy of a Murder.” One of her co-stars in that film was husband Brooks West. She tried another television series in 1957 with “The Eve Arden Show,” but it was cancelled after only a few episodes. She co-starred with Kaye Ballard in the 1967-1969 situation comedy, “The Mothers-in-Law.” She became known to a new generation of film-goers when she played Principal McGee in both 1978’s “Grease” and 1982’s “Grease 2,” as well as making appearances on such television shows as “Alice” and “Falcon Crest.” She published her biography, “The Three Phases of Eve,” in 1985. She died of cancer and heart disease at her home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 82. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6714 Hollywood Boulevard. She was also inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.