Mary Grace Canfield, a character actress best known as part of the daffy Ralph-and-Alf brother-sister carpenter team on the TV comedy “Green Acres,” died Saturday in a Santa Barbara hospice. She was 89.
The cause was lung cancer, her daughter Phoebe Alexiades said.
Born on September 3, 1924 in Rochester, New York, Canfield appeared in Broadway and off-Broadway plays before heading to Hollywood. Her first appearance on television was on dramatic anthology “Goodyear Playhouse” in 1954, and other early guest spots included “The Best of Broadway,” “Robert Montgomery Presents,” “Thriller” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” Canfield’s first regularly scheduled role was as a housekeeper on 1961-62 ABC sitcom “The Hathaways,” and she also guest starred on series like “Bewitched,” “Hazel,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “General Hospital,” “Adam-12,” “Family,” “The Love Boat,” “Cagney & Lacey” and “Alice.” Her film roles included “Pollyanna” in 1960 and “Something Wicked This Way Comes” in 1983.
Agencies/Canadajournal