Collin Wilcox (actress)

Collin Wilcox

Wilcox in 1958
Born (1935-02-04)February 4, 1935
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Died October 14, 2009(2009-10-14) (aged 74)
Highlands, North Carolina, U.S.
Cause of death Brain Cancer
Occupation Film, stage, and television actress
Years active 1953–2003
Spouse(s) Walter Beakel (divorced)
Geoffrey Horne (divorced)
Scott Paxton (1979–2009; her death)
Children Kimberly Horne
Michael G. Paxton
William Horne

Collin Wilcox (February 4, 1935 – October 14, 2009) was an American film, stage and television actress. She was also credited as Collin Wilcox-Horne or Collin Wilcox-Paxton.

Life and career

She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and moved with her family to Highlands, North Carolina, as a baby. Her interest in theater was sparked by her parents, Jack H. and Virginia Wilcox, who founded the Highlands Community Theatre (now known as the Highlands Playhouse) in 1939. She made her professional debut in Chicago as part of the improvisational group, The Compass Players, which included Mike Nichols, Elaine May, and Shelley Berman. Playing opposite Richard Basehart, Kevin McCarthy and William Hansen, Wilcox won the Clarence Derwent Award for her performance in The Day The Money Stopped by Maxwell Anderson and Brendan Gill, which lasted only three nights on Broadway in 1958. She starred in the 1961 play Look, We've Come Through with Burt Reynolds on Broadway. She replaced another actress in the 1963 revival of Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude and then went on to do the 1965 play The Family Way, both on Broadway.

A life member of The Actors Studio,[1] Wilcox is perhaps best known for her role in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, in which she played Mayella Violet Ewell, who falsely accuses Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) of raping her. Following that cinematic acting success, she performed two very memorable roles for television in 1964: The Twilight Zone episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" and the The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode "The Jar" based on the Ray Bradbury short story. She appears as Bess Frye in a 1972 episode of "Gunsmoke" titled "Jubilee". In 1974, she co-starred with Peter Falk and Robert Conrad in the Columbo episode An Exercise in Fatality. Wilcox remained active performing both on television and in films. Her final role was that of Mrs. Kline in the movie A Touch of Fate, which was released in 2003, six years before her death.

Civil rights activism

She recalled receiving "unfriendly looks" when she showed up at a NAACP conference in Monterey, California, where an official had to remind participants that, "Collin is here at this conference because she believes in the cause. She is not the character in the film". This was due to the fact that she played a racist white woman who falsely accused Tom Robinson, a black man, of raping her.[2]

Death

On October 14, 2009, Wilcox died from brain cancer, aged 74, at her home in Highlands, North Carolina.[3] She was survived by her sister, her third husband, Scott Paxton (whom she married in 1979); three children, Kimberly Horne, Michael G. Paxton, and William Horne; and three grandchildren.

Filmography

Television

References

  1. ↑ Garfield, David (1980). "Appendix: Life Members of The Actors Studio as of January 1980". A Player's Place: The Story of The Actors Studio. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. p. 278. ISBN 0-02-542650-8.
  2. ↑ "Collin Wilcox Paxton dies at 74; actress was Mayella in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'". Los Angeles Times. October 23, 2009.
  3. ↑ Fox, Margalit (October 22, 2009). "Collin Wilcox, Actress in 'To Kill A Mockingbird', Dies at 74". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-22.

External links

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