Hope Summers

Hope Summers could portray a friendly neighbor or companion as she did for Frances Baviers Aunt Bee character on many episodes of The Andy Griffith Show 1960 or a seemingly amiable Satanist in Rosemarys Baby 1968 Born in Mattoon Illinois she developed an early interest in the theater Graduating from Northwestern School of Speech in Evanston Illinois she subsequently taught speech and diction there This in turn led to her the head position in the Speech Department at Bradley University in Peoria Illinois teaching students privately on the side as well In the 1930s Hope began to focus on acting She found work in community and stock theaters in Illinois and earned some notice for putting on onewoman shows such as Backstage of Broadway She made use of her vocal eloquence by building up her resumé on radio performing in scores of dramatic shows including Authors Playhouse First Night Ma Perkins and StepMother In 1950 Hope transferred her talents to the new medium of television and earned a regular role on the comedy series Hawkins Falls A Television Novel 1950 By the age of 50 she was customarily called upon to play slightly older than she was appearing in a number of minuscule matron roles in such films as Zero Hour 1957 HoundDog Man 1959 Inherit the Wind 1960 Spencers Mountain 1963 The Ghost and Mr Chicken 1966 Charley Varrick 1973 and her last Foul Play 1978 She never had any major standout roles in movies TV would be a more prolific choice of medium Her gently stern oldfashioned looks allowed her to be a part of many smalltown settings including Dennis the Menace 1959 and Petticoat Junction 1963 and in various western locales such as Maverick 1957 and Wagon Train 1957 She played a rustic regular for many years on The Rifleman 1958 Usually assigned to play teachers nurses and other helpful nurturing types her characters were also known to be inveterate gossips Hope worked until close to the end of her life passing away from heart failure in 1979