Ann Tyrrell

Ann Tyrrell (February 6, 1909 – July 20, 1983) was an American stage, film and television actress. Tyrrell is best known for her roles in both of the Ann Sothern CBS sitcoms Private Secretary (1953–1957) and The Ann Sothern Show (1958–1961).

A native of Whatcom County in northwestern Washington State, Tyrrell won her first film role in 1949 at the age of forty as Miss Swanson in Bride for Sale. The following year she appeared as a clerk in the motion picture version of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie (1950). In 1951, she was cast as a telephone operator in Ronald Reagan's Bedtime for Bonzo. She and Reagan shared birthdays, but she was two years his senior.

In 1953, she appeared unbilled as Mary Tudor sister of Queen Elizabeth I in the M-G-M historical drama Queen Bess and in 1955, she appeared in the film Seven Angry Men with Raymond Massey and Jeffrey Hunter. Between film appearances, Tyrrell guest starred in episodes of Adventures of Superman, The Adventures of Kit Carson, and The People's Choice.

Her major opportunity came in 1953 when she was cast for four seasons in the role of office receptionist Violet "Vi" Praskins, friend and colleague of Susie MacNamara, played by Ann Sothern, in the sitcom Private Secretary. After the series ended in a contract dispute in 1957, Tyrrell joined The Ann Sothern Show as Olive Smith, roommate and secretary of Sothern's new character, Katy O'Connor. After The Ann Sothern Show ended its run in 1961, Tyrrell made only two more television appearances; as Mrs. Marshall in a 1962 episode of The Danny Thomas Show and as Miss Ruth Potter in a 1964 episode of Burke's Law.

After retiring from acting, Tyrrell worked as a dialectician and made recordings for the blind.

Tyrrell made her final public appearance in a phone interview on the ABC morning program Good Morning America in November, 1982. In that installment, host Joan Lunden interviewed on camera the cast of both Private Secretary and The Ann Sothern Show which included Sothern, Don Porter, and Jesse White. Tyrrell was not able to physically join them, but she was able to converse with Lunden and reminisce with her former co-stars via telephone from her home in California.

On July 20, 1983, Tyrrell died of a heart attack at a Pasadena, California hospital at the age of 74.