Quick Facts
LibraBiography
Lenka Peterson (born Betty Ann Isacson; October 16, 1925) is an American theater, film, and television actress.
Early years
Peterson was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Lenke (née Leinweber), a lab technician, and Sven Edward Isacson, a physician. Her father was Swedish, and her mother was Hungarian. She majored in drama at the University of Iowa.
Career
Peterson had the role of Corliss Archer in a USO-sponsored troupe that performed on military bases in Japan, the Philippines, and other places in the Pacific. In the mid-1940s, she acted with the Berkshire Playhouse stock theater in New Hampshire. She later acted on stage in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts; and Providence, Rhode Island.
One of the first members admitted to New York City's Actors Studio, Peterson's Broadway portrayals included Ella in Sundown Beach (1948), Maude in The Grass Harp (1952), Kitty in The Time of Your Life (1955), Sally and Mary in All the Way Home (1960), Rose in Nuts (1980), and Sarah in Quilters (1984).
Peterson was nominated for a 1985 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in Quilters. She guest starred in such early television productions as Hallmark Hall of Fame (1952), The Philco Television Playhouse (1955), and Actors Studio (1949 and 1950).
On television, she portrayed Faye Banister on the NBC drama Young Dr. Malone (1958), Martha Skerba on the ABC serial A Time for Us (1964), Doris Bonino on the NBC comedy Bonino (1953) and Eve Morgan on the ABC comedy Love, Sidney (1981) and was a cast member of the series Herb Shriner Time (1951), Search for Tomorrow, playing Isabel Moore in 1962 and Evelyn Reedy in 1977, A Flame in the Wind, Another World as Marie Fenton from 1983-1984 and later Lorna Devon's adopted grandmother, and Code of Vengeance.
Personal life
On May 8, 1948, Peterson married Daniel O'Connor in Omaha, Nebraska. Peterson is the mother of actress Glynnis O'Connor and Darren O'Connor (and three more sons, Kevin, Brian, and Sean) by O'Connor, who retired from NBC News, and who died in 2015.