Ann Morgan Guilbert

Ann Guilbert established herself in popular consciousness as one in a string of American television's loopy next-door neighbors, launching a remarkable career as journeyman character actor across the gamut of narrative media. Guilbert emerged from an itinerant early life to find her calling at Stanford University, where she also met her eventual husband and career catalyst George Eckstein, later a successful TV producer. Eckstein produced her Broadway debut, the musical variety show "The Billy Barnes Revue," before she began landing one-off TV roles. In 1961, she arrived in style with a plum job as Millie Helper, the archetypal suburban busybody neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (CBS, 1961-66). She would make a living in regional theater and as a TV guest-star, with occasional returns to sitcoms, such as "The New Andy Griffith Show" (CBS, 1971), "The Fanelli Boys" (NBC, 1990-91) and, through much of the 1990s, "The Nanny" (CBS, 1993-99), an extended stint in which she played Fran Drescher's loopy grandmother. In 2005, she returned to Broadway in "A Naked Girl on the Appian Way," which brought her to the attention of filmmaker Nicole Holofcener. The director gave her the scene-stealing role of a brazenly forthright nonagenarian neighbor in "Please Give" (2010), the critically lauded indie ensemble drama about the residents of a New York apartment building. Still remembered fondly for her place the other side of the Petries' picket fence in New Rochelle, Guilbert became the rare case of a working actress effecting dynamic, unique characters long into a storied career. Ann Morgan Guilbert died of pancreatic cancer on June 14, 2016. She was 87 years old.