Sheila Allen

Sheila Allen is closely associated with her husband Irwin, whose films and series she acted in during the '60s and '70s. After costarring in an episode of "Playhouse 90" and headlining the 1960 drama "The Malpas Mystery," she guest-starred in a '64 episode of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," a show produced by Irwin and based on his '61 science-fiction film of the same name. This was followed shortly after by guest-starring roles in his series "Lost in Space" and "Land of the Giants"--which closed out the decade for her. The '70s brought the Irwin-produced (and co-directed) epics "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno," with Sheila playing a nurse in the former. Meanwhile, in "The Towering Inferno," about ordinary men and women banding together to escape a burning skyscraper, she played the wife of San Francisco's mayor. From the middle of the decade onward, most of her appearances were on television, most notably the drama series "The Waltons," in which she occasionally guest-starred as switchboard operator Fanny Tatum. She later turned producer like her husband, and her projects have included 2006's "Poseidon," a remake of "The Poseidon Adventure."