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Whitney Blake (February 20, 1926 - September 28, 2002) was a film and television actress.
Lovely blonde leading lady originally from the Pasadena Playhouse who appeared in many TV dramas but would be best known for playing the pert and pretty mom ("Mrs. B.") in the sitcom "Hazel" (1961) starring Shirley Booth.
Starred in the very first episode of "Perry Mason" (1957).

Singer-actress Whitney Houston was named after her.
Real-life mother of actress Meredith Baxter, with whom she co-starred in the TV-movie The Stranger Who Looks Like Me (1974) (TV).

Mother of Richard Whitney (b. November 24th 1944) and Brian Thomas (b. February 18th 1946), both born in Los Angeles, with Tom Baxter.
She also directed films and was co-creator of the television sitcom One Day at a Time, with her third husband, writer Allan Manings.

The actress (born as Nancy Whitney) appeared on a number of television programs, including the syndicated Johnny Midnight, Sheriff of Cochise, and twice on Rod Cameron`s State Trooper.

Blake is best remembered for having portrayed Dorothy ("Mrs. B.") Baxter, an interior designer and wife of a successful attorney George Baxter, (Don DeFore), on the NBC sitcom Hazel (1961), starring Shirley Booth in the title role.

Before Hazel Blake guest starred on Mike Connors`s Tightrope detective series, in the 1960 episode "High Bridge" of the NBC western series Overland Trail starring William Bendix and Doug McClure. She appeared too in the premiere episode of the syndicated western series Pony Express in the episode "The Good Samaritan".

After Hazel, she guest starred in an episode of ABC`s western series The Legend of Jesse James starring Christopher Jones in the title role. In 1967 she played attorney, Lee Drake, on the Andy Griffith Show. As demand for her in network television and films dwindled, Blake became a hostess of a Los Angeles television talk show. After that, Blake again reinvented herself and became a film and television director, producer, and writer.

Blake guest starred as "Angie" in "Incident of the Curious Street" during the second season of Rawhide, and played leading lady to James Garner in "The Day They Hanged Bret Maverick," the 1958 second season opener for Maverick.

She appeared on the first episode of the long running television program Perry Mason and appeared in the first film version of a Mike Hammer novel when she starred in My Gun Is Quick in the 1950s.