Abby Dalton

Abby Dalton (born Marlene Wasden on August 15, 1935) was an American actress.

As mentioned above, Born as Marlene Wasden in Las Vegas, Nevada, she ahs made numerous appearances on television, including the recurrent role of fictitious winemaker Julia Cumson on CBS' Falcon Crest. In the storyline, Julia is the daughter of Angela Channing (Jane Wyman) and the mother of Lance Cumson (Lorenzo Lamas).

James Garner and Clint Eastwood engaged in a fist fight over Dalton's character in the episode "Duel at Sundown" of ABC/Warner Bros. western series Marverick. In 1958, she appeared as Eloise Barton in an episode of the NBC western series, Jefferson Drum starring Jeff Richards as a crusading frontier journalist.

In January 1959, Dalton was cast as Elizabeth Bingham in the episode "The Desperadoes" of the ABC/WB western series, Sugafoot starring Will Hutchins in the title role. In the story line, at a mission in South Texas, Tom "Sugafoot" Brewster learns a mysterious plot to assassinate Mexican President Benito Juarez. Jack Kruschen and Anthony George guest starred Dalton in this episode as Sam Bolt and Padre John, Respectively.

Dalton played a nurse, Martha Hale on NBC's Hennessey (she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role) with Jackie Cooper in the title role, and she portrayed Joey Bishop's wife on The Joey Bishop Show, a situation comedy on NBC and CBS from 1961 to 1965. As the Hennessey series was ending, The Joey Bishop Show was preparing for its premiere on NBC. Dalton played the role of Ellie Barnes, the wife of Joey Barnes (Joey Bishop). As the show premiered on September 15, 1962, Dalton and Bishop are shown as newlyweds Ellie and Joey Barnes. Hennessey's series finale program was aired two days later, on September 17, 1962, with Martha Hale's marriage to Chick Hennessey. Dalton hence married two different television characters on two different networks within two days.

Dalton was a semi-regular on NBC's The Match Game and appeared in the early years of The Hollywood Squares. Dalton also appeared on Super Password with Bert Convy as the host, and guest-starred on NBC interview program Here's Hollywood.

Dalton's was cast in the original pilot for what became the ABC series Barney Miller as Barney's wife. However, that version of the pilot, for a show called The Days and Night of Captain Barney Miller was rejected by the network. and the role was recast with Barbara Barrie. In 1977, she appeared in an episode of the ABC crime drama The Feather and Father Gang. On Falcon Crest, Dalton's character Julia, was at quite odds with her mother Angela, played by the legendary Jane Wyman. For the show's first two seasons, she was troubled but basically decent, and in the second season finale, was revealed to be a murderess. Much of the third season focused on her dealing with life both in prison and a mental institution, and toward the end of the season, her character escaped from the mental institution and try to kill and kill her mother while disguised as a nun. Julia was believed to have been killed in the second to last episode. But soon to be in the fourth season, she revealed herself to her sister Emma to be alive. Her storyline had been held by Nazi conspirators who wanted control of Falcon Crest, but it ended mid season and Dalton was written out along with the villains. She returned sporadically during the fifth and sixth season as the storyline dictated, but was absent through the remainder of the run.

Dalton has three children by her marriage to Jack Smith (which ended in divorce), including actress Kathleen Kinmont.

Shows appeared
Match Game

The Celebrity Game

PDQ

Funny You Should Ask!!

Storybook Squares

Hollywood Squares

Password All-Stars

Jeopardy!

You Don't Say!

Showoffs

TattleTales

Battle of the Network Stars

Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour

Body Language

All Star Blitz

''The $25,000 Pyramid

Double Talk

Super Password

The (New) $25,000 Pyramid