Ellen Weston, the actress, writer and producer whose long career stretched from Broadway to classic TV shows, soap operas and music, has died. She was 87.
Weston died May 28 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, her friend, producer and manager Susan Zachary told The Hollywood Reporter.
Born Ellen Rachel Weinstein in New York on April 19, 1939, Weston built a wide-ranging career that took her from the Broadway stage to some of television’s most recognizable shows.
She appeared on Broadway early in her career, making her debut in 1960 as an understudy in Toys in the Attic, a drama starring Jason Robards Jr. and Maureen Stapleton and directed by Arthur Penn.
The following year, she appeared in A Far Country as the sister of Sigmund Freud, who was played by Steven Hill. In 1962, she joined the cast of the long-running comedy Mary, Mary, replacing Betsy von Furstenberg in the Broadway hit starring Barbara Bel Geddes.
Weston later became familiar to soap opera fans, playing Robin Fletcher on CBS’ The Guiding Light from 1963 to 1964. She also appeared as Carol Pearson and Karen Gregory on NBC’s Another World from 1964 to 1965, and later played Suzanne Thurston on CBS’ The Young and the Restless from 1978 to 1980.
But Weston did not just act in daytime television. She eventually moved behind the scenes as a writer.
She wrote for the CBS soap Capitol in 1986 and returned to Guiding Light in 2003, when executive producer John Conboy hired her as co-head writer.
“I like to think of every day as a mini-movie,” she once told Soap Opera Digest.
Weston shared a Writers Guild of America Award for her work and remained with Guiding Light for about two years before being replaced by David Kreizman.
Her TV acting career also included memorable appearances on Get Smart, where she played Dr. Steele, a CONTROL chemist who doubled as a showgirl, during the show’s third season. She also recurred as Betty Harrelson, the wife of Steve Forrest’s Lt. “Hondo” Harrelson, on the first season of S.W.A.T. in 1975.
Her long list of television credits included Run for Your Life, N.Y.P.D., Bonanza, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Mannix, Bewitched, Hawkins, Harry O, Barnaby Jones, The Bob Newhart Show, Cannon, Baretta and Wonder Woman.
Weston was also a talented lyricist. She worked with singer Lesley Gore, writing seven songs with her for Gore’s 1972 album Someplace Else Now, her first album in five years. Weston also wrote all of the songs for Gore’s 1975 album Love Me by Name, which was produced by Quincy Jones.
In the 2015 book You Don’t Own Me: The Life and Times of Lesley Gore, author Trevor Tolliver wrote that Weston and Gore would go on to create 60 original songs together. He praised the pairing of Gore’s musical instincts with Weston’s gift for words.
Later in life, Weston went to law school and worked at CBS in business affairs. She also continued writing and producing, with credits that included the 1999 ABC TV movie And the Beat Goes On: The Sonny and Cher Story.
Weston was married to music engineer Ami Hadani, co-founder of the Los Angeles recording studio TTG, and later to composer Marvin Laird. Both marriages ended in divorce.
She is survived by her son, Jon Weston, a sound designer.
Friends remembered Weston as brilliant, stylish, loyal and endlessly creative.
In a statement, they called her “a rare person who had both right and left-brain proficiency,” saying she was just as skilled at writing a legal brief as she was with a knitting needle.
They also remembered her as a trusted confidante and fierce advocate for the people she loved.
“She was our consigliere dispensing advice, wisdom, compassion and care in equal measure,” her friends said.
They added that Weston took great care in how she lived, always dressing beautifully and staying active until the end.
“Up until the very end, she was still dancing and taking new classes,” they said, noting that her most recent pottery class ended just one month before her death.
For fans of classic television, Broadway and daytime drama, Weston leaves behind a legacy as a true multi-hyphenate: a performer, writer, producer, lyricist and storyteller who spent decades moving between every corner of the entertainment world.