Mary LaRoche

Mary LaRoche (born Mary Catherine La Roche on July 20, 1920 in Rochester, New York) was a versatile American actress and singer whose career spanned nearly four decades of stage, film, and television. Raised as the youngest of three daughters to Catherine R. Carney and Canadian‑born hotel manager William P. La Roche, she received early musical training at the Eastman School of Music, mastering piano and voice before she turned ten, when she began appearing on local radio programs. Her theatrical foundations were built with the Community Players and the Paddy Hill Players, and she achieved early recognition as a sectional winner of the radio talent‑show Gateway to Hollywood in 1939. LaRoche’s Broadway debut came in 1938, and over the next seven years she performed in a string of musical comedies, notably the 1942 operetta The Merry Widow and the nightclub‑singer roles in The New Moon and Laffing Room Only. Transitioning to the screen, she appeared in a series of memorable 1950s and 1960s films, including Catskill Honeymoon (1950), Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) opposite Clark Gable, and the teenage‑culture classics Gidget (1959) and Bye Bye Birdie (1963), where she played the mother of the lead characters. Her television résumé is equally extensive; from 1951 to 1977 she guest‑starred in at least thirty‑seven series, delivering standout performances in The Twilight Zone (“A World of His Own”, “Living Doll”), five episodes of Perry Mason, and a poignant portrayal of a widowed farmer in the 1963 Gunsmoke episode “Quint‑Cident”. LaRoche also appeared on early TV variety programs, such as a 1946 skit on Chicago’s WBKB‑TV, and later contributed to Disney anthology specials in the late 1960s. Off‑screen, she married actor John Hudson in 1941 (divorced 1947) and later actor‑producer Sherwood Price in 1967; no children have been recorded. Mary LaRoche passed away on February 9, 1999 in her hometown of Rochester, leaving a legacy of robust character work that continues to be celebrated by classic film and television enthusiasts.