Patricia Blair

Actress Patricia Blair was born on January 15, 1933, in Fort Worth, Texas, but grew up in Dallas. She first entered the world of entertainment as a young teenage model, eventually represented by the Conover Agency. She apprenticed in summer stock before Warner Bros. discovered her for films after catching some alluring cheesecake shots of her. The highly photogenic lady did the starlet route starting out with the stage moniker of "Patricia Blake." She appeared as a second female lead in such standard filming as Jump Into Hell (1955), Crime Against Joe (1956), The Black Sleep (1956), which reunited horror icons Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., Basil Rathbone and John Carradine and the suspenser City of Fear (1959) opposite Vince Edwards, but not much came out of this promise. True to form, she later did a TV pilot entitled "Tramp Ship" opposite Neville Brand but it did not sell. Better things started happening in the early 1960s. She came in for a season in a semi-regular role on The Rifleman (1958) replacing actress Joan Taylor as a spunky love interest for Chuck Connors. In 1964, she was just about to relocate to New York when screenwriter Gordon Chase submitted her name for the female lead in the series Daniel Boone (1964) as "Rebecca Boone", the wife of Fess Parker's legendary outdoorsman. She won the part and stayed with the show for six profitable seasons. Patricia also made numerous late 50s and 60s TV appearances with such guest credits on The Bob Cummings Show (1955), The Virginian (1962), Perry Mason (1957) and Bonanza (1959), among others. Little heard of following the demise of the Daniel Boone (1964) TV series in 1970, she appeared in a few minor films and TV spots before dropping completely out of sight. She was last seen on film in a small role in The Electric Horseman (1979) and an isolated part on a 1988 episode of "Me and My Girl." In later years, Patricia produced trade shows in New York and New Jersey. Diagnosed with breast cancer, she died in New Jersey on September 9, 2013, at age 80.