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Constance Ford (born Cornelia Marie Ford; July 1, 1923 – February 26, 1993)New York, New York, Birth Index, 1910–1965 was an American actress and model. She portrayed Ada Lucas Hobson on the long-running daytime soap opera Another World, from 1967 until shortly before her death in 1993. She also appeared in nearly two dozen movies from 1956 to 1974, with her most noteworthy role being the matriarch Helen Jorgenson in A Summer Place (1959).
She began her television career in 1950, with performances on live television dramas such as Studio One, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Goodyear Television Playhouse, and other acclaimed series. As a Warner Bros. contract player, she had her most famous role as Sandra Dee's mother in A Summer Place (1959), in which her abused husband Richard Egan had a scene telling her off for her outdated prejudices, and Ford arranges for Dee to be tested for her virginity. Another scene had Ford slapping Dee so hard that she fell into a Christmas tree, which toppled over on her. In Rome Adventure (1962), she played Daisy Bronson, owner of a bookstore in Rome, opposite Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue, being kinder to him than she had been in A Summer Place. In House of Women, she played an aggressive but ultimately sympathetic female prisoner who gets into a catfight with prison matron Jeanne Cooper. She played the tough-as-nails nurse alongside Joan Crawford in The Caretakers (1963). She also had a walk-on playing a flirtatious but bored society matron who makes a play for Warren Beatty in All Fall Down.
She made three appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of a woman with multiple personality disorder in the 1958 episode "The Case of the Deadly Double", and as Frances Walden in "The Case of the Potted Planter" (1963) and defendant Sylvia Thompson in "The Case of the Shifty Shoebox" (also 1963). In 1960, she played heartless Connie Walworth ("You haven't got the flair, dear ...") for director Mitchell Leisen in the "Worse Than Murder" episode of Thriller. She was often featured in episodes of Kraft Television Theater, Appointment with Adventure, State Trooper, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre (as Laura Lovett, opposite Jack Palance in the 1956 episode, "Lariat"), Bat Masterson, The Phil Silvers Show, Have Gun – Will Travel, Rawhide, , Tombstone Territory (episode "Silver Killers"), Gunsmoke (in the episode "Wagon Girls" and as title character in the episode "Poor Pearl" in 1956), Alfred Hitchcock Presents, , and The Twilight Zone episode "Uncle Simon". She also appeared on the NBC interview program Here's Hollywood.
In 1954, she made her soap-opera debut as Lynn Sherwood on Woman With A Past on CBS. (2025). 9780786464777, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 9780786464777 On Search for Tomorrow, Ford was Rose Peterson, an employee of the mob, who was hired to discredit leading character Joanne Tate. Her on-screen brother was played by Don Knotts. On The Edge of Night, Ford played the murderous theatre owner Eve Morris.
Over the years, Ford played Ada's trials - she was divorced then widowed three times and worked in a variety of professions, from hairdressing to police clerk to restaurant owner. In 1975, middle-aged Ada gave birth to a daughter, Nancy.
Ford left the show in 1992 due to declining health, and Ada was said to be out of town visiting Nancy. When Ford died, the character of Ada also died, and the show paid tribute to character and actress both.
Ford died in New York Hospital in Manhattan on February 26, 1993, from cancer, aged 69.
| Season 1 Episode 8: "Mardi Gras" |
| Season 1 Episode 38: "The Creeper" |
| Season 2 Episode 13: "Poor Pearl" |
| Season 2 Episode 30: "Bilko and the Marriage Broker" |
| Season 3 Episode 14: "Bilko and the Flying Saucers" |
| Season 1 Episode 24: "The Deadly Double" |
| Season 1 Episode 28: "Lottery of Death" |
| Season 6 Episode 7: "Outlaw in Town" |
| Season 2 Episode 27: "Stage to Nowhere" |
| Season 1 Episode 2: " Lady In Waiting" |
| Season 7 Episode 27: "Wagon Girls" |
| Season 5 Episode 8: "Uncle Simon" |
| Season 6 Episode 27: "The Case of the Potted Planter" |
| Season 7 Episode 2: "The Case of the Shifty Shoebox" |
| Season 1 Episode 15: "The Great Invasion, Part 1" |
| 2391 episodes |
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