Collin Wilcox (actress)

Collin Wilcox
Born	February 4, 1935(1935-02-04) Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Died	October 14, 2009(2009-10-14) (aged 74) Highlands, North Carolina, United States
Occupation	Film, stage, and television actress
Years active	1953–2003
Spouse	Walter Beakel (divorced); Geoffrey Horne (divorced); Scott Paxton (1979–2009; her death)

Collin Wilcox (February 4, 1935 – October 14, 2009) was an American actress in film, on stage and television. She was also credited as Collin Wilcox-Horne or Collin Wilcox-Paxton.

She was born in Cincinnati and moved with her family to Highlands, North Carolina, as a baby. She made her professional debut in Chicago as part of the improvisational group, The Compass Players, which included Mike Nichols, Elaine May, and Shelley Berman. In 1958, Wilcox won the Clarence Derwent Award for her performance in The Day Money Stopped on Broadway. She starred in the 1961 play Look, We've Come Through with Burt Reynolds on Broadway. She replaced another actress in the 1963 revival of Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude and then went on to do the 1965 play The Family Way, both on Broadway.

Wilcox is perhaps best known for her role in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, in which she played Mayella Violet Ewell, who falsely accuses Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) of raping her. Her best-known television appearance may have been The Twilight Zone episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" in 1964. In 1974, she co-starred with Peter Falk and Robert Conrad in the Columbo episode "An Exercise in Fatality".

Civil rights activism

She recalled receiving "unfriendly looks" when she showed up at a NAACP conference in Monterey, California, where an official had to remind participants that, "Collin is here at this conference because she believes in the cause. She is not the character in the film." ^[1]

Death

On October 14, 2009, Wilcox died from brain cancer, aged 74, at her home in Highlands, North Carolina.^[2]

Family

She is survived by her third husband, Scott Paxton, whom she married in 1979; three children, Kimberly Horne, Michael G. Paxton, and William Horne; and three grandchildren.

Selected filmography

• Twice Upon a Time (1953)
• The Member of the Wedding (1958)
• To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
• The Twilight Zone (TV) (1964) (episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You")
• The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: "The Monkey's Paw: A Retelling" (episode aired originally on April 19, 1965) (TV)
• The Fugitive (TV series): episodes – "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys" (1965) & "Approach with Care" (1966) (TV)
• The Sound of Anger (1968) (TV)
• The Name of the Game Is Kill (1968)
• The Baby Maker (1970)
• The Revolutionary (1970)
• Catch-22 (1970)
• A Cry in the Wilderness (1974) (TV)
• The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) (TV)
• Columbo: An Exercise in Fatality (1974) (TV episode)
• The Lives of Jenny Dolan (1975) (TV)
• The Streets of San Francisco ("Betrayed") (TV episode)
• Jaws 2 (1978)
• Under This Sky (1979) (TV)
• Foxfire (1987) (TV)
• Wildflower (1991) (TV)
• The Portrait (1993) (TV)
• Death in Small Doses (1995) (TV)
• Twisted Desire (1996) (TV)
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
• The Chester Story (2003)

References

1. ^ "Collin Wilcox Paxton dies at 74; actress was Mayella in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'". Los Angeles Times. October 23, 2009. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/23/local/me-collin-wilcox-paxton23. 
2. ^ Fox, Margalit (October 22, 2009). "Collin Wilcox, Actress in 'To Kill A Mockingbird', Dies at 74". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/arts/television/22wilcox.html?_r=1&hpw. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 

External links

Biography portal

• Collin Wilcox at the Internet Movie Database
• Collin Wilcox at the Internet Broadway Database
• Collin Wilcox (actress) at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Wilcox, Collin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 4, 1935
Place of birth	Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Date of death	October 14, 2009
Place of death	Highlands, North Carolina, United States