Kate Reid (November 4, 1930 - March 27, 1993)

Ms. Reid was the living embodiment of a stage performer. To be fair I have never seen her perform in anything other than her role on "Dallas" but you can during her entire run that she radiates that feeling of a true theater person. She appeared on stage both in the United States and Canada. Some of her more prominent stage appearances were in MacBeth, The Taming of the Shrew and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. She was also present in some films including The Andromeda Strain, A Delicate Balance, Sweet Hearts Dance, The Best Damn Fiddler from Lalabogie to Kaladar and This Property is Condemned. Beginning in the 1970's and continuing up until her death in the 1990's she appeared in MANY made for television movies. Her American television guest appearances credits were limited to "Columbo", "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" and the 1980's version of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Starting in the fall of 1982 she began playing the role of Lillian "Aunt Lil" Trotter on the hit prime time soap opera "Dallas." By the time her run ended in May of 1986 she appeared in 17 episodes of the hit show. Lil was the aunt to Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly) who was Jock Ewing's (Jim Davis) ranch foreman and illegitimate son. She was the sister of Ray's late mother Margaret Hunter Krebbs (who is never shown on camera but often referred to). The bulk of Aunt Lil's storyline included her son Mickey (Timothy Patrick Murphy) moving to Southfork which lead him to falling in love with Lucy Ewing Cooper (Charlene Tilton) and attempting to stop Sue Ellen Ewing (Linda Gray) from driving drunk. Mickey was unsuccessful and Sue Ellen drove off anyway with him in the car. Unfortunately, an enemy of J.R. Ewing's (Larry Hagman) was waiting at the end of the driveway to ram his car off the road out of revenge. Sue Ellen emerged with cuts and bruises but Mickey was paralyzed from the neck down. Eventually he lapsed into a coma and his mother decided to pull the plug. In her words...she asked the Lord for the strength but it was no use. Ray eventually removes his cousin from life support and goes on trial. It is my personal opinion that Aunt Lil's scene in the courtroom is her best during her entire time on the show. Her on the witness stand is precious and it really shows that this actress had roots in the theater. She returned in a lone episode in May 1986 to help her nephew and his wife adopt a child. Her final acting role was in the TV movie "Murder in the Heartland" which originally aired on May 3, 1993. Almost two months after this great lady passed away. According to the Internet Movie Database she suffered from severe aniexty problems during the course of her life and was often stricken with panic attacks. If that is true, she did a marvelous job of masking it while she was on screen. She left us much to early at the young age of 62... In Memoriam Remembers: Kate Reid