Jean Strague in "The Case of the Buried Clock". In 1960, she was cast as Mrs. Grandsoir in the episode "Mrs. Viner Vanishes" of the ABC/Warner Brothers crime drama Bourbon Street Beat, starring Andrew Duggan. She is more remembered for having portrayed Nurse Wills on the ABC medical drama Ben Casey, from 1961 to 1966. She appeared with John Payne in various roles in five episodes of his NBC western series The Restless Gun, and also guest starred as Mrs. Wayne in the Rawhide episode "Incident of the Tinkers Dam". Bates, who also taught acting, also appeared in films such as The Strangler (1964), Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came (1970), and David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977) as Mrs. X. In July 1982, she appeared on Broadway as Mrs. Bixby in a production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Her last roles were small parts in Die Hard 2 (1990), Grand Canyon (1991), Dream Lover (1994) and Mulholland Drive (2001). Personal life Bates married Lew X. Lansworth in 1943 and was married to him until his death in 1981. Bates was a practicing Episcopalian and she was a registered Republican who supported the administrations of Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. Death In 2007, Bates died of breast cancer at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California at age 89. Her remains are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, California. Filmography References Notes Sources External links Final Taxi Podcast on Jeanne Bates The Lew Lansworth papers at the American Heritage Center 1918 births 2007 deaths American film actresses American television actresses Deaths from breast cancer Actresses from California Actresses from Berkeley, California People from Alameda, California 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Deaths from cancer in California Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) American Episcopalians California Republicans