From the L.A. Times (I remember her as quite a glamourpuss in her day):
Madlyn Rhue, a veteran television character actress whose long battle with multiple sclerosis forced an end to her career in the mid-1990s after nearly a decade of intermittent roles performed from her wheelchair, has died. She was 68. Rhue appeared in only a few movies, including “Operation Petticoat,” “The Ladies Man” and “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.” But, beginning in the late 1950s, the attractive actress with the large, expressive hazel eyes was a familiar presence on television for more than three decades. Among scores of guest-shot credits were “Have Gun-Will Travel,” “Cheyenne,” “The Untouchables,” “Route 66,” “Perry Mason,” “Rawhide,” “The Fugitive,” “I Spy,” “Hart to Hart” and “CHiPS.” Rhue also was a regular on “Bracken’s World,” “Executive Suite” and “Houston Knights,” and she had recurring roles on “Fame” and “Days of Our Lives.” “She played everything from a sexy chorus girl to a devious murderer to a corporate executive — she did it all,” Rhue’s longtime friend Faye Mayo, a former actress, told The Times on Wednesday.
Rhue was in her professional prime in 1977 when she was diagnosed with MS, a chronic, progressive disease of the central nervous system. Rhue feared that, if anyone discovered that she had the disease, she might never work again. So, with the exception of close friends such as Mayo and actress Suzanne Pleshette, she kept the diagnosis a secret for years. After going public with her MS, Rhue was asked to participate in a National Multiple Sclerosis Society ad campaign. “I didn’t want to do any of that look-how-I’ve-been- victimized jazz,” she said. She changed her mind after learning that the campaign would feature people with MS doing everything from scuba diving to skydiving.
Mayo said the last TV series Rhue appeared on was “Murder, She Wrote,” in which she played the recurring character of a librarian. Series star Angela Lansbury reportedly had heard that Rhue was in danger of losing her Screen Actors Guild medical coverage because she was short of meeting the annual earnings requirement. “So she created this character for her and brought her in every three or four episodes,” Mayo said. “People who had worked with Madlyn and loved her kept giving her the opportunity to work.”
I recall her from many of her small-screen roles, but especially from Days of our Lives and I even remember her on “Bracken’s World.” MS is really a debilitating disease; hopefully there will one day be a cure for it, along with other deadly diseases.