Barbara Perry, ‘Dick Van Dyke’ Player, Dies @ 97

Barbara Perry, perhaps best-known as Pickles Sorrell on two first-season epsiodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1962) died May 5 of natural causes in Hollywod, a family spokesman confirmed.

Barbara Perry: June 22, 1921-May 5, 2019 (Image via CBS)

She was 97.

Born June 22, 1921, in Norfolk, Virginia, into a show biz family, she debuted at age 4 in a production of Madame Butterfly at the Met.

Studying dance, she was brought to Hollywood to perform at the Hollywood Bowl, and became adept at tap, leading to headlining gigs in nightclubs before she was old enough to drink.

Her film debut was in 1933's Counsellor at Law, and she made impressions on Broadway in Happy as Larry (1950) and Rumple (1957).

Among her many TV credits were appearances on The Twilight Zone (1960), The Donna Reed Show (1960), My Favorite Martian (1965), The Andy Griffith Show (1963-1966), The Lucy Show (1966), Gomer Pyle: USMC (1967), Bewitched (1968), Dallas (1989), Murphy Brown (as "Secretary #39," 1990), How I Met Your Mother (2009 & 2014) and her final role, as a Ronald Reagan Library gift shop employee on Baskets (2017).

Perry wrote and starred in the one-woman show Passionate Ladies, wining two Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, and six months ago was given SAG-AFTRA's Founders Award.

Married twice, her second husband was Art Babbitt (1907-1992), who developed Goofy at Disney.

She is survived by a daughter, two stepdaughters and a granddaughter.

No Comments Yet.

Leave a comment