Tuesdays With Tammy: Tammy and the Doctor

It's our final Tuesday With Tammy! 

gif by me

To me, Tammy and the Doctor seems less like a cohesive, singular story and more like a series of vignettes that all come together in the end. In this movie, Tammy and Mrs. Call have to go to a specialist surgeon in Los Angeles when the old woman falls ill, and to ensure that Tammy can stay with her, she takes up a job as a candy striper. There, she meets a who's who of character actors running the hospital, and that's what I want to focus on today: the featured players of Tammy and the Doctor. 

Millie, played by Alice Pearce

gif by me

Practically the only person in the hospital who takes pity on or shows kindness to Tammy is Millie, one of the nurses. Recognize her? She's played by Alice Pearce, a veteran character actress and stage actress who gained immortality as the nosey neighbour Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched. 

She performed in comedy clubs and on Broadway, and was the only original cast member of On the Town to appear in the film version (at Gene Kelly's behest). Some of her other film credits include The Belle of New York, How to Be Very, Very Popular, The Opposite Sex, The Thrill of It All, Kiss Me, Stupid, and The Glass Bottom Boat. 

Alice Pearce was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer before she began working on Bewitched, but didn't tell anyone. In 1966, she lost her battle with cancer and won an Emmy posthumously for her portrayal of Gladys Kravitz. 

Head Nurse Rachel Coleman, played by Margaret Lindsay

gif by me

One of the main people giving Tammy guff in the hospital is head nurse Rachel Coleman. She's played by Margaret Lindsay, a noted character actress and contract player from the '30s and '40s who bounced around in pictures from Warner Bros and Columbia. 

In her heyday, she was known for starring in four movies with Bette Davis, including the two movies that earned her Oscars, Dangerous and Jezebel. She also starred in a bunch of serials for Warner Bros and other studios throughout the '40s. By the '50s, she began working in television and rarely appeared in film. 

Margaret Lindsay's last film was Tammy and the Doctor, and she appeared very rarely on television in the final years of her life. She died in 1981. 

Dr. Wayne Bentley, played by Macdonald Carey

gif by me

The paternal doctor who takes a liking to Tammy is Dr. Wayne Bentley is played by Macdonald Carey, who's likely best known to a generation of people as Tom Horton from Days of Our Lives. 

Macdonald Carey's career was long and spanned many mediums, from radio to stage to film to television. In his early career, he starred in a string of B movies with Lucille Ball. He paused his career during the Second World War to serve in the US Marine Corps and returned to Hollywood in 1947. 

By the time the '60s arrived, his career was a mixture of film and television appearances, and in 1965 he began playing the defining role of his career, Tom Horton on soap opera Days of Our Lives. Though he died in 1994, if you still watch the soap you can hear his voice saying, "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives." 

Dr. Mark Cheswick, played by Peter Fonda

gif by me

The young doctor who eventually wins Tammy's heart is played by Peter Fonda, who isn't so much a character actor as he is...scion of an acting dynasty that also includes Henry and Jane? Regardless, in 1963, he was still relatively new to the acting world and his career-defining performance in Easy Rider was still half-a-decade away. 

Though he'd appeared on Broadway and television, Peter hadn't made any movies when he was cast in Tammy and the Doctor, and he reportedly only received the role when Ross Hunter, the film's producer, wanted to cast a new actor opposite Sandra Dee. 

I don't think I need to recap Peter's career afterwards. Easy Rider happened and Peter became a leading figure of the counterculture movement, working steadily in the decades since his debut. He died in 2019 at the age of 79 following a diagnosis of lung cancer. 

___

Although this was the final movie in the trilogy (with Sandra Dee reprising her role as the titular Tammy), the franchise continued later in the '60s with a television spin-off starring Debbie Watson. From that, a fourth movie was cobbled together from four TV episodes and called Tammy and the Millionaire.