Florence M. Healy French, who died in Denver on Saturday at age 84, grew up in the stage wings and enjoyed a robust career in regional theater, along with minor roles in two films.
The first theatrical schooling for the native Iowan came from her father, actor George Ulmont Healy, who played bit parts in “Birth of a Nation” and early Western movies. She graduated in 1944 from the University of Iowa, where she met the young Tennessee Williams as she studied theater arts and literature.
“She remembered him as a nerdy little Southerner,” said her son, Christo fer French, whose name reflects his mother’s keen interest in etymology.
Healy French – she used her maiden name on stage and both surnames offstage – enjoyed a nodding acquaintance with quite a few rising stars.
At the Cleveland Playhouse in Ohio, she worked with a very young Joel Grey, who went on to create the famous emcee in “Cabaret.” She enjoyed the company of the affable Ray Walston, who later created the role of Uncle Martin in the TV debut of “My Favorite Martian” in 1963.
But she actively disliked Faye Dunaway, star of the 1989 film “Wait for Spring, Bandini,” in which Healy French played a prioress. Healy French’s encounters with Joan Crawford left her with the conclusion that Dunaway was aptly cast as a despotic Crawford in “Mommy Dearest.”
Healy French met her husband, actor and director Burt French, at the Cleveland Playhouse, and married him in 1945. They played opposite each other in regional theater throughout the U.S. and at New York’s Chautauqua Summer Theatre.
During their acting careers, the Frenches lived in Michigan, Iowa, West Virginia, Texas, California, Utah and New York City, where Burt French played the character Matt Slocum on the long-running soap opera “Love of Life.”
During his tenure as Matt, French and his wife, at the time playing Desdemona in an off-Broadway production, enjoyed a benchmark moment of their respective acting careers. Out on the town to see a show, they were waiting for the curtain to rise when another theater patron spotted them. “Look! There’s Matt and Desdemona!” the fan cried.
Healy French’s final roles included “The Secret of Lost Creek,” a 1992 Disney made-for-TV movie in which she played a grandmother.
The couple moved to Colorado in 1981. Offstage, she had a spirit and style her son compared to the animated grace of actress Olivia de Havilland. She baked her own bread and was accomplished at carpentry and bookbinding.
Survivors include sons Christofer French of Denver and Lachlan French of Littleton; daughter Melania Nutzman of Boise, Idaho; sisters Marsha Mary Cook of Sewanee, Tenn., and Elaine Zeigler of Mineral Point, Wis.; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. One daughter and one sister preceded her in death.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
