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Pamelyn Ferdin

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Pamelyn Ferdin
Ferdin as Edna Unger on The Odd Couple in 1972
Born
Pamelyn Wanda Ferdin

(1959-02-04) February 4, 1959 (age 65)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Actress, nurse, public relations director, animal-rights activist
Years active1959–2009
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1986; div. 2008)​

Pamelyn Wanda Ferdin (born February 4, 1959) is an American animal rights activist and former actress. Ferdin's acting career was primarily during the 1960s and 1970s, though she appeared in projects sporadically in the 1980s and later years. She began her acting career in television commercials, made 250 television shows and films and gained renown for her work as a voice actress supplying the voice of Lucy Van Pelt in A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), as well as in two other Peanuts television specials.[1]

She had supporting roles in The Beguiled (1971) with Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page, and a lead role in the exploitation film The Toolbox Murders (1978) with Cameron Mitchell. She also supplied the voice of Fern Arable in Charlotte's Web (1973). Ferdin distanced herself from acting in the late 1970s, worked as a registered nurse and shifted into animal rights activism, working as an activist and protester in animal-protection programs in New York City and Los Angeles.

Early life

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Born in Los Angeles on February 4, 1959,[2] to Kenneth and Wanda (Jacewitz) Ferdin,[3] she began her career at age three, appearing in a hair color commercial.[4] She has two older sisters, Valerie and Wendy, who acted when they were young.[4] Ferdin attended Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale, California.[5]

In a 2016 interview with The Washington Times, she said she would have liked to have experienced "what it was like to be a normal kid in high school — without always going in and then being taken out, going back and forth."[6]

She has said that she regretted not having many aspects of a normal childhood and that her mother pushed her into acting. In 2016, she said, "My mom put me in the business. I had a very Hollywood mother. She put me in, and I just started getting role after role after role."[6]

Career

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Acting and Appearances

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Ferdin in a promotional shot for Blondie (1968)

Ferdin played the Bumsteads' daughter Cookie in the 1968–1969 CBS revival series Blondie. She was subsequently cast as Felix Unger's daughter Edna in the 1970s ABC series version of The Odd Couple[2] and Paul Lynde's daughter Sally on the short-lived The Paul Lynde Show.

She appeared on Star Trek in 1968 as one of a group of orphaned children led by an alien with sinister motives in the episode "And the Children Shall Lead"[7] and in the 1977 series Space Academy as Laura Gentry.[8]

Ferdin's distinctive voice secured her voiceover roles,[2] and she was cast to provide the voice of Lucy van Pelt in three Peanuts cartoons: the 1969 TV special It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, a 1969 feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown and the 1971 TV special Play It Again, Charlie Brown.[9] She provided the voice of Sally, the little girl in the 1971 animated TV special of Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat. Ferdin was a frequent guest star on episodic television in the 1960s and 1970s, with appearances on Bewitched, Green Acres, The Andy Griffith Show, Branded, Daniel Boone, Custer, The Monkees, The Flying Nun, The Second Hundred Years, Gunsmoke, Shazam!, The High Chaparral, Mannix, The Brady Bunch, Family Affair, Love, American Style, Marcus Welby, M.D., Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Apple's Way, The Streets of San Francisco, Baretta, CHiPS, and 240-Robert.[7]

She had a brief and uncredited role in The Reluctant Astronaut (1967) and was featured in the Walt Disney musical The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968). Her association with Walt Disney earned an appearance with him in a color TV magazine advertisement, looking over Disney's right shoulder.[10] She appeared as Mary Constable in the supernatural TV movie Daughter of the Mind and as Abby Clarkson in the horror film The Mephisto Waltz (1971) with Alan Alda. The same year, Ferdin appeared in The Christine Jorgensen Story, based on the life of the first person in the United States to undergo sex reassignment surgery,[11] and in The Beguiled[12] alongside Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page. She then appeared in the Kurt Vonnegut adaptation Happy Birthday Wanda June,[13] and in the exploitation horror film The Toolbox Murders (1978).

She voiced Fern Arable, the little girl who raises Wilbur the pig, in the 1973 animated film Charlotte's Web.[14]

Ferdin was considered for the role of Regan MacNeil, the demon-possessed girl in the 1973 William Friedkin film The Exorcist, but casting directors decided she was too well-known and cast the less familiar actress Linda Blair.

Her last acting roles were as the voice of the character Shelley Kelley in the Kids' WB series Detention in 1999 and as Christmas the Horse in the feature film Elf Sparkle Meets Christmas the Horse in 2008.[1]

In 2020, Ferdin co-hosted two episodes of the television talk show "Ken Boxer Live" on TVSB TV, originating in Santa Barbara, California.

Activism

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After leaving her job as a public relations director in the mid-1990s, Ferdin began working for the Center for Animal Care and Control in New York City.[15] In August 2004, Ferdin accepted the presidency of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), according to statements filed under oath in U.S. District Court in New Jersey. The incumbent, Kevin Kjonaas, resigned after being indicted on charges of conspiracy and interstate stalking.[16] When Kjonaas and six other SHAC activists were jailed in 2006, Ferdin vowed to continue the campaign. According to salon.com, she defined her role as "a squeaky-clean representative for SHAC USA," but warned that if the SHAC seven were convicted, "[P]eople, I think, are going to get hurt. There's going to be a lot of violence."[17]

In 2004, she accused the parents of Kelly Keen, a three-year-old child killed in a coyote attack, of murdering their daughter and using the story of an animal attack to cover up the crime. This was part of her protest against public efforts to control the coyote population near suburban homes.[18]

On June 22, 2006, Ferdin was sentenced to 90 days in jail for trespassing and "targeted demonstration" outside the home of an employee of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services. She stated that the conviction "is not going to affect my speaking out and exposing the atrocities occurring at our six city shelters".[19] She served 36 hours and was released before serving the full sentence due to prison overcrowding.

In December 2006, Ferdin's group, the Animal Defense League, Los Angeles (ADLLA), announced that it had been awarded $75,000 against the city of Los Angeles for an anti-strategic lawsuit against public participation motion.[20]

Her ex-husband, Jerry Vlasak, "sits on a precarious perch within the animal rights movement," according to a profile in The Los Angeles Times in 2006. "Through his Animal Liberation Press Office, he is the spokesman for shadowy groups that sabotage labs, vandalize homes, firebomb properties and make death threats via late-night phone calls. But he works in the wide open, operating a website, issuing press releases, talking to journalists."[21]

In 2008, Ferdin was found in contempt of court, after allegedly violating an injunction. The conviction was overturned and she filed a federal lawsuit against UCLA for harassment.[22]

Personal life

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She was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at the University of Southern California in 1978.[23]

She graduated from the Los Angeles County Medical Center School of Nursing in the spring of 1981 and got her first nursing job on the medical ward at UCLA Medical Center.[24]

She married Vlasak, a surgeon, on October 12, 1986, but divorced him in 2008.[25]

She has been a vegan since the mid-1990s. She promotes adopting rather than buying pets as well as having pets spayed or neutered.[6]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
1964 What a Way to Go! Geraldine Crawley
1967 The Reluctant Astronaut Mary
1968 The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band Laura Bower
1969 A Boy Named Charlie Brown Lucy van Pelt
1970 The Christine Jorgensen Story Dolly
1971 The Beguiled Amy
1971 The Mephisto Waltz Abby Clarkson
1971 What's the Matter with Helen? Kiddie M.C.
1971 Happy Birthday, Wanda June Wanda June
1973 Charlotte's Web Fern Arable
1978 The Toolbox Murders Laurie Ballard
1982 Heidi's Song Klara

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
1964 The Littlest Hobo Cindy Clark "The Babysitter"
1965 The Andy Griffith Show Corlis "The Bazaar"
1965 Branded Abigail "A Proud Town"
1965–66 The John Forsythe Show Pamela "The Little Old Matchmaker", "Super Girl", "Anyone for a Fat Lip?"
1966 The Legend of Jesse James Rosey Bryant "A Burying for Rosey"
1966 And Baby Makes Three Linda Jayne TV film
1966 Family Affair Melissa "Mrs. Beasley, Where Are You?"
1966 My Three Sons Roseann "Fly Away Home"
1967 Valley of Mystery Penny TV film
1967 Custer Irene Maloney "To the Death"
1967 Family Affair Wendy "Birds, Bees and Buffy"
1967 The Second Hundred Years Nancy "Luke's First Christmas"
1967 The Monkees Girl "Monkees at the Movies"
1968 Green Acres Molly Mullen "Instant Family"
1968 Mad Mad Scientist Sally Springer TV film
1968 Star Trek Mary "And the Children Shall Lead"
1968 Gunsmoke Annie Jarvis "The Money Store"
1968 The Flying Nun Linda Shapiro "The Reconversion of Sister Shapiro"
1968–69 Blondie Cookie Bumstead Main role
1969 Charlie Brown and Charles Schulz Lucy van Pelt (voice) TV documentary
1969 Family Affair Jennifer "No Uncle Is an Island"
1969 The Flying Nun Violetta "Cousins by the Dozen"
1969 The High Chaparral Jennie Simmons / Charity "No Bugles, No Drums", "For the Love of Carlos"
1969 It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown Lucy van Pelt (voice) TV short
1969 Daughter of the Mind Mary Constable TV film
1970 Smoke Susie TV film
1970 Mannix Dana "Fly, Little One" (Season 3, Episode 21)
1971 The Brady Bunch Lucy Winters "Will the Real Jan Brady Please Stand Up?"
1971 Family Affair Shirley Dixon "The Joiners"
1971 The Cat in the Hat Sally (voice) TV short
1971 Play It Again, Charlie Brown Lucy van Pelt (voice) TV short
1971 Curiosity Shop Pam "Special," main role in TV series
1971 The Odd Couple Cindy "Bunny Is Missing Down by the Lake"
1971 The Forgotten Man Sharon Hardy TV film
1971 Night Gallery Frances Anne Emsden "Brenda"
1971 Marcus Welby, M.D. Felicia "A Portrait of Debbie"
1971–72 The Odd Couple Edna Unger "Surprise! Surprise!", "Good, Bad Boy"
1972 Young Dr. Kildare Julie Loomis "The Night of the Intern"
1972 The Delphi Bureau Alice "Pilot"
1972 The Roman Holidays Precocia (voice) TV series (13 episodes)
1972 Sealab 2020 Sally Murphy (voice) TV series
1972 The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie Louisa / Lilibit (voice) "Oliver and the Artful Dodger: Parts 1 & 2"
1972 Lassie: Joyous Sound Lucy Baker TV film
1972–73 The Paul Lynde Show Sally Simms Main role
1972–73 Lassie Lucy Baker Main role (seasons 18–19)
1973 Marcus Welby, M.D. Amy "The Tall Tree"
1973 Sigmund and the Sea Monsters Peggy "Puppy Love"
1974 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Francie Nolan TV film
1974 These Are the Days Kathy Day (voice) Main role
1974 Shazam! Lynn Colby "Thou Shalt Not Kill"
1974 Apple's Way Sally "The Flag"
1975 Miles to Go Before I Sleep Lisa TV film
1976 The Streets of San Francisco Chris Cavanaugh "Runaway"
1977 Baretta Judy "The Runaways"
1977 Space Academy Laura Gentry Main role
1978 CHiPs Susie "Rustling"
1978 Vegas Katie Howard "Serve, Volley and Kill"
1978 Project U.F.O. Cindy Harper "Sighting 4023: The I-Man Incident"
1979 240-Robert Nikki "The Apology"
1985 It's Your 20th Television Anniversary, Charlie Brown Herself TV documentary
1999 Detention Shelley Kelley (voice) Main role
2004 Penn & Teller: Bullshit! Herself "P.E.T.A." (season 2, episode 1)
2009 Elf Sparkle Meets Christmas the Horse Christmas the Horse (voice) TV film

References

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  1. ^ a b "Pamelyn's TV and Film Roles – Pamelyn". Retrieved August 1, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Leszczak 2014, p. 49.
  3. ^ "Register". www.ancestry.com. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Witbeck, Charles (July 30, 1972). "Lassie's Got A New TV Pal". Tallahassee Democrat. Tallahassee, Florida. p. 1F – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Scroll". Herbert Hoover High School Yearbook. 1975: 73.
  6. ^ a b c Valcourt, Keith (December 1, 2016). "'Peanuts' Christmas special actress Pamelyn Ferdin works for animal rights". The Washington Times. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
  7. ^ a b "Pamelyn Ferdin". TVGuide.com. TV Guide. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  8. ^ "Space Academy". www.70slivekidvid.com. Archived from the original on June 1, 2008.
  9. ^ Inman, David (November 3, 2002). "Trudi Ames, Pamelyn Ferdin Were Teen Stars 30 Years Ago". Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, New York. p. 143 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ LIFE. Time Inc. December 9, 1966.
  11. ^ "The Christine Jorgensen Story (1970) Directed by Irving Rapper". LETTERBOXD.com. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  12. ^ "THE BEGUILED (1971)". AFI.com. American Film Institute. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  13. ^ "Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) Directed by Mark Robson". LETTERBOXD.com. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  14. ^ "Pamelyn Ferdin".
  15. ^ Tuchman, Gary (December 23, 1995). "Why NOT to give a pet for Christmas". CNN. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  16. ^ "Radical Animal Rights Group Convicted of Inciting Violence and Stalking". ADL. Archived from the original on October 24, 2008.
  17. ^ Cook, Jon (February 7, 2006). "Thugs for puppies". Salon. Archived from the original on April 17, 2008.
  18. ^ [1], "This just in: U.S. is 500 years old"], Glendale News Press by Jeff Keating, April 19, 2004.
  19. ^ "Former Child Actress Sentenced to Jail". ABC News. June 22, 2006. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
  20. ^ Milionis, Allison. "Los Angeles CityBeat – SLAPPing Back". www.lacitybeat.com. Retrieved June 15, 2008. [dead link]
  21. ^ Mozingo, Joe (September 5, 2006). "Thin Line on Animal Rights". Los Angeles Times.
  22. ^ "Judge: To protect and to unnerve': animal rights activists accuse UCLA of intimidation tactics". LA Activist. February 3, 2011. Archived from the original on March 26, 2011.
  23. ^ "El Rodeo". University of Southern California Yearbook. 73: 156.
  24. ^ Ferdin, Pamelyn (June 5, 2021). "Facebook". Facebook. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  25. ^ "Register". www.ancestry.com. Retrieved August 1, 2021.

Sources

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  • Leszczak, Bob (2014). The Odd Couple on Stage and Screen: A History with Cast and Crew Profiles and an Episode Guide. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-1-476-61539-4.
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