Grayson Hall

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title: "Grayson Hall" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1922-births", "1985-deaths", "20th-century-american-actresses", "20th-century-american-jews", "actresses-from-new-york-(state)", "actresses-from-philadelphia", "american-film-actresses", "american-people-of-latvian-jewish-descent", "american-people-of-south-african-jewish-descent", "american-soap-opera-actresses", "american-stage-actresses", "broadway-theatre-people", "deaths-from-lung-cancer-in-new-york-(state)", "jewish-american-actresses", "off-broadway", "people-from-rhinebeck,-new-york"] description: "American actress (1922–1985)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayson_Hall" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American actress (1922–1985) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Grayson Hall
image	Grayson Hall.jpg
birthname	Shirley Grossman
birth_date
birth_place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
height	5 ft 6 in
othername	Shirley Grayson
occupation	Actress
yearsactive	1950s–1985
spouse	{{plainlist
* {{marriage	Bradbart "Ted" Brooks
children	1
::

| name = Grayson Hall | image = Grayson Hall.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | birthname = Shirley Grossman | birth_date = | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. | height = 5 ft 6 in | othername = Shirley Grayson | occupation = Actress | yearsactive = 1950s–1985 | spouse = {{plainlist|

| children = 1

Grayson Hall (born Shirley Grossman; September 18, 1922 – August 7, 1985) was an American television, film and stage actress. She was widely regarded for her avant-garde theatrical performances from the 1960s to the 1980s. Hall was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 37th Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 22nd Golden Globe Awards for the John Huston film The Night of the Iguana (1964).

Hall played multiple prominent roles on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows (1966–71) and appeared on One Life to Live (1982–83). In 2006, a biography titled Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow was released.

Early life

Grayson Hall was born Shirley Grossman in Philadelphia in 1922, the only child of Eleanor and Joseph Grossman. Her father was from Latvia and her mother, who had acted in the Yiddish theatre, was from South Africa. Both were from Jewish immigrant families.

When Hall was eight, her parents separated, but they never divorced. Hall became interested in acting as an escape from a painful childhood, and auditioned for plays in New York City while still attending Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia. She enrolled at Temple University but did not matriculate. She landed her first professional job with a summer stock company on Long Island in 1942.

In 1946, she married fellow actor Ted Brooks in Philadelphia. They separated in 1949 and she returned to New York. In 1952, she married writer Sam Hall. Their son Matthew was born in 1958. She had always used the stage name Shirley Grayson, but Sam Hall called her Grayson "like an old Army buddy," as she said in an interview. She eventually adopted Grayson Hall as her professional name.

Career

Hall enjoyed an active stage career in New York City. Her theater credits include roles in off-Broadway productions of influential avant-garde plays including Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello (Phoenix Theatre, 1955). She also appeared as the madam Irma in the first New York production of The Balcony by Jean Genet for more than a year at the Circle in the Square Theatre Downtown in Greenwich Village.

Having guest-starred on various television programs during the mid-1950s, Hall made her film debut in 1961 in Run Across the River. She also appeared in Satan in High Heels as Pepe, a cabaret club owner, but she later disavowed the film.

In September 1963, Hall traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to play the role of Judith Fellowes in John Huston's film version of The Night of the Iguana, based on the original play by Tennessee Williams. She was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress at the 37th Academy Awards for her performance.

Hall portrayed Margaret Miller, a kidnapped bank teller in Walt Disney Productions' That Darn Cat! in 1965. She appeared on "The Pieces of Fate Affair", an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1967.

''Dark Shadows''

Hall's best-known television role was as Dr. Julia Hoffman on Dark Shadows. She portrayed the loyal confidant and friend of the vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid). Other key roles that she played on the show were those of Countess Natalie du Pres; Magda Rakosi, a Gypsy; Hoffman, a Mrs. Danvers–type housekeeper; Julia Collins; and Constance Collins, sister of Brutus Collins (Louis Edmonds). She also appeared in both Dark Shadows feature films: in House of Dark Shadows (1970) again as Dr. Julia Hoffman, and in Night of Dark Shadows (1971) as a new character, housekeeper Carlotta Drake.

Later career

After Dark Shadows ended, Hall portrayed reporter Marge Grey on All My Children for a short period in 1973. She continued acting on stage in Jean Genet's The Screens (1971–72) and in Happy End (1977) with Meryl Streep and Christopher Lloyd.

In the 1970s, Hall appeared on several television films, including Gargoyles (ABC), filmed in New Mexico with Cornel Wilde, and the Dan Curtis television film The Great Ice Rip-Off (ABC) with Lee J. Cobb and Gig Young. She starred in the mystery film The Two Deaths of Sean Doolittle (ABC), which was written by her husband Sam Hall.

Hall appeared in the Broadway premiere of The Suicide (1980) with Derek Jacobi and appeared opposite Geraldine Page, Carrie Nye and Madeleine Sherwood in an off-Broadway revival of The Madwoman of Chaillot.

Her last onscreen role was as Delilah Ralston (Shelly Burch)'s scheming mother Euphemia Ralston on the soap opera One Life to Live from July 1982 until April 1983.

Death

After suffering from lung cancer for six months, Hall died at New York Hospital in Manhattan in 1985 at the age of 62, only six weeks before her 63rd birthday. A simple marker near her Rhinebeck, New York, home reads "Grayson Hall—August 7, 1985."

Selected filmography

::data[format=table]

Title	Role	Notes
1951	Lights Out	Laura Holloway
1955	Danger
1959	The United States Steel Hour	Secretary
1962	Satan in High Heels	Pepe
1964	The Parisienne and the Prudes	Decorator
1964	Route 66	Mrs. Reston
1964	The Night of the Iguana	Judith Fellowes
1965	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Miss Fitzhugh
1965	That Darn Cat!	Margaret Miller
1966	Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?	Miss Maxwell
1966	The Trials of O'Brien	Louise Malcolm
1967	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	Judy Merril
1967	The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.	Mrs. Fowler
1967–1971	Dark Shadows	Dr. Julia Hoffman
Natalie du Pres
Magda Rakosi
Julia Hoffman (PT)
Julia Collins
Constance Collins
1970	Night Gallery	Ann Brigham
1970	End of the Road	Peggy Rankin
1970	House of Dark Shadows	Dr. Julia Hoffman
1970	Adam at Six A.M.	Inez Treadly
1971	Night of Dark Shadows	Carlotta Drake
1972	Gargoyles	Mrs. Parks
1973	All My Children	Marge Grey
1974	Kojak	Mrs. Campbell
1975	Pick-up
1982–1983	One Life to Live	Euphemia Ralston
::

References

References

1. [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228826.Grayson_Hall ''Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow'']. [[Goodreads]]. {{Webarchive. link. (September 3, 2021 . Retrieved December 17, 2016.)
2. Hall also gave 1923 and 1925 as her year of birth on various documents, but elementary school and census records substantively establish 1922 as the correct year.
3. Jamison, R.J.. (2006). "Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow". iUniverse.
4. Marriage, announcement. (26 May 1946). "Newspapers.com". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
5. "Lortel Archives"
6. {{IBDB name. 80513
7. Scott, K.L.. (2000). "Dark Shadows Almanac". Pomegranate Press.
8. Napoleon, Davi. (1991). "Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater". [[Iowa State University Press]].
9. {{iobdb name. 15055
10. Jamison, R. J.. (August 7, 2006). "Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow". iUniverse.

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