Peggy Rea

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American actress (1921–2011)

title: "Peggy Rea" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1921-births", "2011-deaths", "actresses-from-los-angeles", "american-film-actresses", "american-television-actresses", "20th-century-american-actresses", "burials-at-santa-barbara-cemetery", "21st-century-american-women"] description: "American actress (1921–2011)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Rea" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American actress (1921–2011) ::

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

Field	Value
name	Peggy Rea
image	Peggy_Rea_in_I_Love_Lucy_1953.jpg
caption	Peggy Rea in I Love Lucy, 1953
birth_name	Peggy Jane Rea
birth_date
birth_place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Toluca Lake, California, U.S.
occupation	Actress
yearsactive	1953–1998
::

| name = Peggy Rea | image = Peggy_Rea_in_I_Love_Lucy_1953.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Peggy Rea in I Love Lucy, 1953 | birth_name = Peggy Jane Rea | birth_date = | birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Toluca Lake, California, U.S. | occupation = Actress | yearsactive = 1953–1998}}

Peggy Jane Rea (March 31, 1921 – February 5, 2011) was an American actress known for her many roles in television, often playing matronly characters.

Life and career

Before she became an actress, Rea left UCLA to attend business school. She landed a job as a production secretary at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1940s. Later, she was an assistant to writer-musician Kay Thompson until Thompson dropped her in April 1948. Some of the points of discord apparently included Rea's insistence on staying at the Algonquin Hotel (rather than Essex House, where Thompson was staying), and disappearing, on at least one occasion, on the eve of their New York opening to see Born Yesterday on Broadway without telling Thompson. Although Thompson had severed ties with Rea, the younger woman kept in touch with other members of Thompson's family, including Thompson's mother, brother, and younger sister, with whom she enjoyed cordial relations. Rea quickly landed on her feet with a supporting role in the National Road Company production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (as Eunice Hubbell, 1948–1949) starring Anthony Quinn.

She appeared in such television shows as I Love Lucy, The Wild Wild West, Hazel, Bonanza, Have Gun – Will Travel, Gunsmoke, The Phil Silvers Show; Ironside, Burke's Law, Marcus Welby, M.D., Emergency!, All in the Family, Maude, Hunter, The Odd Couple, Gidget, Busting Loose, MacGyver and The Golden Girls.

She appeared in feature films, including Norman Lear's Cold Turkey and Norman Jewison’s In Country.

Rea is probably best known for her role as Lulu Coltrane Hogg in The Dukes of Hazzard (1979). Throughout the series' seven-year run, Rea appeared in 19 episodes as the wife of corrupt Hazzard County Commissioner Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg (played by Sorrell Booke).

After portraying a landlady in an earlier episode of The Waltons, Rea permanently joined the cast in 1979 in the role of Rose Burton, a cousin of Olivia Walton, a surrogate parental figure replacing Ellen Corby (Grandma), Michael Learned (Olivia), and the following year, Ralph Waite (John).

Rea remained with the series until the spring of 1981 when her character of Rose was proposed to by her beau Stanley Perkins (played by William Schallert) shortly before the show's cancellation. Rea's character of Rose appeared in the Walton's Thanksgiving Reunion in 1993. Rea later appeared as a regular on the first season of Step by Step from 1991 to 1992 and Grace Under Fire during the 1990s.

Credits

Her recurring roles included:

Clubwoman and Nurse I Love Lucy (recurring various roles)
The Red Skelton Show 1966–1971
Peggy on Have Gun – Will Travel (8 episodes)
Mrs. Roniger and other roles on Gunsmoke 1962–1971
Cousin Bertha on All in the Family
Martha Burkhorn on All in the Family
Rose Burton on The Waltons
Lulu Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard 1979–1985
Ivy Baker on Step by Step 1991–1992
Jean Kelly on Grace Under Fire 1993–1998 (51 episodes)

Death

Rea died in Toluca Lake, California, aged 89, from heart failure on February 5, 2011.

Filmography

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1964		7 Faces of Dr. Lao	Mrs. Peter Ramsey
	Looking for Love	Relative	Uncredited
1965	Strange Bedfellows	Mavis Masters
1966		Walk, Don't Run	Ukrainian Shot Putter
1967		Valley of the Dolls	Neely O'Hara's Vocal Coach
1968		Here's Lucy	Maude
1969		The Learning Tree	Miss McClintock
1971		Cold Turkey	Mrs. Proctor
	What's the Matter with Helen?	Mrs. Schultz
1974		Win, Place or Steal	Josephine
1976		Lipstick	Reporter
1979		All in the Family	Martha Birkhorn
1979–1981		The Waltons	Cousin Rose Burton
1979		The Dukes of Hazzard	Lulu Coltrane Hogg
1986		Hamburger: The Motion Picture	Mrs. Cratchmatter
1987	The Golden Girls	Mrs. Contini
1989		Curfew	Mrs. Mary Cox
	In Country	Mamaw
1992		Love Field	Mrs. Heisenbuttel
1993		Made in America	Alberta
	Grace Under Fire	Jean Kelly	51 episodes
	A Waltons Thanksgiving Reunion		Rose Burton
1995		Devil in a Blue Dress	Carter's Secretary
::

References

(February 12, 2011). "PASSINGS: Peggy Rea". [[Los Angeles Times]].
"[https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/arts/television/11rea.html?_r=0 Peggy Rea, TV Actress With Matronly Aura, Dies at 89]". ''[[The New York Times]]''. February 11, 2011. Page B15.
[http://kaythompsonwebsite.com/Endnotes_05_05_2013.pdf Kay Thompson official website] {{Webarchive. link. (2017-08-31. May 5, 2013. Retrieved July 26, 2015.)

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