Diane McBain, whose profession enjoying spoiled wealthy women included turns because the yacht proprietor Daphne Dutton on the ABC crime present Surfside 6 and an writer stalking Elvis Presley in Spinout, has died. She was 81.

McBain died Wednesday morning on the Movement Image & Tv Nation Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills after a battle with liver most cancers, her good friend and writing accomplice, Michael Gregg Michaud, advised The truestarz.

McBain additionally guest-starred on 4 episodes of ABC’s Batman, first as a hat store assistant who’s in cahoots with David Wayne’s Mad Hatter in 1966 after which as stamp firm proprietor Pinky Pinkston — she wore solely pink and had a pink canine — on the memorable 1967 installment that featured The Inexperienced Hornet (Van Williams) and Kato (Bruce Lee).

In her first movie, McBain appeared with Richard Burton in Vincent Sherman’s Ice Storm (1960), then starred alongside Troy Donahue and Claudette Colbert in Delmer Daves’ campy Parrish (1961) and because the title character, a farm woman who meets a tragic finish, in Claudelle Inglish (1961).

A contract participant at Warner Bros. straight out of highschool, McBain broke out because the crazy Daphne on the 1960-62 Miami Seaside-set crime present Surfside 6. Her character owned a yacht, the Daffy II, that was berthed subsequent door to the houseboat that served as dwelling base for the personal detectives portrayed by Williams, Donahue and Lee Patterson.

She portrayed Diana St. Clair, an writer of books that assist girls get their males, in Spinout (1966), discovering Elvis’ Mike McCoy the right topic to trace for her subsequent challenge, The Excellent American Male.

In Tom Lisanti’s 2001 e book, Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema, McBain mentioned she regretted being typecast as dangerous women. “I needed to play the ingenue,” she mentioned. “I may by no means perceive why everybody needed to play the bitch. As a result of once you go into society, individuals view you as they see you onscreen. It’s horrible to be considered this messy, horrible particular person once you’re not!”

Born in Cleveland on Might 18, 1941, McBain moved together with her household to Glendale in 1944. She modeled for TV commercials and journal adverts as a teen, and whereas showing in a play at Glendale Excessive Faculty, she was noticed by a expertise scout and signed by Warners to a seven-year contract on her 18th birthday.

“After I was about to graduate from highschool, they provided me the position of Richard Burton’s granddaughter in Ice Palace,” she advised Lisanti. “And imagine it or not, I didn’t even know who Richard Burton was! … He was an English actor, and I used to be a teenybopper.”  

She had made her onscreen debut in 1959 on an episode of ABC’s Maverick, and along with Surfside 6, she confirmed up on many different Warner Bros. TV exhibits, together with The Alaskans, Sugarfoot, Lawman, 77 Sundown Strip, Hawaiian Eye and Bourbon Avenue Beat.

McBain beat out Shirley Knight for the lead in Claudelle Inglish, then starred as a farm proprietor in Black Gold (1962), a nurse reverse Joan Crawford in The Caretakers (1963) and a well being nut in Mary Mary (1963), starring Debbie Reynolds. She then reunited with Donahue for A Distant Trumpet (1964), the final movie directed by Raoul Walsh.  

She left Warner Bros. after refusing a small half in Intercourse and the Single Woman (1964). “I used to be doing leads and thought this wasn’t a good suggestion,” she mentioned.

McBain battled with characters performed by Shelley Fabares and Deborah Walley for Elvis’ affection in Spinout, however her Diana wound up marrying an older man portrayed by Carl Betz.

McBain then appeared within the low-budget AIP movies Thunder Alley (1967), directed by Richard Rush; Maryjane (1968); and, because the savage chief of a motorbike gang, The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968).

Her résumé included the movies 5 the Onerous Method (1969), I Sailed to Tahiti With an All Woman Crew (1969), The Damaged Hearts Membership (2000) and Besotted (2001) and episodes of Burke’s Regulation, The Wild Wild West, Police Story, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Hawaii 5-O, Charlie’s Angels, Eight Is Sufficient, Dallas, Days of Our Lives and Knight Rider.

She entertained U.S. troops abroad within the ’60s and endorsed rape survivors after she herself was victimized in 1982.

McBain revealed her autobiography, Well-known Sufficient, a Hollywood Memoir, co-written by Michaud, in 2014, then wrote two novels, 2020’s The Laughing Bear and 2021’s The Colour of Hope.

“She lived a full life and skilled each alternative that introduced itself. She was very sort, considerate, loyal and beneficiant, and she or he had a depraved humorousness,” Michaud, her good friend of 35 years, wrote on social media. “Regardless of her outstanding skilled accomplishments, she was probably the most un-affected film star I’ve ever recognized.”

The pair did quite a few e book signings and autograph exhibits, the newest simply months in the past, he mentioned.

McBain was married to Rodney Burke, whom she met at a Buddhist camp, from 1972 till their 1974 divorce. Survivors embrace her son, Evan, and her goddaughter, Mary.