Celebrity Nooz: Shelley Fabares

Shelley Fabares (Actress) - The Donna Reed Show

Updated: 3/5/15

Name: Shelley Fabares

Birth Name: Michele Ann Marie Fabares

Born: January 19, 1944, Santa Monica, California

Claim To Fame: Fabares is known for her roles as Mary Stone from The Donna Reed Show (1958?1963), and as Hayden Fox's love interest Christine Armstrong on the sitcom Coach (1989?1997).

Family Life: Fabares married record and movie producer Lou Adler in June 1964, separated in 1966 and was divorced in 1980. In 1984 Fabares married actor Mike Farrell, and is stepmother to his two children, Erin and Michael.

Info: Fabares started acting when she was three, and made her television debut at the age of 10 in an episode of Letter to Loretta. Her big break came when she landed the role of Mary Stone on the family sitcom The Donna Reed Show.

She was also a singer, and had two "Top 40" hits on the Billboard charts. In 1963, she left The Donna Reed to pursue a film career and appeared in several movies, including three Elvis Presley movies: Girl Happy (1965), Spinout (1966) and Clambake (1967).

In the 1970s, Fabares appeared on such television series as Love, American Style, The Rockford Files, The Interns, Mannix, The Practice; Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Fantasy Island. In 1971, she starred in the TV movie Brian's Song, the true story of terminally ill Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo.

In 1989, she began appearing on the ABC sitcom Coach as Christine Armstrong. She was nominated twice for a Primetime Emmy Award for this role.

Trivia: In October 2000, she received a life-saving liver transplant after being diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis.

Was a lifelong friend of Annette Funicello whom she met in catechism class in the seventh grade.

Niece of actress Nanette Fabray.

Frank Sinatra once sang to her on one of his TV specials in the 1950s.

Her mother died from Alzheimer's.

Considered Donna Reed as her second mother.

Was honored in 1994 by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award for her role as Mary Stone on The Donna Reed Show.

Where Are They Now: After Coach ended in 1997, Fabares voiced the role of Martha "Ma" Kent in Superman: The Animated Series.

She reprised the role twice; once for a 2003 episode of Justice League and again for the 2006 direct-to-video film Superman: Brainiac Attacks.

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