Beverly Garland, the B-movie actress who starred in 1950s low-budget hits like “Swamp Women” and “Not of This Earth” and went on to play Fred MacMurray’s second wife on the CBS television series “My Three Sons,” Ms. Garland made her film debut in the 1950 noir classic “D.O.A.,” beginning a career that lasted more than 50 years and included some 40 movies and dozens of television shows.
She gained something of a cult status for playing tough, hard women in pictures like “The Alligator People” (1959) and Roger Corman films like “Gunslinger” (1956), “It Conquered the World” (1956) and “Naked Paradise” (1957).
“I never considered myself very much of a passive kind of actress,” she said in a 1985 interview with Fangoria magazine. “I was never very comfortable in love scenes, never comfortable playing a sweet, lovable lady.”
Ms. Garland ventured into situation comedies in 1964, playing Bing Crosby’s wife on “The Bing Crosby Show.” Late in the decade she was cast as MacMurray’s bride. Until then his character had been a widower. She remained with the series until it went off the air in 1972.
Her many other television credits include episodes of “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “Remington Steele,” “Scarecrow and Mrs. King,” “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” and “7th Heaven.”
Beverly Fessenden was born in Santa Cruz, Calif., in 1926 and grew up in Glendale, Calif. She married the actor Richard Garland, and they were divorced in 1953 after less than four years.
In 1960, she married Fillmore Crank, a real estate developer, and the couple built a Mission-style hotel in North Hollywood, now called Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn. Mr. Crank died in 1999, but Ms. Garland remained involved in running the hotel.
She served on the boards of the California Tourism Corporation and the Greater Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau.
