Winifred Deforest Coffin

Winifred "Winnie" Deforest Coffin (1911—1986) was an American character actress who did not start her Hollywood career until 1960 at age 50. She appeared on a number of television shows, including The Red Skelton Show, The Ann Sothern Show and Adam-12 and movies such as Eight on the Lam, 'Angel in My Pocket, and Now You See Him, Now You Don't. Biography Early life and education Coffin was born to Fred Bowden Deforest and his wife. Her mother committed suicide when she was nine. At one time, the family lived on Lake Shore Drive. Coffin attended Connecticut College and earned her bachelor's degree in 1933. In 1929, while still a freshman, she met Brown University student Dean Fiske Coffin, son of former Republican Congressman Howard A. Coffin. Dean was eight hours late to their blind date because Brown had won a football game against Princeton and he wanted to celebrate. He apologized profusely "after seeing her" and they rescheduled for the following week. They married on April 7, 1934, at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago before moving to Birmingham, Michigan, where all 5 of their children were born. Career Coffin started acting while in college and continued to act in community theatre productions following graduation, but she became serious about it in the early 1950s, when her younger sons were teenagers. Some of the local productions she worked on were None of Them is Perfect (1935); Light Up the Sky (1950); Carousel (1950); Courage Was the Fashion (1951); The Child Buyer (1964); and Cinderella. She worked with companies including St. Dunstan's Theatre Guild, Birmingham Players, Ridgedale Players, and the Detroit Players. In 1959, while acting at Cranbrook's Greek Theatre in The Bloomingham Eccentrics, a play written and directed by her husband, Coffin was noticed by Hollywood writer DeVallon Scott. Scott was impressed and called his agent Al Kingston after the show to tell him about Coffin. Not long after, she moved to Hollywood, where she quickly found success. Dean, the vice-president of Jam Handy's film company, resigned from his job in 1965 to join her; as a writer and director, he found himself in an oversaturated market. The couple rented an apartment on Hollywood Boulevard on a property formerly owned by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. She worked mainly in television and was a regular guest on The Red Skelton Show. She was also in Bonanza, Bewitched, Lancer, and Perry Mason, among others.