RIP Gloria Winters

Gloria Winters, who played Penny King in the 1950s television series, Sky King, died two weeks ago at age 78 or so.  Oddly, when I was a kid, I barely paid heed to this series, since it aired on early Saturday afternoon, and was already dated by 1965 or so.  No new episodes had debuted since early 1959, and other episodes dated from as early as 1951.


But a funny thing happened last year.


I discovered a young girl named Jill Oppenheim had a guest role in the fall of 1952, in an episode named "Two Gun Penny."  John Hart, who would replace Clayton Moore in The Lone Ranger, had a role as a villain.  But this little girl was special, because she would go on to much bigger things.


And as Jill St. John!  She would help launch the 1966 Batman series, and then would play the female lead in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, five years later.


I had thought it would be novel to see them reunite at some comic con but I guess this will not happen now.  But I will say that, if I was not interested in the show back in the Sixties, I am now in 2010.  I would not mind seeing Encore Westerns showing this series, just as they did with Bat Masterson not too long ago.


RIP, Ms. Winters!