Warm, strikingly pretty leading lady of the 1940s and 50s who later enjoyed a considerable popularity in TV sitcoms with the enjoyable if somewhat bland "The Donna Reed Show" in the 50s and 60s. A former beauty queen, Reed enjoyed a key film landmark early in her Hollywood career when she lovingly and gracefully played James Stewart's small-town sweetheart and later loving wife in the Christmas perennial, "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946). Reed's big screen career continued through the 50s, but many of her credits were standard romantic heroine leads in modest, forgettable comedies, dramas and action adventures.

1953's "From Here to Eternity", though, did give Reed a chance to shed, to some degree, the peaches-and-cream, goody two-shoes image her films largely cultivated. Although her role as a prostitute in the original novel was made more vague in accord with Hollywood's Production Code, Reed still gave a cynical toughness and bruised vulnerability to her "hostess" role which impressed enough of her colleagues to win her a supporting actress Oscar. In 1958 she began her long-running success as a happy homemaker in ABC's "The Donna Reed Show", which in later years would be regarded by some as a decent forerunner of the "family sitcom" and by others as pure camp, a prime--and very dated--example of the last vestiges of 50s conformity encouraged by pop culture.

Reed for the most part retired after her series ended in 1966, but in later years she did play occasional leading roles in a handful of TV-movies and miniseries. When Barbara Bel Geddes had to leave her acclaimed role as the strong matriarch Miss Ellie on the CBS primetime series, "Dallas", Reed stepped into the role for a season, but illness was affecting Reed by that time as well. In general, audiences were a bit disappointed by her very ladylike, quiet take on the role, and a recovered Bel Geddes returned after one season. Still, Reed had performed long and professionally by the time of her death from cancer at 64.