Actor Nina Shipman, whose decades-long Hollywood career encompassed both film and television, has passed away at age 88.
Among her more than 60 screen credits were 1959 western “The Oregon Trail” and a particularly memorable guest spot on beloved TV sitcom “The Munsters.”
Shipman’s stepdaughter, Lianne Bremer, told The Hollywood Reporter that Shipman passed away of natural causes on Sunday, September 6 in a hospital in Gardena, California.
A Hollywood Veteran
Shipman launched her Hollywood acting career in the late 1950s as a contract player at 20th Century Fox.
In that capacity, she appeared in small roles alongside Bing Crosby in two movies: as a chorus girl in 1959’s “Say One for Me,” and as his character’s daughter in 1960’s “High Time.” She also had a small role in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.”
She also starred opposite Fred McMurray in 1959’s “The Oregon Trail,” and several other movies during that era.
It was on television, however, that Shipman really made her mark. A prolific TV guest star during the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, she appeared in numerous TV series, ranging from “77 Sunset Strip” and “The Andy Griffith Show” during the 1960s, to “Lassie” in the 1970s, to a 1987 episode of Michael Landon’s “Highway to Heaven.”
Shipman also held the recurring role of Sister Agatha on daytime soap opera “General Hospital.” She took over the role from actress Fran Ryan, portraying Sister Agatha during a 1989 storyline.
A Memorable Turn on ‘The Munsters’
For fans of “The Munsters,” however, she’s best known for the 1965 episode “Lily Munster, Girl Model,” in which Grandpa Munster (Al Lewis) creates a pill that transforms him into a gorgeous fashion model, played by Shipman.
“It was really kind of cool,” Shipman recalled in a 2024 inteview with “General Hospital Snark.”
“I spoke my own lines, and then after we were through shooting, [Lewis’] voice was dubbed over into my lines so that I talked like Grandpa.”
Beyond Acting
In addition to her successful acting career, Shipman also distinguished herself in a variety of other fields.
As an author, she wrote the 1975 book “How to Become an Actor in Television Commercials.”
She also served as host of “Contemporary Health Issues,” described by THR as “a 1981 series of 30 half-hour episodes that students could use to earn college credits,” on a wide range of topics ranging from birth control to cardiovascular diseases.
Shipman was accomplished pianist, a practitioner of falconry, and professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, where she is remembered as being a mentor to many aspiring actors via a theater company situated on the Big Island.
Shipman was married three times. Her first marriage, to Richard Harrington, was brief, lasting from 1956 until they divorced in 1958. She then wed stuntman C. Ransom Walrod in 1961; they divorced in 1973. She then married choral conductor Donald Bremer in 1975, with the two remaining married until his death in 2015.
In addition to her stepdaughter, Shipman is survived by daughters Westerly and Lani, and five grandchildren, Bryson, Serena, Cole, Charlie and Clover.
