Patricia Blair

Patricia Blair, an actress who played leading roles in 1960s television westerns like “Daniel Boone” and “The Rifleman,” died on Sept. 9 at her home in North Wildwood, N.J. She was 80.

The cause was breast cancer, Amber Hennessey, a friend and neighbor, said.

Patsy Lou Blake was born in Fort Worth, Tex., on Jan. 15, 1933. She started modeling as a teenager and was 17 when she moved to Los Angeles to act. Producers there persuaded her to change her name to Patricia Blair, because, they said, it sounded more sophisticated.

Her first movie was “Jump Into Hell” (1955), about the battle of Dien Bien Phu in French Indochina. She appeared in the horror film “The Black Sleep” (1956), which starred Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr., and the 1959 film “City of Fear” before turning to television. Her last role was in the 1979 Robert Redford-Jane Fonda movie “The Electric Horseman.”

Her best known role was as Rebecca Boone, Daniel’s wife, in the six-year run of “Daniel Boone” on NBC beginning in 1964.