Gwen Van Dam

Gwendolyn Greta Van Dam, a character actress and 70-year veteran of Los Angeles stage, TV and film, passed away on Dec. 19. She was 96.
Her 140 screen and TV credits span a seven-decade career. In 2024 she appeared in two episodes of the Apple TV series, Interior Chinatown, based on the novel by Charles Yu. Earlier she played opposite Julia Roberts in the first five episodes of Amazon's Homecoming; and with Lily Tomlin in Netflix's Grace and Frankie. In True Confessions, she shared a scene with Robert Duvall. One of her earliest movie roles, in 1964, was a nurse in Lilith, with Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg.
Van Dam had roles in the original Halloween and in Star Trek Generations, Coming Home, and Stir Crazy. Among her TV appearances: Days of Our Lives, Gilmore Girls, Knots Landing, ER, Moonlighting, the Brady Bunch, Maude, Owen Marshall, New Girl, Modern Family and Criminal Minds. Her career included work in other genres – in the last decade she appeared in music videos for U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Beyonce and JayZ, Lil Wayne, Panic! At the Disco, and Mastadon.
Van Dam appeared in productions at 14 different theater companies In L.A., including the Mark Taper Forum, Globe Theater, LAAT and the Norris Theater. She received the Road Theater's Best Supporting Actress award for her role in "The Ballad Hunter" and the Group Rep's Best Actor Award for "Happy End"; and earned awards from the Valley Theater League and the Hollywood Court Theater.
In a 2011 LA Stage Times profile, "Gwen Van Dam Takes A Trip," the Times reviewed her starring role in a Group Rep production of "The Trip to Bountiful." The profile noted, "In the lead role of Carrie Watts, Gwen Van Dam has big shoes to fill – Geraldine Page (the film) and Lillian Gish (the play). Ms. Van Dam chooses rightly to make her own path and use her own assets and experiences. She brings a sweetness and vulnerability to the role. You will love...traveling this important journey with her."
Born Gwendolyn Greta Van Dam in San Francisco, she discovered her love of acting in college, graduating with a B.A. from San Jose State University in 1950. She left home for New York after writing a letter to Gertrude Lawrence for advice on landing roles in New York, Lawrence suggested she contact her husband, producer Richard Aldrich. He cast her in a touring show, "The Guardsman," where she met her future husband, Bill Smillie, then the show's property manager.
She clinched early roles in TV series and summer stock theater in the Northeast. Studying with acting teacher Mira Rostova at the Herbert Berghof (HB) Studio in New York, she was offered a screen test for the forthcoming production of "From Here to Eternity" and a 7-year acting contract with Columbia Pictures. Actors at the HB Studio at the time worshipped Method acting, not movies. Fellow student Montgomery Clift advised Van Dam: "Are you sure you want to move to Hollywood
It could destroy you." Van Dam turned down the Columbia deal. She later admitted it was the worst mistake of her career.
Among her New York friends in the 1960s was the artist Joseph Cornell, whose surrealist shadow boxes landed him one man shows at museums like the Guggenheim. Cornell produced a shadow box for Van Dam, "An Owl for Gwendolyn." He told her that Audrey Hepburn had declined to accept a similar box from him, and was thrilled that Gwen accepted the piece. Cornell went on to produce a short, experimental film featuring Van Dam and sister Jeanie. Van Dam and Cornell corresponded with each other until his death in 1972.
Every New Year's Day, Gwen and husband Bill Smillie, a longtime film and TV actor, hosted an annual holiday party at their home in West Los Angeles, drawing a lively mix of actor friends, among them: Len Lesser (Seinfield's Uncle Leo); Marvin Kaplan (who once worked with Charlie Chaplin); and Tina Louise (Ginger on Gilligan's Island).
Van Dam's husband passed away in 2003. She is survived by her daughter, Claudia Tumas; son Dirk Smillie; and grandchildren Lorelei, Amanda and Crystal. A service will be held for Gwen Van Dam in early February in Hollywood.