Donna Reed performed in a few good films, including From Here to Eternity, in which she played a prostitute (and won an Oscar). In 1958, however, she became Everywife in her own TV series, the epitome of suburban domesticity. So firmly did she imprint that character that she was forever unable to convincingly play anyone except the cheerful wife and mother who left no spots on the glasses or her children's psyches. By the time Reed tried to inhabit the skin of Miss Ellie in Dallas, it was impossible to believe that she could have brought forth a lout like J.R....
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