Actress, Screenwriter. She was best known for playing the character roles of nurses, married women, single women, mothers, social workers, and historical figures including accused murderess Lizzie Borden. She will be best remembered for playing the role of 'Mrs. Sarah Johnson,' 'Minerva Trask,' 'Sobbing Woman,' and 'Abigail Collins,' in 79 episodes of the supernatural fantasy horror soap opera television series drama, "Dark Shadows," which originally aired from 1960 to 1970, and which also starred Grayson Hall, Jonathan Frid, Alexandra Isles, Nancy Barrett, Thayer David, David Conant Ford, Louis Edmonds, and David Selby, is the story of the rich Collins family of Collinsport, Maine, which is tormented by strange occurrences. She is also best remembered for playing the role of 'Ann Putnam' in the historical film drama, "The Crucible" (1967). The film which was directed by Alex Segal, which was based on the play by Arthur Miller, and which also starred George C. Scott, Colleen Dewhurst, and Melvyn Douglas, tells the story of the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, where a group of girls go dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris. One of the girls, Parris's daughter Betty, falls into a coma-like state. A crowd gathers in the Parris home while rumors of witchcraft fill the town. Having sent for Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft, Parris questions Abigail Williams, the girls' ringleader, about the events that took place in the forest. Abigail, who is Parris's niece and ward, admits to doing nothing beyond "dancing". While Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to some of the other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor, a local farmer, then enters and talks to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the town, while working in Proctor's home the previous year she engaged in an affair with him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail still desires Proctor, but he fends her off and tells her to end her foolishness with the girls. Betty wakes up and begins screaming. Much of the crowd rushes upstairs and gathers in her bedroom, arguing over whether she is bewitched. A separate argument between Proctor, Parris, the argumentative Giles Corey, and the wealthy Thomas Putnam soon ensues. This dispute centers on money and land deeds, and it suggests that deep fault lines run through the Salem community. As the men argue, Reverend Hale arrives and examines Betty, while Proctor departs. Hale quizzes Abigail about the girls' activities in the forest, grows suspicious of her behavior and demands to speak to Tituba. After Parris and Hale interrogate her for a brief time, Tituba confesses to communing with the devil, and she hysterically accuses various townsfolk of consorting with the devil. Suddenly, Abigail joins her, confessing to having seen the devil conspiring and cavorting with other townspeople. Betty joins them in naming witches, and the crowd is thrown into an uproar. A week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth Proctor discuss the ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who have been accused of being witches. Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce Abigail as a fraud; he refuses, and she becomes jealous, accusing him of still harboring feelings for her. Mary Warren, their servant and one of Abigail's circles, returns from Salem with news that Elizabeth has been accused of witchcraft but the court did not pursue the accusation. Mary is sent up to bed, and John and Elizabeth continue their argument, only to be interrupted by a visit from Reverend Hale. While they discuss matters, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have been arrested. Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. After they have taken her, Proctor browbeats Mary, insisting that she must go to Salem and expose Abigail and the other girls as frauds. The next day, Proctor brings Mary to court and tells Judge Danforth that she will testify that the girls are lying. Danforth is suspicious of Proctor's motives and tells Proctor, truthfully, that Elizabeth is pregnant and will be spared for a time. Proctor persists in his charge, convincing Danforth to allow Mary to testify. Mary tells the court that the girls are lying. When the girls are brought in, they turn the tables by accusing Mary of bewitching them. Furious, Proctor confesses his affair with Abigail and accuses her of being motivated by jealousy of his wife. To test Proctor's claim, Danforth summons Elizabeth and asks her if Proctor has been unfaithful to her. Despite her natural honesty, she lies to protect Proctor's honor, and Danforth denounces Proctor as a liar. Meanwhile, Abigail and the girls again pretend that Mary is bewitching them, and Mary breaks down and accuses Proctor of being a witch. Proctor rages against her and against the court. He is arrested, and Hale quits the proceedings. The summer passes and autumn arrives. The witch trials have caused unrest in neighboring towns, and Danforth grows nervous. Abigail has run away, taking all of Parris's money with her. Hale, who has lost faith in the court, begs the accused witches to confess falsely in order to save their lives, but they refuse. Danforth, however, has an idea: he asks Elizabeth to talk John into confessing, and she agrees. Conflicted, but desiring to live, John agrees to confess, and the officers of the court rejoice. But he refuses to incriminate anyone else, and when the court insists that the confession must be made public, Proctor grows angry, tears it up, and retracts his admission of guilt. Despite Hale's desperate pleas, Proctor goes to the gallows with the others, and the witch trials reach their awful conclusion. She was born one of three children as Clarice Eva Blackburn in San Francisco, California, to Paul Blackburn (1881-1946), and his wife Sonne Diane Livingston Blackburn (1900-1992), on February 2, 1921. Her father was a salesman and the family moved around a lot when she was a child including living in Wisconsin, Arizona, Louisiana, Texas, and California. Her parents later divorced and her mother then remarried a man named Charley Paul Rein (1897-1970), a veteran of World War I. She was educated locally, attended high school, and later attended the prestigious Texas State College for Women in Denton, Texas, where she received a Bachelor's Degree in speech and drama. She also studied drama with Hector Berghof at his famous HB Studio in Greenwich Village in New York City, New York. She made her actual theater debut in the stage production of the play, "The Circle Of Chalk" (1947), in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and also appeared in an Equity Library Theater stage production of the play, "The Great Big Doorstep" (1950). She also played the role of 'Addie' in the stage production of the play," American Gothic," at the Circle in the Square Theater in Manhattan, New York, during the 1950s. She appeared on Broadway in New York City, New York, in several stage productions of such plays, as 'Sadel Meyer' in "The Desk Set" (October 24, 1955, to July 07, 1956), as 'A Theban Mother' in "The Infernal Machine" (February 03, 1958, to March 09, 1958), as 'Mrs. Tancred' in "Juno" (March 09, 1959, to March 21, 1959), and as 'Kate Keller' in "The Miracle Worker" (October 19, 1959, to July 01, 1961). She also played the role of 'Sara Calendar' in the stage production of the play, "Good Day/The Exhaustion Of Our Son's Love," from 1965 to 1966, for which she won an Obie Award for Distinguished Performance. During this time, she also made the transition to appearing in films, on television, and even on the radio. She made her actual television debut playing a 'Nurse' and a 'College Dean' in the television soap opera television series, "Love Of Life," in 1951, and which also starred Audrey Peters, Ron Tomme, And Peggy McCay, is Initially set in fictional Barrowsville, New York, this serial tells the story of extremely disparate siblings: long-suffering Vanessa Dale and her rude sister Meg Dale. After Meg Dale was written out of the series in the late 1950s, the serial's setting moved to Rosehill, New York, where Vanessa Dale settled down with college professor Bruce Sterling and endured the usual soap-opera maladies including murder, amnesia, and incurable illness. In 1974, writers resurrected the character of Meg Dale as the serial once again focused on the internecine struggles between two sisters. Besides, playing the role of 'Ann Putnam' in the historical film drama, "The Crucible" (1967), her many other film credits include, "The Violators" (1957), "Summer Of Decision" (1959), "Pretty Poison" (1968), "Night Of Dark Shadows" (1970), and "Men On A Swing" (1974). Besides, playing a 'Nurse' and a 'College Dean' in the television soap opera television series, "Love Of Life," in 1951, and which also starred Audrey Peters, Ron Tomme, And Peggy McCay, is initially set in fictional Barrowsville, New York, this serial tells the story of extremely disparate siblings: long-suffering Vanessa Dale and her rude sister Meg Dale. After Meg Dale was written out of the series in the late 1950s, the serial's setting moved to Rosehill, New York, where Vanessa Dale settled down with college professor Bruce Sterling and endured the usual soap-opera maladies including murder, amnesia, and incurable illness. In 1974, writers resurrected the character of Meg Dale as the serial once again focused on the internecine struggles between two sisters, and playing the roles of 'Mrs. Sarah Johnson,' 'Minerva Trask,' 'Sobbing Woman,' and 'Abigail Collins,' in 79 episodes of the supernatural fantasy horror soap opera television series drama, "Dark Shadows," which originally aired from 1960 to 1970, and which also starred Grayson Hall, Jonathan Frid, Alexandra Isles, Nancy Barrett, Thayer David, David Conant Ford, Louis Edmonds, and David Selby, is the story of the rich Collins family of Collinsport, Maine, which is tormented by strange occurrences, her many other television series, "The Secret Storm," "The Big Story," "As The World Turns," "Robert Montgomery Presents," "Studio One," "Kraft Theatre," "The United States Steel Hour," "The Robert Herridge Theater," "The DuPont Show Of The Month," "Armstrong Circle Theatre," "The Doctors," "East Side, West Side," "The Doctors And The Nurses," "For The People," "The Defenders," "N.Y.P.D." "One Life To Live," and "Where The Heart Is." Besides acting, she was also a screenwriter for several soap opera television series including, "As The World Turns," in 1975, "Life Of Life," for one episode in 1976, and "All My Children," for twenty episodes from 1979 to 1985. During her acting and screenwriting career she was the recipient of several nominations or wins including a Nominee by the Winters Guild of America, USA for Daytime Serials for "Love Of Life" (1951), in 1975, which was shared with Paul Avila Mayer, Claire Labine, and Nancy Ford, Nominee for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Daytime Drama Series for "All My Children" (1970), which she shared with Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam, Jack Wood, Caroline Franz, Mary K. Wells, Cathy Chicos, Anita Jaffe, and Kenneth Harvey, in 1980, Nominee for Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Daytime Drama Series for "All My Children" (1970), which she shared with Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam, Jack Wood, Mary K. Wells, Caroline Franz, Cathy Chicos, and Cynthia Benjamin, in 1981, Nominee for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Daytime Drama Series for "All My Children" (1970), which she shared with Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam, Jack Wood, Mary K. Wells, Lorraine Broderick, Cynthia Benjamin, John Saffron, and Elizabeth Wallace, in 1982, Nominee for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Daytime Drama Series for "All My Children" (1970), which she shared with Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam, Lorraine Broderick, Jack Wood, Mary K. Wells, Caroline Franz, Elizabeth Wallace, and John Saffron, in 1983, Nominee for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Daytime Drama Series for "All My Children" (1970), which she shared with Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam, Lorraine Broderick, Dani Morris, Jack Wood, Mary K. Wells, Elizabeth Wallace, Roni Dengel, Susan Kirshenbaum, and Carlina Della Pietra, in 1984, Winner of a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for "All My Children" (1970), which she shared with Lorraine Broderick, Victor Miller, Art Wallace, Jack Wood, Mary K. Wells, Susan Kirshenbaum, Elizabeth Wallace, Elizabeth Page, Carlina Della Pietra, and Wisner Washam, in 1985, and Winner of a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team for "All My Children" (1970), which she shared with Agnes Nixon, Lorraine Broderick, Susan Kirshenbaum, Kathleen Klein, Karen Lewis, Victor Miller, Megan McTavish, Elizabeth Page, Peggy Sloane, Gillian Spencer, Elizabeth Wallace, Wisner Washam, Mary K. Wells, and Jack Wood, in 1988. Her last television role was playing 'Edith Spurrier' in an episode of the romance television soap opera series drama, "Guiding Light," which originally aired on December 21, 1987, and which also starred Kim Zimmer, Peter Simon, and Christopher Bernau, takes place in the fictional Midwestern town of Springfield and is centered on the middle-class Bauer family. She continued to act and write until retiring. She passed away following a battle with cancer in New York City, New York, on August 5, 1995, at the age of 74. Following her death, she was cremated and her ashes are currently in an unknown location. She never married nor had any children.