Claire Brennan… Who was she? How did she die?
Brennan died in Hollywood in 1977. Hollywood was at its lowest point. Seedy and run-down, it had more prostitutes, porn palaces, and street-level drug dealers than it had movie stars. The Hollywood sign was dilapidated and falling down.
Claire Brennan was born Helen L. Munkoff on September 25, 1934 and died on November 27, 1977. She grew up in the Ventura area and was an accomplished rider, winning several trophies in Ventura and Santa Barbara.
In that Quinn Martin roster of actors and actresses that defined 1970s television, many names pop up and hers is one. Claire Brennan’s type of face populated so much of TV of that era. It’s serviceable and strong with strong lines and an uncomplicated nose.
In those shows, she was always a Joan, a Marian, or a Susie, or she’s a Betty or a Sarah.
In the Cannon episode “Madmen,” Brennan is the aggrieved wife whose husband, whipped to a fury on an experimental LSD-like drug, is roaming the grounds of a military base in a rampage, because that’s what LSD does.
And she starred in one of those awful, career-end, dead-end, career-snuffing movies: She-Freak.
She-Freak is truly dreadful. It’s not bad in that good-bad way. It’s just tiresome, dull, poorly edited and directed, and glacially paced.
The twist is that, with all of that TV work, Brennan’s career only improved after She-Freak. Still, she was no stranger to performing in stag films, such as “The Touchables,” an R-rated movie starring Billy Holms.
She was married to Felix Silla, Cousin Itt, from The Addams Family. They had a secret nine-year relationship that produced a son.
