Nita Talbot

Nita Talbot, born Anita Sokol on August 8, 1930, in New York City, is an American actress and former model of Hungarian-Jewish ancestry. She began her career in the entertainment industry appearing as a model in the 1949 motion picture It's a Great Feeling. Over the following decades, she established a long acting career that encompassed numerous feature films and television series.

Throughout her film career, Talbot was cast in a wide variety of screen roles. She appeared in movies such as Bright Leaf in 1950, This Could Be the Night in 1957, I Married a Woman in 1958, Who's Got the Action? in 1962, and Girl Happy in 1965. Her portrayals ranged from playing a love-starved switchboard operator in A Very Special Favor in 1965 to playing the sharp-tongued Madame Esther in Buck and the Preacher in 1972.

Talbot continued to maintain a presence in cinema throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Her film credits during this period include appearances in The Day of the Locust in 1975, Serial in 1980, Night Shift in 1982, Chained Heat in 1983, Fraternity Vacation in 1985, and the horror motion picture Puppet Master II in 1990.

In television, Talbot made frequent guest and starring appearances across many programs beginning in the 1950s. She starred as Mabel Spooner in Joe and Mabel in 1956 and was cast in recurring roles such as con-woman Blondie Collins in The Thin Man from 1958 to 1959 and resourceful Girl-Friday Dora Miles on The Jim Backus Show. Her early episodic television work included guest spots on Perry Mason, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Gunsmoke, The Tab Hunter Show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Maverick.

One of Talbot's notable roles came between 1966 and 1971, when she portrayed the pretend White Russian spy Marya in seven episodes of Hogan's Heroes. For her performance in the episode "The Hostage," she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the 1967–68 season. She also had recurring or multi-episode appearances in shows such as Bourbon Street Beat, Man Against Crime, The Secret Storm, Mannix, Supertrain, Here We Go Again, and Starting from Scratch.

Talbot also worked in daytime television and other popular dramas. She held long-running roles in Search for Tomorrow and General Hospital, portraying Delfina on General Hospital from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1992. Her additional credits include the pilot episode of Funny Face in 1971, an episode of Columbo titled "A Stitch in Crime" in 1973, and an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Her final acting role was in 1997, voicing the character Anastasia Hardy in the animated series Spider-Man.

In her personal life, Talbot was married twice, first to actor Don Gordon from September 7, 1954, until their divorce on April 11, 1958. She then married actor Thomas A. Geas on August 13, 1961, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1964. She has one daughter, Nicole Andrea Geas, who was born in Los Angeles on May 28, 1962.