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Elizabeth “Betsy” MacRae Halsey, best known for her recurring roles on “General Hospital” and “Gomer Pyle, USMC,” has died at age 88. MacRae died Monday at Highland House Rehabilitation & Healthcare in her hometown of Fayetteville, N.C.

, local news outlet CityView reported and Deadline confirmed. “She had a wonderful life,” the actor’s nephew Jim MacRae told CityView on Tuesday. “She was bright and articulate.



She was still getting fan mail at Highland House.” Throughout her decades-spanning career, MacRae charmed audiences and entertainment executives alike, appearing in a number of classic soap operas and fan-favorite sitcoms. She enjoyed a triumph later in her acting career with a lead role in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film “The Conversation,” which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or.

MacRae was born in 1936 in Columbia, S.C., but spent her formative years in Fayetteville, according to CityView .

As a child, she frequented the cinema, captivated by movie stars such as Rita Hayworth and Elizabeth Taylor. Following her graduation from the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Md., a college-preparatory school for girls with an emphasis on the arts, MacRae decided to seriously pursue acting in 1956.

That year, she botched an audition for Otto Preminger’s historical drama “Saint Joan,” but despite MacRae’s misfire, the Austrian director encouraged her to continue honing her craft — including by pursuing formal training. MacRae took .

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