Alberta Nelson was an American television and film actress of the 1960s. She was born on August 14, 1937, in Erie. Nelson attended Villa Maria Academy and later graduated from Andrews High School in Willoughby, Ohio, graduating with the class of 1955. She briefly attended St. John's Hospital School of Nursing, Cleveland, Ohio, before in the late 1950s moving to New York City where she modeled.
While in New York she performed on Broadway. She also performed at the Erie Playhouse and the Erie Roadhouse.
Alberta married Ryan MacDonald (Machunas) in 1959 in New York City. Their son Adam was born in New York City in 1960 and was a victim of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of two-months. Adam is buried in his father's hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Alberta never had any other children. Ryan MacDonald was the first male centerfold in the first issue of Playgirl magazine, published in 1978. Ryan and Alberta divorced in 1962 and Alberta moved to Beverly Hills, California, where she pursued an acting career.
After several dramatic roles on television in the early 1960s, Nelson made five guest appearances on The Andy Griffith Show, four of them as Goober Pyle's girlfriend, Flora Malherbe. She also made a guest appearance on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
After her successful girl-next-door stint as Flora on The Andy Griffith Show and her comedic career as biker girl Puss, Nelson starred in 1970 in the movie The Wild Scene as Dr. Virginia Grant, a female psychiatrist who talks graphically about her tawdriest cases — The Wild Scene is the only film where that Alberta Nelson was the star; this, and a 1970 appearance on Love, American Style, would be Nelson's last credited roles.
Alberta appeared in seven movies in the 1960s as one of Eric Von Zipper's mice in the successful American International Beach Party series. She is the only person who appeared in all seven Beach Party movies, including Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. Nelson played the leather clad Rat Pack (aka Rats & Mice) biker chick Puss, one of the comic villains who dogged the steps of America's sweethearts, Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon.
Alberta married Herbert Lester Gilman in Erie on February 14, 1971, her second marriage. Alberta was married for 35 years to Herbert Gilman.
Alberta fought cancer of the jaw/throat for several years, dying in Herbert's arms on April 29, 2006, at the home of Herbert Gilman's daughter, in Willoughby Hills, Ohio.
Alberta was buried next to her mother and father at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Erie on May 2, 2006.
Herbert Gilman died on June 29, 2007. He was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Erie on July 1, 2007.
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| Alberta Nelson’s appearance on the Andy Griffith Show. |