Michele Carey was an American actress who was best known for her role as Josephine "Joey" MacDonald in the 1966 filmEl Dorado. She appeared in movies in the 1960s and 1970s, and guest-starred in episodes of several television series.
Early life and education
Carey was born on February 26, 1942 in Annapolis, Maryland to Stanley Willard Henson Jr. and Thelma Burnell Henson; her father was working as a wrestling instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy. The family soon moved to Rochester, Minnesota, where her father continued his medical studies. Michele was a piano prodigy; she won a national contest at the Chicago Music Festival at age 13, and performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Carey's family eventually moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, where her father practiced as a physician, becoming Fort Collins' first open heart surgeon. She attended and graduated from Fort Collins High School in 1960.
Career
After graduating from high school, she was signed by the Powers agency and moved to Los Angeles in 1964 with her son to pursue a modeling career. She enjoyed success as a model, but she was more interested in acting. Aided by her beauty and trademark long, wild hair, she soon caught the eye of Hollywood producers. In 1964, she made her first television appearance on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. as a receptionist. The following year she did more television work, had a small part in the classic How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, and acted in her first major film, the 1966 Howard Hawks-produced and directed Western El Dorado, with a memorable role as high-spirited troublemaker Josephine "Joey" MacDonald. Carey went on to co-star in films such as Live a Little, Love a Little, The Sweet Ride, and Dirty Dingus Magee, in which she played an anachronistically miniskirted Indian girl. On television she appeared in guest-starring roles on episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., , It Takes a Thief, and three episodes of The Wild Wild West, the December 1969 episode "Tug-of-War" on The F.B.I., Starsky and Hutch and Alias Smith and Jones. Carey played the title role in the 1972 Gunsmoke episode "Tara", appeared in the second The Six Million Dollar Man pilot film, and co-starred with Angie Dickinson and Roy Thinnes in the Dan CurtisTV movieThe Norliss Tapes that same year. and provided the recurring female computer voice in A Man Called Sloane. Carey retired from acting in 1984 but made a brief comeback in the film In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro which would be her last performance. She also appeared as Crystal in a 1982 episode of the television series The Fall Guy.
Personal life
Carey was briefly married to her son's father in 1961. She was married again in the early 1980s to the man who would adopt her son. She was also briefly married in the early 1990s to a businessman in New Mexico. Carey's last marriage was with businessman Fred G. Strebel in 1999, and resided with him in Hillsborough and Rancho Mirage. Strebel died on December 28, 2011.
Death
Michele Carey died at the age of 76 on November 21, 2018, of natural causes in Newport Beach, California. Her father, who had been the oldest living NCAA wrestling champion, died earlier the same year. Her mother died in 2016. She was preceded in death by her only child Kevin Troy Schwanke. Carey was survived by her three siblings and extended family.
