Noreen M. Corcoran was an American actress, dancer, and singer best known for her co-starring role in the television sitcom Bachelor Father, as the teenager Kelly Gregg, the niece of wealthy attorney Bentley Gregg, played by John Forsythe.
Corcoran's screen debut was a small role in the emotional film, Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie at 20th Century Fox. She was next cast in the MGMmusicalI Love Melvin in 1953. More roles followed, including in Young Bess in which she played Elizabeth I of England as a young child; "Tusitala", a 1955 episode of Four Star Playhouse starring David Niven as Robert Louis Stevenson, in which Corcoran played the role of Anna, a girl who was granted another birthday; Band of Angels in 1957; and television appearances in Circus Boy, starring Micky Dolenz, later of the singing group The Monkees. Corcoran also had a part in the short-lived series The World of Mr. Sweeney with Charles Ruggles. In 1957, future U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan, who was working at the same studio on his General Electric Theater on CBS, viewed the screen tests for Bachelor Father and recommended Corcoran to John Forsythe for the part of Kelly. In the show, Kelly is orphaned at thirteen when her parents are killed in an automobile accident and she is then adopted and reared by her bachelor Uncle Bentley in well-to-do Beverly Hills, California.
As a popular young actress, Corcoran made the cover of numerous magazines. Slowly before the viewers' eyes, she seemed to grow from a somewhat awkward teenager into a sophisticated young woman. Kelly enrolled in the same college Bentley had attended and was a freshman there during the series' final season. In mostly season 1 & 2 story lines, Kelly often acted as an unwelcome matchmaker for her Uncle Bentley. A year after the completion of Bachelor Father, Corcoran achieved some musical success as her single recording of "Love Kitten" reached #142 in Music Vendor. In 1963, Corcoran played a supporting role in Paul Wendkos' Gidget Goes to Rome and starred in William Witney's The Girls on the Beach, an attempt by Paramount Pictures to compete in the "Beach Party" genre of films, which had been particularly successful for Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. The movie featured performances from the popular singerLesley Gore, The Beach Boys, and The Crickets. Corcoran guest-starred in two similar television series, NBC's Mr. Novak with James Franciscus and ABC's Channing with Jason Evers. She guest starred at this time on the ABCdrama series, Going My Way, starring Gene Kelly. In 1964, she was cast as Alice Lang in an episode of NBC's medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour: "You're So Smart, Why Can't You Be Good?" Then she appeared in two westerns, CBS's Gunsmoke with James Arness in the 1964 episode "Owney Tupper Had a Daughter" with fellow guest star Jay C. Flippen, and ABC's The Big Valley with Barbara Stanwyck. In the latter, she played Sharon in a 1965 episode entitled "The Brawlers".
Later years
Noreen Corcoran left acting for a private career behind the scenes in theatre arts and dance. In 1966, she began an 11-year association with the Lewitzky Dance Company, which was opened that year by the choreographerBella Lewitzky. Corcoran retired in 2004. She never married. She maintained contact with her friend and mentor John Forsythe until his death.
