Nina Shipman died Sunday at 88 in a hospital in Gardena, California. Her stepdaughter Lianne Bremer confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter. Shipman’s death was due to natural causes.
Shipman’s career spanned decades. She appeared in films, television and stage, often in small roles. She made her big-screen debut in 1958, playing a woman mistaken for Kim Novak’s Madeleine Elster in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Her part was brief and uncredited but placed her in the orbit of one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed directors.
At 20th Century Fox, Shipman was under contract. She starred alongside Bing Crosby in two films. In Say One for Me (1959), she was a chorus girl. In High Time (1960), she played Crosby’s daughter. Both films featured Crosby in roles as a wealthy restaurateur and a college student, respectively.
In 1959, she played Prudence Cooper in The Oregon Trail. The film followed a wagon train crossing the U.S. in 12 days on the Fox lot in Century City. Shipman’s character was caught in a love triangle with Fred MacMurray’s newspaper reporter and William Bishop’s wagon train leader. Bishop’s character was also an agent for President James K. Polk.
Shipman’s appearance on The Oregon Trail was one of her most visible screen roles. She continued to work in film, including uncredited parts in The Hunters (1958), In Love and War (1958), and Compulsion (1959). She also shared scenes with Robert Wagner and Stella Stevens in Say One for Me and appeared as the daughter of Marsha Hunt and Macdonald Carey in Blue Denim (1959).
Her television career became more prominent. She appeared in dozens of shows. She played Irene Fairchild, a nurse with a romance with Howard Sprague, in The Andy Griffith Show episode “The County Clerk” in 1966. Her credits included Sugarfoot, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Ozzie and Harriet, Surfside 6, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, Bonanza, Rawhide, Dr. Kildare, Daniel Boone, Perry Mason, Burke’s Law, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Mod Squad, Adam-12, Highway to Heaven and General Hospital.
Shipman also worked behind the scenes. She wrote a book in 1975 titled How to Become an Actor in Television Commercials. She hosted a series called Contemporary Health Issues in 1981. The series consisted of 30 half-hour episodes. It covered topics such as sexuality, drugs, birth control, cardiovascular disease and alcoholism. She was also a skilled pianist, practiced falconry, and taught at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Her family background was rooted in show business. Her father, Barry Shipman, was a screenwriter for Westerns and Dick Tracy movies. Her mother, Gwynne Shipman, was a dancer and actress with credits including Hopalong Cassidy Returns. Her grandmother Nell Shipman was a silent film actress, and her grandfather Ernest Shipman was part of one of the earliest Shakespearean touring companies in the United States.
Shipman attended Maddox Academy in Mexico City and Eagle Rock High School in Los Angeles. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in music and studied acting with Sanford Meisner. She also performed at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Her personal life saw her married three times. She was married to Richard Harrington from 1956 to 1958, C. Ransom Walrod from 1961 to 1973, and Donald Bremer from 1975 until his death in 2015. She had two daughters, Westerly and Lani, and five grandchildren.
Shipman’s stepdaughter confirmed that she died peacefully. She was surrounded by family in her final days. Bremer described her as someone who lived a full life, engaging in many pursuits and helping others along the way.
In her own words from 2024, Shipman recalled her role on The Munsters. “It was really kind of cool,” she said. “I spoke my own lines, and then after we were through shooting, R. R. R. R. Lewis’ voice was dubbed over into my lines so that I talked like Grandpa.” She also got to pretend smoking a cigar during the scene.
Shipman’s career may have been sprinkled with small parts, but her presence stretched across Hollywood’s golden decades. Her family’s roots in the industry stretch back generations. Her death leaves behind a trail of memories in a career that quietly bridged Hollywood’s classic era and the television age.
According to Hollywood Reporter.