Melinda Peterson

Melinda Sue Peterson of West Hartford, CT passed away in her husband's arms at their Benedict Canyon home late Sunday, July 31, just short of her 74th birthday on August 10, of apparent cardiac arrest. She was making palpable progress recovering from a broken kneecap and shoulder she had sustained in a bad fall at a B&B on April 31 while on holiday in Sicily, near Palermo.

An enormously gifted actress, she was active on stag pe, on screen and in radio for more than four decades. Melinda Peterson was an ensemble member of The Antaeus Theatre Company in Glendale, California, from its inception in 1991.  She was a proud member of the Antaeus Company since 1991, Melinda appeared in productions of Peace in Our Time, Pera Palas, The Man Who Had All The Luck, Patience, The Long Christmas Dinner, Trial By Jury, Tonight at 8:3o,, as well as countless readings, workshops and presentations.

In the Southern California theater community, she has appeared on a number of stages and received an Ovation nomination for her work in The Illustrated Woman and won Dramalogue awards for Fools Die Fast and for her portrayal as Eleonora Duse in Lillian Groag's The Ladies of the Camellias.  She has worked at regional theaters across the country, has made numerous guest appearances on television, has lent her talents to several independent films and writes and performs radio comedy with her darling husband, Philip Proctor.

Peterson was noted for her roles as Lucretia Borgia in Norman Corwin's The Plot to Overthrow Christmas and as Agatha Christie, hosting/narrating The BBC Murders, a series of four radio plays staged at the Parker Playhouse in Florida. Arguably, her most acclaimed theatrical portrayal was that of the Italian stage diva Eleonora Duse in Lillian Garrett Groag's play The Lady of the Camellias. According to one reviewer "Peterson's Duse is a marvel of melancholia, her accent pure Italian but her demeanor more evocative of Garbo's Slavic reserve. Whether it's moving those dark eyes a fraction of a millimeter or executing a large, period-perfect gesture, Peterson is as fascinating as the woman she emulates".