She was also a favorite of Jackie Gleason, who featured her in his "American Scene Magazine" variety hours of the 1960s. Ross and Fred Gwynne and in two 1961 episodes of The Tom Ewell Show starring Tom Ewell. Ghostley guest-starred on the NBC police comedy, Car 54, Where Are You?, with Joe E. Twelve years later, Ghostley guest-starred as a harried maternity nurse on Ballard's comedy series, The Mothers-in-Law. The other stepsister was played by actress Kaye Ballard. TelevisionĪ veteran of early television, Ghostley appeared as Joy, one of the ugly stepsisters in the 1957 musical television production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's Cinderella, which starred Julie Andrews in the title role. In 1978, she succeeded Dorothy Loudon, who had created the role of Miss Hannigan in the original Broadway run of the musical Annie. She also performed in several musical comedies, including Shangri-La (1956). She appeared in the 1960 revue A Thurber Carnival and in The Beauty Part (1962), playing several distinct roles in each. Ghostley first came to Broadway in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952 and in the film version released in 1954. She attended the University of Oklahoma, but dropped out to pursue a career in theater. Ghostley was born in Eve, Missouri, in 1923 to Edna Muriel (née Rooney) and Harry Francis Ghostley, who worked as a telegraph operator.