Remembering Collin Wilcox Paxton

Gina Wilhelm Actress - Remembering Collin Wilcox Paxton

Collin Wilcox Paxton passed away earlier this month at the age of 74. Wilcox played Mayella Violet Ewell in the film version of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Her character falsely accused Brock Peters, who is black and is defended in court by Atticus Finch, played by Gregory Peck. Peck won an Oscar for his performance.

In 2007, Paxton talked about her audition for the role. Already an accomplished stage actress, she said the other girls reading for the role were too made up. "They had curly, clean hair and wore brassieres and high heels.

"I wore a secondhand dress, tennis shoes with holes in them, and dirty little white socks. I rubbed cold cream through my hair -- that's why my hair looked so dirty," she said.

Paxton was involved with the civil rights movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

At once NAACP conference in Monterrey, CA, Paxton received many "unfriendly looks," and a conference official had to remind the attendees that she was not her character from the film.

Paxton appeared on TV in "The Twilight Zone," "The Waltons," "The Fugitive," "Dr. Kildare," and "Gunsmoke."

On film, she was also in "Jaws 2," "The Baby Maker," and "Catch-22."

Her Broadway debut was in "The Day the Money Stopped," for which she earned the Clarence Derwent Award for most promising female.

She also wrote the play "Papa's Angels," which was later adapted into a book and a TV movie.

Gina Wilhelm Actress