Editing Gloria Winters (section)

==Biography==

===Early life and career===
Born Gloria Carolyn Hirst in Los Angeles on November 28, 1931,<ref name=nyt>Gates, Anita. [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/arts/television/28winters.html "Gloria Winters, Perky Star of Wholesome 'Sky King', Dies"] ''[[The New York Times]]'', August 27, 2010; page D8. [https://web.archive.org/web/20170930053118/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/arts/television/28winters.html?_r=1 WebCitation archive].</ref> She grew up in the [[San Fernando Valley]] of Los Angeles, and later moved to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] with her family.<ref name=airport /> A [[Child actor|child actress]], she made her debut, she said in a mid-2000s radio interview, "when I was about five", with a small role in a [[Shirley Temple]] movie. "I came running out to Shirley Temple, and she was supposed to help me, like I had just gone to the little girls' room."<ref name=airport />

Winters went on to a [[Pete Smith (film producer)|Pete Smith]] movie short, in a scene of her coming down a slide to the grass, where a black [[Scottish Terrier|Scottie]] dog licked her face. She also appeared in an ''[[Our Gang]]'' feature.<ref name=airport /> She performed onstage, and took [[tap dance]] classes, and in the late 1940s and early 1950s was first cast in [[Western fiction|Western]] films such as ''[[Driftwood (1947 film)|Driftwood]]'' (1947) and ''[[El Paso (film)|El Paso]]'' (1949), and in such [[Television show#Seasons/series|television series]] as ''[[The Lone Ranger (TV series)|The Lone Ranger]]'', ''[[The Range Rider]]'' and ''[[The Gene Autry Show]]''.<ref name=airport /> Her roughly twenty films, mostly Westerns, include ''[[The Lawless]]'' (1950) and ''[[Gambling House (film)|Gambling House]]'' (1951).<ref name=airport />

She portrayed daughter Babs Riley in the first season of the [[NBC]] sitcom ''[[The Life of Riley]]'' (1949 to 1950), starring [[Jackie Gleason]] and [[Rosemary DeCamp]].

===''Sky King''===
Winters' signature role was in the [[television drama]] ''[[Sky King]]'', starring [[Kirby Grant]] as rancher and pilot Schuyler "Sky" King in [[Arizona]] of the 1950s. Winters played the blonde, baby-faced, perky but earnest, and helpful teenage niece, Penny King, who lived with her uncle at the Flying Crown Ranch and often became involved in his varied adventures.<ref name=nyt /> She played the role in seventy-two episodes from 1952 to 1959. [[Ron Hagerthy]] appeared in nineteen episodes during 1952 as Sky King's [[Nephew and niece|nephew]] and Penny's brother, Clipper. ''Sky King'' ran on [[NBC]] and ABC,<ref name=lax /> and was filmed from 1951 to 1952 and from 1955 through at least 1959, as sponsors changed.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} It ran after that in [[Broadcast syndication|syndication]], but the actors received no [[Residual (entertainment industry)|residual]]s.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}

During the run of ''Sky King'', Winters and Kirby Grant performed as a song-and-dance team as headliners on the [[state fair]] circuit. Winters recalled a [[State Fair of Texas]] in [[Dallas]] in which the two signed autographs. Waiting for their signatures were [[astronaut]]s [[Gus Grissom]], [[Pete Conrad]], [[Alan Shepard]], and [[Wally Schirra]] in line with their children. As the magazine publisher ''Airport Journal'' noted, the series ''Sky King'' inspired several youngsters to take up flying when they became older.<ref name=airport />

Winters married Dean Stevens Vernon, a sound engineer on ''[[Sky King]]'',<ref name=lax /> and gave up acting following a 1960 appearance on [[Hugh O'Brian]]'s ABC western series, ''[[The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp]]''.