Roxanne Rosedale Obituary and Death: A stunning model and actress who aided Bud Collyer on Beat the Clock and starred in Marilyn Monroe’s The Seven Year Itch, died at 95.
Roxanne became a great TV celebrity after joining CBS’ Beat the Clock from Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions in 1950. She introduced the candidates, who had to perform complicated, absurd actions in a set time, took Sylvania pictures, and posed with the winners’ trophies. She appeared on the covers of Life, Look, and TV Guide (with Collyer) and had a doll named after her. The game show assistant distributed blue-eyed Roxanne Dolls with Beat the Clock wrist tags and miniature cameras via the program.
Roxanne made her acting debut in 1952 on Casey, Crime Photographer, starring Richard Carlyle, and Broadway Television Theatre. In Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch (1955), she played a woman named Elaine who rolls around on a beach with Tom Ewell’s Richard Sherman in a fantasy scene that parodies Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr’s in From Here to Eternity.
Born on March 20, 1929, Dolores Evelyn Rosedale attended Central High School and studied fashion design at the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts. She finished second in the Miss Minneapolis beauty pageant in 1947 and moved to New York, becoming a model with the Harry Conover agency and studying with Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio (her classmates there included Ben Gazzara).
Roxanne made her TV debut in 1948 on the CBS game show Winner Take All, also hosted by Collyer in what was the first game show produced by Goodson & Todman. When that was canceled after two seasons, she and Collyer went to work on Beat the Clock. She left the show in August 1955 — and was replaced by Beverly Bentley — after marrying businessman Tom Roddy in 1954 and becoming pregnant with Ann, her first born.
She appeared on Broadway in 1956 in A Hatful of Rain and in the crime drama The Young Don’t Cry (1957), starring Sal Mineo and James Whitmore, then moved with her family back to Minnesota and worked for a furrier, modeled and appeared on lots of local commercials. She and her family later relocated to Palo Alto.
Roxanne and Roddy had four more children — Thomas, Benjamin, Michael and Elizabeth — before divorcing in 1979. She then married Stanley Shanedling, a lawyer and judge in Minneapolis. In addition to her children, survivors include her grandchildren, Erica, Anna, Sarah and John, and her great-granddaughter, Adeline.
Roxanne Rosedale, a blonde assistant on the original version of the Goodson-Todman Productions game show, was replaced by Beverly Bentley in August 1955. She was on the cover of magazines around the world, including Life, Look, Paris Match, and dozens of newspaper articles and TV Guide.
Roxanne had a doll fashioned after her which was called, naturally, The Roxanne Doll. It was a hard plastic doll which stood 18 inches (46 cm) tall. It had movable legs which allowed the doll to “walk”. They were manufactured circa 1953 by the Valentine Company. The blue-eyed doll had a Beat the Clock tag on the doll’s wrist and came with a miniature red camera. Roxanne would give these dolls to the contestants’ daughters on Beat the Clock.
Roxanne made her dramatic TV debut on April 23, 1952, in the “Double Entry” episode of Casey, Crime Photographer. She also appeared in a small role in Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch (1955). On March 13, 1954, Roxanne married finance executive Tom Roddy in New York. Roxanne died on May 2, 2024, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the age of 95.
Roxanne was born Dolores Evelyn Rosedale in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 20, 1929. She was the daughter of Kenneth and Thyra Rosedale. She studied fashion design at the Minneapolis School of Art and was a member of the Minneapolis Models Guild. She moved to New York and studied at Actors’ Studio and then joined the Screen Actors Guild.
Roxanne became a popular TV star after joining CBS’ Beat the Clock from Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions in 1950. She would introduce the contestants – who were tasked with completing complicated, outrageous stunts in an allotted time – snapped photos with a Sylvania camera and posed alongside the winners’ prizes.
In 1952, Roxanne had her first onscreen acting assignments on episodes of the CBS drama The Hollywood Reporter Casey, Crime Photographer, starring Richard Carlyle, and the syndicated anthology series Broadway Television Theatre. Making her television debut in 1948, Rosedale was a pioneer of
