Hope Summers Trailers
Evil Town TrailerSmokey and the Good Time Outlaws TrailerFoul Play Trailer
Hope Summers could portray a friendly neighbor or companion as she did for Frances Bavier's Aunt Bee character on many episodes of The Andy Griffith Show (1960) or a seemingly amiable Satanist in Rosemary's Baby (1968).
Born in Mattoon, Illinois, she developed an early interest in the theater. Graduating from Northwestern School of Speech in Evanston, Illinois, she subsequently taught speech and diction there. This, in turn, led to her the head position in the Speech Department at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, teaching students privately on the side as well. In the 1930s Hope began to focus on acting. She found work in community and stock theaters in Illinois and earned some notice for putting on one-woman shows such as "Backstage of Broadway." She made use of her vocal eloquence by building up her resumé on radio, performing in scores of dramatic shows, including "Authors' Playhouse," "First Night," "Ma Perkins", and "Step-Mother".
In 1950 Hope transferred her talents to the new medium of television and earned a regular role on the comedy series Hawkins Falls: A Television Novel (1950). By the age of 50 she was customarily called upon to play slightly older than she was, appearing in a number of minuscule matron roles in such films as Zero Hour! (1957), Hound-Dog Man (1959), Inherit the Wind (1960), Spencer's Mountain (1963), The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), Charley Varrick (1973) and her last, Foul Play (1978). She never had any major stand-out roles in movies; TV would be a more prolific choice of medium. Her gently stern, old-fashioned looks allowed her to be a part of many small-town settings, including Dennis the Menace (1959) and Petticoat Junction (1963), and in various western locales such as Maverick (1957) and Wagon Train (1957).
She played a rustic regular for many years on The Rifleman (1958). Usually assigned to play teachers, nurses and other helpful, nurturing types, her characters were also known to be inveterate gossips. Hope worked until close to the end of her life, passing away from heart failure in 1979.
Most Popular Hope Summers Trailers
Total trailers found: 29
10 November 1966
When Penelope gets married to banker James Elcott, she finds him too preoccupied with work to pay much attention to her, so she robs his bank in disguise.
12 June 1968
A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.
02 November 1959
Helped by socialite Janice Kendon and barkeeper Scott O'Brien, Arizona deputy sheriff Les Martin works to solve three brutal murders in and around the Grand Canyon.
26 July 1961
A woman named Emily checks into a hotel and offers the bellboy $2000 to temporarily marry her. We soon find out Emily is the caretaker of a wheelchair-bound mute named Helga, who was the childhood guardian of a pair of siblings: Miriam Webster and her half-brother, Warren, who is about to inherit the estate of their late father.
13 November 1957
In 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WW2 fighter pilot to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.
31 March 1973
The story of Ace Eli Walford, a 1920s stunt flyer who barnstorms around the country, taking his eleven-year-old son Rodger with him as he goes from town to town.
19 September 1973
Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amount of money, they discover they stole a very large amount of money belonging to the mob.
23 June 1965
A wagon train heads for Denver with a cargo of whisky for the miners. Chaos ensues as the Temperance League, the US cavalry, the miners and the local Indians all try to take control of the valuable cargo.
24 July 1972
In this classic hospital farce, Peter Sellers plays Dr. Albert T. Hopfnagel, a greedy, crooked hospital administrator who has perfected the art of bill padding, unnecessary surgery and kickbacks.
10 July 1968
Jesse W. Haywood (Don Knotts) graduates from dental school in Philadelphia in 1870 and goes west to become a frontier dentist.
03 November 1978
Two guys come to Nashville and try to make it on the country music scene. Their vision is to play at the Grand IL' Opry.
26 February 1964
Reverend Norman Vincent Peale fights to bring his message to the nation.
10 April 1974
Drama about students at a girls' school, their boyfriends, and an unexpected pregnancy.
02 October 1974
A juror on a murder trial begins to believe that the man charged with the crime is innocent — and that the real killer is her own husband.
02 June 1987
A mad scientist seeks eternal youth by developing a drug derived from human pituitary glands, aided by the local townsfolk, who help abduct visitors to their town for his experiments.
04 May 1961
Parrish McLean lives with his mother Ellen on Sala Post's tobacco plantation in the Connecticut River Valley.
21 February 1962
A psychopath calls the police before he kills, in between sessions with his father-figure analyst.
11 November 1959
A rustic drama set in the early 20th century, Hound Dog Man is the simple story of a young man, Spud Kinney constantly in hot water for disobeying his mother.
14 July 1978
A shy San Francisco librarian and a bumbling cop fall in love as they solve a crime involving albinos, dwarves, and the Catholic Church.
16 May 1963
Clay Spencer and his wife, Olivia, live in a small town deep in the mountains. When Clay isn't busy drinking with his buddies or railing against the town minister, he's building the house he's always promised Olivia.
19 December 1961
An unruly student at a private all-girls boarding school scandalously accuses the two women who run it of having a romantic relationship.
07 June 1972
A young businessman goes to a magic expert to learn hardness and skill with his cynical and greedy collaborators.
07 July 1960
Schoolteacher Bertram Cates is arrested for teaching his students Darwin's theory of evolution. The case receives national attention and one of the newspaper reporters, E.
18 November 1958
Brazen perpetual offender Barbara Graham tries to go straight but she finds herself implicated in a murder and sent to death row.
06 January 1974
A prosecutor must try his friend, a deputy district attorney, who has been charged with murdering his wife and her lover.
01 January 1975
Passing through a small town, two young hippie couples stumble upon a town where the old folks all act strange and even stranger things are happening at the local clinic.
20 September 1961
A young daughter of poor farmers is forced by her mother to ditch her young boyfriend in order to marry an old rich neighbor but the girl rebels by becoming the town's harlot.
20 January 1966
Luther Heggs, a typesetter for the town newspaper, pitches an idea for a story about a local haunted house where a famous murder/suicide occurred 20 years earlier.
14 May 1961
A woman who believes she has been chosen by God to heal people is taken in by a greedy promoter and his shrewish wife to make the rounds of the rural South.
