14 DAY TRIAL // Christine White, veteran television actress best known for her role as Julia Wilson on a classic “The Twilight Zone” episode called “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” has died.
The New York Times reports that the actress passed away in early April, at a nursing home in Washington. For some reason, it’s just now that word of her death gets out.
She was 86 years old.
Though White’s career also included roles in other successful TV projects, such as “Bonanza,” “The Rifleman,” “The Untouchables” and “Father Knows Best,” it was her part in “Twilight Zone” that earned her raving reviews from critics and fans.
The episode also starred William Shatner and Nick Cravat.
“The episode, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” based on a short story by Richard Matheson, portrays a man’s descent from anxiety into startling but possibly lifesaving violence as he takes action to stop a ‘gremlin’ that he — and only he — can see on the plane’s left wing tampering with an engine in the middle of a stormy flight,” the NY Times writes.
“The show became a classic — remade in a movie, honored in song and spoofed on Saturday Night Live, ‘3rd Rock From the Sun’ and ‘The Simpsons’,” adds the same media outlet.