Virginia "Patsy" Garrett, a well-known character actress best known as the "chow-chow-chow" lady on the Purina Cat Chow commercials, her recurring roles on TV's "Nanny and the Professor" and "Room 222" and in the "Benji" movie series, died Jan. 8 after a brief illness in Indio, Calif. She was 93.
Garrett played nosy neighbor Florence Fowler on "Nanny and the Professor" (1970-71), school secretary Miss Hogarth on "Room 222" (1972-73) and Mary Gruber in the "Benji" series of family films beginning in 1974. Her numerous TV appearances from the 1960s through the '80s included "Family," "Kojak," "Medical Center," "The Waltons," "Medical Center" and her final TV role as a bigoted mother on Redd Foxx's "Sanford" in 1981.
U.S. TV audiences of the 1960s and 1970s will remember Garrett for her
role in a series of commercial messages as the Purina Cat Chow Lady.