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Hefty American character actress Lu Leonard began her movie and TV career around 1949. During the politically incorrect 1950s, Leonard was subject to all sorts of on-screen humiliations due to her size and harridan demeanor; she even suffered the ignominy of playing the wife of Larry Fine in the 1956 Three Stooges 2-reeler Husbands Beware. After years of virtual anonymity, she was bombarded with excellent reviews and positive audience response for her portrayal of a hatchet-faced admitting nurse in the 1985 Dudley Moore vehicle Micki and Maude. Lu Leonard subsequently enjoyed a burst of TV fame as William Conrad's wise-lipped secretary Gertrude in Jake and the Fatman (1987).