Several early television shows began their life as radio programs. Take Gunsmoke, for example. Yet, few of them managed to keep the same cast intact. Take Gunsmoke again, for example, which featured William Conrad as the voice of Marshal Matt Dillon on the CBS radio drama.

Our Miss Brooks was the rare case of a hit radio show that brought its cast to television — and film. (Well, almost entirely. The role of biology teacher and love interest Philip Boynton was played by two different actors.) Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, and a young Richard Crenna (yes, Rambo's handler played a high school kid in Our Miss Brooks) all made the jump, as did Gloria McMillan.

McMillan played Harriet Conklin, daughter of high school principal Osgood Conklin (Gordon). The sweet, kind teen was the polar opposite of her blowhard pop, and was the sweetheart of Walter Denton (Crenna). It was a role she played from 1948 to 1957, including in the 1956 motion picture Our Miss Brooks.

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It was a tight cast. When McMillan married in 1954, Gale Gordon, her fictional screen father, gave the bride away. Richard Crenna was an usher. Eve Arden's daughter served as a bridesmaid. 

McMillan stepped back from camera work and taught instead, opening the Star Way Academy of Drama in 1969. 

The Oregon native would return to television work in 1978 with the TV miniseries Centennial, a Western that reunited her with Crenna. (The cast also included Andy Griffith, Dennis Weaver, and Sally Kellerman.)

Her final screen appearance would be Perfect Strangers, playing a woman organize a show at a youth center in "Hocus Pocus."

McMillan died in her Southern California home on January 19, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She was 88.