Joan Shay (Actor)

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(1917 - 03-21-2015) Age 98

She appeared in the following 109 episodes of Radio Mystery Theater
Date Episode Title Plot
09/09/1974 0145 Double Exposure A cop dies in an accident. His wife is mistakenly taken to be someone else by two people. Her friend tries to probe the facts as one of those people thinks that she is his former wife who left him and his children a decade ago.
10/28/1974 0166 Possessed by the Devil A young boy who happens to be a minister's son is admitted to a hospital with fatal wounds. Though his health improves, he has lost his soul forever.
11/28/1974 0180 The Aaron Burr Murder Case In a re-enactment of a famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. The actor portraying Hamilton is killed by when his partner's gun fires real bullets instead of blanks. The police investigate and soon find that all evidence point towards the real Aaron Burr as the perpetrator of the crime.
12/09/1974 0184 The Fatal Connection A young couple expecting a child also happen to inherit a furnished house. Among their acquired furniture is a phone that can send them back in time to relive the lives of their ancestors. They slowly realize that their ancestors were not very nice.
01/13/1975 0204 The Witness Is Death A young man witnesses an assassination by a gang and is fatally wounded in the process. Though he survives, he is now too scared to testify. The police need information but can't get anything out of him. They finally resort to an inventive method with the help of a hospital to get him to speak.
01/30/1975 0215 The Night of the Wolf A very old Indian garment stirs great violence among the patrons of a museum. An investigator delves deeper into the situation, making himself a vulnerable target to the curse.
02/13/1975 0222 A Small Question of Terror In a state run by a mysterious being called 'The Protector', a lady, her boyfriend and her mother are tortured over a joke they made. The lady must utilize her brains and talent to get them all out safely.
03/07/1975 0235 The Eye of Death A young photographer is convinced that her stepfather killed her mother and tries to prove it. She becomes frantic and begins to stalk him when he gets ready to marry again.
03/31/1975 0248 Killer of the Year A promising CEO meets the new town librarian. He knows her to be a former murder convict he had previously had a crush on. But that can't stop him from falling for her again.
04/23/1975 0261 Afraid to Live, Afraid to Die Not a supernatural, but a psychological horror story is revealed as Ellen Muir recounts her trip to Malvern Grange to take care of its aged matron.
05/08/1975 0270 Taken for Granite A deranged artist works as a caretaker of a garden filled with statues. Except that he uses live models for his art and encases them in granite.
05/30/1975 0283 Someday I'll Find You Ann Markle's husband is presumed dead in a cave-in. But just as she recovers from the trauma, she finds a recent painting by him in a flea market in Mexico. She decides to undertake a cross-country hike to get back her amnesiac husband.
06/16/1975 0292 The Smile of Deceit A woman finds herself living with a strange tribe after marrying a rich and eccentric college professor. She is forced to participate in a bizarre ritual to appease the natives when she is accused of an extra-marital indiscretion.
06/27/1975 0299 The Rape of the Maia A notorious gambler turns up dead and all evidence point towards a famous couturier. In order to get an acquittal, his lawyer must do battle with a wily bookie.
07/16/1975 0309 Goodbye, Karl Erich After taking in a shell-shocked casualty of war, a German doctor teaches the young orphan to speak again and face the horrors he experienced during World War I head on. The boy soon becomes confident and grows up to be a Nazi terrorist.
07/24/1975 0314 Appointment in Uganda After obsessively preparing himself for the afterlife, a man is declared clinically dead for a few minutes due to a heart attack. In the time between life and death, he is transported into the body of an elephant calf. He tries to integrate the lessons he learned when he is finally revived.
08/05/1975 0321 Hung Jury A mediocre accountant leading a double life is romantically entangled with a prostitute and knee-deep in gambling debt outside his normal world. When the bookies come knocking at his door, his real life is threatened. He comes across the solution to his problems when he is asked to serve jury duty for a crime he actually committed!
08/13/1975 0325 The Master Computer In a fully automated world, a couple come home from vacation to find that their existence has been wiped clean from society's records. The culprit that disrupted their lives is later revealed to be a computer glitch.
08/18/1975 0328 Help Somebody The desires of a nomadic writer seem to materialize all at the same time. His novel is a smash hit, he inherits a fortune and ultimately wins the perfect woman. But despite having all the physical trappings of success, happiness still eludes him.
09/01/1975 0336 The Smile of Death In order to get his rightful inheritance from his overbearing father, the illegitimate son of a baron is aided by the spirit of his deceased mother.
09/28/1975 0354 The Other Self A factory with an exemplary track record catches the attention of a psychologist. After several encounters with the man, she discovers that his fixation with the battle of Shiloh during the Civil War is what allows him to focus on the most tedious of tasks.
11/05/1975 0374 The Edge of the Scalpel A surgeon is faced with a moral dilemma when he is forced to perform a complicated operation on the husband of the woman he loves.
11/07/1975 0375 Killing Valley In order to exact revenge against the people that ruined her father's life, a famous writer goes back to the place of her birth to dig up dirt on the town and its people. As she goes along, she is surprised to discover things that she never knew about her parents.
11/20/1975 0382 The Lamps of the Devil After coming home from doing service during the Civil War, a group of whalers discover that petroleum has replaced whale oil. One man struggles to fight against his fate.
11/21/1975 0383 The Hanging Judgement A husband and wife exchange gunfire after a heated altercation. When the woman ends up dead from a shot in the back, the man and his servant are tried for murder.
11/28/1975 0387 The Frammis A magical piece of glass that possesses a power to affect people travels through a fictional kingdom. The diamond-like shard is only as worthless as you perceive it to be.
12/05/1975 0391 Pharaoh's Daughter After murdering a taxi cab driver, a cruel woman and her lover use a hapless drunkard as the fall guy for their crime.
12/19/1975 0399 The Corpse Wrote Shorthand After serving a 5-year sentence for fraud, a bank accountant begins his own investigation to discover the real perpetrator of the crime for which he was convicted.
01/09/1976 0412 The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg A small town news man tells the story of how an enigmatic stranger seduced the town's incorruptible officials with the false glitter of easy cash.
03/02/1976 0441 Afterward When her husband suddenly goes missing, a woman soon discovers just how much appearances can be deceiving and misleading.
03/10/1976 0445 I Thought I Saw a Shadow A scientist working on the development of an invisibility serum believes he has finally found it and uses himself as a test subject. However, things don't go as planned when instead of making him invisible, it separates him from his shadow. Once unleashed his shadow goes on a homicidal rampage that causes his estranged wife to fear for his sanity.
03/12/1976 0447 The Man Who Preyed on Widows After being swindled out of her money, the widowed Mrs. Randol refused to take action against Robert Lewis, aka Nelson Potter despite her children egging her on. Her frustrated family finds satisfaction when the identity of his next victim is revealed, and the police set up a grand scheme to entrap the wily con man.
03/26/1976 0456 Extortion The past catches up to her when the wife of a prominent politician is forced to submit to blackmail for a previous crime.
04/01/1976 0460 The White Ghost With the accidental demise of his mistress, a successful entrepreneur's world slowly falls apart as her vengeful ghost refuses to give him peace.
04/20/1976 0471 The Assassination An adaptation of Shakespeare\'s \"Julius Caesar,\" this classic tale recounts the life and subsequent death of one of history\'s greatest conquerors.
04/21/1976 0472 The Love Song of Death Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. In this tale of bigotry and hatred, two young lovers are sacrificed to end a blood feud between two noble houses.
05/20/1976 0484 The Walking Dead In the future, all androids are mindless robots with one exception-- Rex, who is the most advanced of his kind. Society is threatened when he acquires a macabre obsession-- murdering women.
06/28/1976 0495 Forty-Five Minutes to Murder Inconsistencies in the official statement given by a businessman regarding his wife's murder move a brilliant defense attorney to scrutinize it further. All evidence point towards foul play and the answers he seeks can be found in poison.
08/16/1976 0507 Your Grade Is A Molly Butler is found dead of Carbon Monoxide poisoning. The police think that it was either suicide or accidental. But Molly's best friend, Judith Kent, has other thoughts after she reads in Molly's diary that Silas Butler wrote a mystery story for his Creative Writing class about a murder using CO that was undetectable.
09/14/1976 0518 Journey to Jerusalem A man longs to be young again so he can live his life differently. A strange woman says she can make it happen.
09/23/1976 0523 Don't Play with Matches Fire Chief Delbert Cassarole is the toast of the town because fires are almost non-existent because of his prevention methods. But the citizens of his sleepy little town don't know his dark secret about how he spends Friday nights. Delbert Casserole is a man with strange hobbies: Lying, murder, arson -- and on Friday nights, he goes to town.
10/14/1976 0535 The Living Corpse Henry Girard Flower Peabody VI, a member of Philadelphia society by birth and breeding, has always felt there was an element inside him that did not fit his sober side. As a young man, he kept his crazy, fun-loving girlfriend, Megan, a secret from his other friends and his strict but ailing mother. But when Megan suggests that Henry end his mother's lingering life or else, Henry realizes he can no longer lead a double life and must kill one of them.
10/19/1976 0538 The Mission of Atropos A detective follows the clues left by a corrupt industrialist using an illegal and deadly chemical.
11/05/1976 0547 The Secret Chamber Thomas Tatum Tattersaul, a realtor, tells the story of Felicity Hargrave who, after losing her lover in war, disappeared only to reappear as a ghost. This is the story of how and why the Hargrave House, a colonial that dates back to the Revolution, is no longer haunted.
11/29/1976 0556 The Man Who Couldn't Get Arrested Problems begin when two parallel realities collide: One in which the stock broker murdered his wife and one where his wife is alive
12/23/1976 0570 Double Zero A private investigator working an adultery case stumbles on a murder. Five $20 bills with two zeroes written on them provide the clues.
01/13/1977 0583 Don't Die Without Me
The mysterious case of two suicides in the early 20th century piques the interest of a reporter and prompts him to investigate into their deaths. He soon discovers that the one thing that links the incidents together is that the women drew their last breath in the exact same room in a seedy boarding house in Manhattan.
01/28/1977 0592 My Fair Lady-Killer
A series of deaths involving loose and promiscuous women lead a police detective to believe that the crimes are perpetrated by a serial killer. After narrowing the list of suspects, he is disturbed by the fact that the evidence points to the one person who does not fit the criminal profile supplied by the experts.
03/08/1977 0613 The Sign of Four This classic tale of theft and betrayal hurtles the legendary Sherlock Holmes into the midst of a secret society.  The terrible secrets continue to plague and haunt its members long after their pact is broken.
03/29/1977 0625 The Coldest Killer Completely enamored with her husband\'s business partner, a faithless wife and her lover scheme to dispatch the two hindrances to their affair: her nosy mother-in-law and her husband himself. 
04/21/1977 0638 Come Away Death An old lawyer makes a deal with Death to forestall his passing. He takes the job of death, and death takes his place. Who got the short end of the deal?
05/16/1977 0648 Mayerling Revisited A young, engaged couple must confront the guy's domineering and wealthy father. As they deal with his father's opposition to their marriage, the woman has dreams of a similar couple over 100 years ago who confronted the same problem in the same house.
06/03/1977 0659 The Two-Dollar Murders A man tries to cover up an affair and murder by killing a cop who writes him a parking ticket. The unlikliest of clues and the unlikliest of witnesses gives him away.
06/10/1977 0663 The Night We Died It's con man versus con man in this sci-fi story of double-crossing and murder as a veteran of the Lunar Revolt tries to scam a war widow.
06/16/1977 0666 Little Lucy's Lethal Libation Womens Lib runs amok. An advertising executive suspects that women plan to take over the world when his female boss assigns him to an account with an overbearing female client who shuns publicity.
08/10/1977 0693 Case Closed An engineer holds up a bank and takes a teller hostage. His demands are unusual. As the standoff continues, he learns a lot about himself from his hostage.
08/29/1977 0701 To Be a Rose A psychotic murderer kept incarcerated in a mental asylum recounts the days of him being a sensitive poet and how he fell in love. But his beloved broke his heart and drove him over the edge.
10/21/1977 0727 Sorry to Let You Go What happens when technology takes on the job of governance? A quirky story about a man in his 50's being expelled from his job because the computer finds him too aged to be productive. When he looks for other job options, all computers give him the same answer. When he is finally driven to suicide in order to be able to claim his insurance, yet another computer steps in to prevent him. And his wife has no idea that he is unemployed
11/21/1977 0744 She An explorer and the son of his former co-worker journey to a distant island and find a mythic goddess who caused the death of the young man's predecessors. They also find an ancient queen who has waited hundreds of years to wreck revenge on the murderer of her lover.
12/02/1977 0749 Neatness Counts An investigator ends up with the unfortunate duty of solving the murder mystery about a man so universally panned that each and every person he knew in his lifetime could be a suspect.
12/19/1977 0756 Brothers of the Angle Mrs. Buttwheezer is the rich heroine of this tale of undying love. She believes her deceased husband will return from his grave to keep her company. A bunch of swindlers decide to take advantage of this using the old man's love for poetry and fishing and claim to get messages from him to win her trust.
01/24/1978 0770 The Ranee of Rajputana

A copper figurine of the Indian "Queen of Thieves" traps an deceitful, mischievous stockbroker in a dangerous but prosperous career.  A robber and then tries to get him to commit a murder. When he tries to step back, his good fortune evaporates and an investor asks for her money back. But she aids him in executing another crime that might cover all his previous misdemeanours.
03/10/1978 0796 Who Is George Williams? Deprived of his memory in an accident, a man stumbles into a cabin in Alaska. The residents take care of him and soon find him a job in the police force of the county. Nearly after a year, he is asked to solve a case about some bones found lying and he slowly comes to understand that he must have killed the person.
03/31/1978 0808 Shark Bait An incorrigible gambler lays a diabolic plan to clear his debts by taking his bookie's aid to kill his own brother and aunt to get hold of their wealth.
04/03/1978 0809 Fortune's Favorite An elderly unmarried woman smells deceit when she is receives random invitations for free holidays paid for by a rich sponsor.
04/24/1978 0821 The Grandee of Terra Loco A writer journeys to a little town in Texas to write the life story of a righteous politician after his demise. The enigmatic figure was fabled for his leadership but mysterious notions surround his life and death.
06/01/1978 0843 The Silent Woman A woman goes into a silence for 27 years after being forced into a marriage against her wishes.
06/05/1978 0845 The Undying Heart A gambler puts himself in a tight corner when he ends up losing a bookie's percentage in a game. He plans to touch a wealthy aunt.
08/30/1978 0886 The Biggest Fish in the World A delightful farce centered around a woman who tries to enlist the help of the police to save her husband who has been accidentally swallowed by a whale at an amusement park. But an animal rights enthusiast impedes this rescue effort.
11/08/1978 0915 Second Sight A psychiatrist recommends a grounded pilot to take up painting to help him loosen up. A strange series of events unfold when his paintings of death and destruction all come to pass the following day.
11/27/1978 0923 Alien Presences Witnessing the crash of an unidentified flying object, an elderly couple head to the location and find a bay amidst the wreckage. As the child grows older, he longs to return to his own planet and people.
12/06/1978 0927 The Devil's Bargain A master con man steals from his victims, then poses as a psychic and helps in recovering them for a price!
12/20/1978 0933 It Has to Be True When his gun and clothes are found in the apartment of the deceased, a traveling salesman is imprisoned for the death of a woman he has never met. He pleads innocence but the evidence against him is overwhelming.
01/01/1979 0938 Complete Recovery As a result of grievous injuries, a hit and run victim develops several unusual phobias as she slowly recovers. In turn, these strange aversions help her solve the mystery surrounding her accident.
02/12/1979 0953 The Sinister Shadow An unusual tale of how a timid woman chanced upon her doppelganger in a seedy bar, and how her double turned against her.
02/19/1979 0955 The Shock of His Life A gambling addict receives the power to predict the outcome of sporting events when he is electrocuted while fixing his television. He uses his new powers to get rich with disastrous consequences.
02/26/1979 0957 Hickory, Dickory, Doom A grandfather clock is the central piece in this gruesome and morbid tale. A young couple from Pennsylvania pick up a grandfather clock at an estate sale to give to the local minister. What they do not know is that the malfunctioning time piece does more than tell time, it is actually a gateway to the demon world.
03/12/1979 0961 All the Time in the World A professional swindler experiencing a losing streak believes he has unraveled the mystery of immortality, he later comes to realize that it is not as wonderful as he imagined.
03/21/1979 0964 Masks When a retired Hollywood producer is relieved of a precious cigarette case during a train ride, his quest to reclaim the stolen item plunges him into danger.
04/04/1979 0968 The Believers When a nosy neighbor becomes curious about the strange incidents that go on at the house next door, she sends her son over to investigate. He soon discovers a parallel universe within its walls and solves the mystery.
05/09/1979 0978 The Hole in the Sky Forced to take on a job smuggling contraband, an ace pilot must take a short-cut through a dangerous wormhole to get to his destination on schedule.
05/28/1979 0983 The Outsider After missing his train stop, a man finds himself in a cursed town stuck in 1949; and the townsfolk see him as the messiah who will set them free.
08/27/1979 1007 A Cup of Bitter Chocolate In this battle of wits, a loyal butler pits himself against a good-for-nothing son whose primary goal is to murder his mother in order to claim his inheritance. The doting mother remains unaware of her son's misdeeds and only her butler's protection stands between her and certain death.
09/19/1979 1014 You're Better Off Guilty When the body of a renowned actress is discovered by a plain and unexceptional stock broker, he finds himself at the center of the investigation. He feels strangely elated to be considered the prime suspect in the case.
10/08/1979 1019 Wilhelmina Wilson When a young Olympic swimmer suddenly disappears while visiting the library, her distraught family believes it to be a kidnapping. To solve the case, they must look to the tales of Edgar Allen Poe that the victim was obsessed with.
02/20/1980 1061 The Vampire Plant When his tormentors mysteriously start to vanish, a wimpy mama's boy turns his eyes on the assertive young woman he married. He begins to suspect that her carnivorous plant, hemo anderantus is the perpetrator of the crimes.
08/13/1980 1109 The Return of Edward Blair A man must convince the residents of a small town that he is not the criminal that escaped their justice years ago.
09/24/1980 1121 The Murder of Caesar As plots to bring down his regime abound, the powerful Julius Caesar is cautioned to beware the Ides of March by the beautiful and loyal Portia.
01/20/1981 1150 The Fountain Of Truth Behind Ponce de Leon's journey to discover the Fountain of Youth in Florida lies another treasure-hunting quest for lost, ancient gold.
02/04/1981 1155 Who Is Jessica Worth? Based on the true story of an amnesiac woman cycling between multiple personalities. Her concussed state has also given her the power of paracognition.
02/25/1981 1164 A God Named Henry A huge storm causes Henry, a miserable salary man to get marooned on a remote island inhabited by a local tribe that teaches him how to be confident. Soon, the God-in-training returns to civilization as new and improved man.
03/13/1981 1171 The Heel of Achilles In order to prove to his wife that the house is not plagued by spirits, a wealthy man agrees to spend the night there. Alone, he is visited by the phantoms of his past.
03/20/1981 1174 The Million Dollar Scam In order to scam a wealthy heiress out of a million dollars, a pair of swindlers must set their differences aside and work together.
03/25/1981 1176 The Ghost-Grey Bat After swapping homes with a couple from Austria for a year in order for the college professor to finish his book in peace, the two young New Yorkers move into the home. Before long encounter the terrifying guardian of the Austrian home and discover its gruesome secret.
05/27/1981 1203 Little Richard A young man discovers how skewed the judicial system is when he is released from prison. After serving a sentence for forgery, his desire to turn a new leaf is resolute but the corruption rampant in his city makes it hard for him to do so.
06/03/1981 1206 The Cat's Paw In order to safeguard the life of a famous scientist, a secret agent is sent to the Los Alamos atomic facility to serve as a decoy.
06/12/1981 1210 When in Rome After becoming the ambassador of a small, European country at his wife's urging, wealth man discovers that all is not well in his new city.
01/11/1982 1275 Les Miserables (1 of 5) - The Thief and the Bishop In order to feed his family, Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread and serves a 19-year prison sentence for his crime. After gaining his freedom, he falls into despair once he realizes that no one will have anything to do a convict like him. His fate changes when he encounters a Bishop who guides him on the right path.
01/26/1982 1282 To Be an Empress The powerful tale of the struggles of Catherine the Great and her ascension from minor aristocracy to the Russian throne.
02/08/1982 1287 Change of Heart Business magnate Roger Skipworth is rushed to the hospital for an open-heart surgery a few days after the end of his engagement. He recalls the parting words of his fiancée in which she likened him to a pig when he begins to exhibit swine-like tendencies after the heart valve replacement.
02/22/1982 1293 Nickels and Dimes Undercover cop Ray Vance becomes so immersed living his life as the heir apparent to Big Joe's East Side organization that he begins to dread going back to the boring life of a police officer.
03/24/1982 1306 The Old Country While en route to sort out a problem in their firm's Russian branch, a strategic planner inadvertently travels back in time. He finds himself in his parent's birth village and uncovers the mystery shrouding their past.
04/16/1982 1316 Something to Live For To escape his failing business, an immigrant show owner attempts to commit suicide but is hindered by the sudden appearance of a retired police officer. After recounting his woes, the ex-cop assures the old man that he will put a stop to the local mob's heinous crimes.
06/25/1982 1343 Don't Kill Me In order to marry her husband's wealthy compatriot, a woman allows her elderly husband to die from sickness. The man comes back to haunt her.
07/27/1982 1355 Adolph and Eva The beautiful Eva Braun recounts the last days in her life with the feared and hated Adolf Hitler.
09/07/1982 1367 Scenes from a Murder In order to remedy his monetary problems, a hard-up music teacher resorts to murder.
10/11/1982 1380 Tony's Market The evidence in a convenience store shooting is pieced together by looking into the chain of events in the lives of the killer and his victims before they ended up at the crime scene.
10/18/1982 1383 Desert Maiden In order to come up with a name for their latest fragrance, a middle-aged advertising agent seeks inspiration in the desert. He embarks on a journey of enlightenment when he bumps into a former lover in the sandy dunes.
11/11/1982 1392 The Twelfth Juror After murdering her married lover in a fit of jealous rage, a wealthy woman blackmails one of her employees into becoming her scapegoat. Her plans of getting away scot-free hit a snag when one of the jurors on the bench refuses to be bribed.

5 Responses to Shay Joan

I think that Joan Shay has a beautiful voice and I enjoyed her appearances on CBSRMT. I am looking up her name, and I find a Joan Shay who appears to be alive and healthy and someone that is much, much younger than what is listed here. (If it is the same Joan Shay listed in IMBD.)

Steven

Reply
Joan Shea was a well known radio actress, appearing on numerous radio programs including Theater 5, the Cavalcade of America and the Mysterious Traveler. She appeared on Broadway in Coco with Katherine Hepburn. She also appeared in the Burt Reynolds TV series Hawk.

Charlie

Reply
Oh, I finally get to see her!!! She was outstanding! She reminded me of Evie Juster. She could do so many voices, I had no idea which was her real one!!! She was a huge part of my childhood. I listened and still do listen to The Ghost Gray Bat all the time. Her work was incredible. When I used to have down days as a kid, I would go into my bedroom alone, listen to her on my tape recorder that I bought through Jewel T, listen to her on on tapes I bought at Thrifty and Pic & Save (they always broke), and I would feel better. Those plays got me through a crummy adolescence.

Robert

Reply
She was wonderful in The Million Dollar Scam and The Ghost Gray Bat!

Robert

Reply
I love her too. She had so many voices I am not sure which one was her own. She was fantastic in so many episodes. I loved The Ghost Gray Bat and The Million Dollar Scam.

Rob

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