Editing Dina Merrill (section)

==Acting career==
On advice from her half-sister's (then) husband, she adopted the stage name Dina Merrill, borrowing from [[Charles E. Merrill]], a famous stockbroker like her father.<ref name=PeopleStage>{{cite news |url=https://people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20076454,00.html |title=An Actress Turns to Finance: History Proves That Both Dina Merrill and Her Daddy Knew Best |last=Rowes |first=Barbara |work=[[People (magazine)|People]] |date=1980-05-12 |access-date=2016-07-14}}</ref> Merrill made her debut on the stage in the play ''The Mermaid Singing'' in 1945.<ref name=Post>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/dina-merrill-actress-and-philanthropist-of-aristocratic-poise-dies-at-93/2017/05/22/|title=Dina Merrill, actress and philanthropist of aristocratic poise, dies at 93|last=Bernstein|first=Adam|date=22 May 2017|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=23 March 2019|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324030513/https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/dina-merrill-actress-and-philanthropist-of-aristocratic-poise-dies-at-93/2017/05/22/|archive-date=24 March 2019}}</ref>

During the late 1950s and 1960s, Merrill was believed to have been marketed as a replacement for [[Grace Kelly]],<ref name="HamiltonStadiem2008" /> and in 1959, she was proclaimed "Hollywood's new Grace Kelly".<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/03/nyregion/dina-merrill-a-star-on-her-toes.html| title=Dina Merrill: A Star on Her Toes| newspaper=[[The New York Times]]| date=April 3, 1983| access-date=April 9, 2014| url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Merrill's film credits included ''[[Desk Set]]'' (1957), ''[[A Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed]]'' (1958), ''[[Don't Give Up the Ship (film)|Don't Give Up the Ship]]'' (1959), ''[[Operation Petticoat]]'' (1959, with [[Cary Grant]], who had been married to her cousin, [[F. W. Woolworth Company|Woolworth]] heiress [[Barbara Hutton]]), ''[[The Sundowners (1960 film)|The Sundowners]]'' (1960), ''[[Butterfield 8]]'' (1960), ''[[The Young Savages]]'' (1961), ''[[The Courtship of Eddie's Father (film)|The Courtship of Eddie's Father]]'' (1963), ''[[I'll Take Sweden]]'' (1965), ''[[The Greatest (1977 film)|The Greatest]]'' (1977), ''[[A Wedding (1978 film)|A Wedding]]'' (1978), ''[[Just Tell Me What You Want]]'' (1980), ''[[Anna to the Infinite Power]]'' (1983), ''[[Twisted (1986 film)|Twisted]]'' (1986), ''[[Caddyshack II]]'' (1988), ''[[Fear (1990 film)|Fear]]'' (1990), ''[[True Colors (1991 film)|True Colors]]'' (1991), ''[[The Player (1992 film)|The Player]]'' (1992), ''[[Suture (film)|Suture]]'' (1993), and ''[[Shade (film)|Shade]]'' (2003). She also appeared in made-for-TV movies, such as ''[[Seven in Darkness]]'' (1969), ''[[The Lonely Profession]]'' (1969), ''[[Family Flight]]'' (1972), and ''[[The Tenth Month]]'' (1979).

[[File:Dina Merrill.jpg|thumb|left|Dina Merrill in the film [[The Sundowners (1960 film)|The Sundowners]], 1960]]
Merrill appeared in numerous television series in the 1960s, such as playing the villain Calamity Jan in two 1968 episodes of ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' with then-husband [[Cliff Robertson]]. She also made guest appearances on two ''[[Bonanza]]'' episodes as Susannah Clauson, ''[[The Alfred Hitchcock Hour]]'' episode "Bonfire" (1962), ''[[The Investigators (1961 TV series)|The Investigators]]'', ''[[The Bold Ones]]'', ''[[Wagon Train]]'' (1964), ''[[Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)|Mission: Impossible]]'', ''[[The Love Boat]]''; ''[[Quincy, M.E.]]''; ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]''; ''[[Roseanne]]'', and ''[[The Nanny]]'', as Maxwell Sheffield's disapproving and distant British mother. In 1971, Merrill appeared as Laura Duff in ''The Men from Shiloh'' (rebranded name for the TV Western ''[[The Virginian (TV series)|The Virginian]]'') in the episode titled "The Angus Killer".

Her stage credits include the 1983 Broadway revival of the [[Rodgers and Hart]] musical ''[[On Your Toes]]'', starring Russian prima ballerina [[Natalia Makarova]]. In 1991, she appeared in the rotating cast of the off-Broadway staged reading of ''[[Wit & Wisdom]]''.<ref>[https://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/shows/wit-and-wisdom_20415 ''Wit & Wisdom''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614033442/http://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/shows/wit-and-wisdom_20415/ |date=June 14, 2012 }}, theatermania.com; accessed December 27, 2013.</ref>
[[File:Dina Merrill & Bobby Short.jpg|thumb|Merrill, [[Bobby Short]] and Dick Sheridan in New York City (1970)]]

In 1991, Merrill and her third husband Ted Hartley merged their company Pavilion Communications with RKO to form [[RKO Pictures]], which owns the intellectual property of the RKO Radio Pictures movie studio.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Merrill was a recurring guest on several network television game and panel shows, including ''[[Match Game]]'', ''[[To Tell the Truth]]'', ''[[What's My Line]]'', and ''[[Hollywood Squares]]''.