Joan Taylor was born Rose Marie Emma, August 18, 1929, Geneva, Illinois; Joan Taylor's mother, Amelia Berky, was a vaudeville singing-dancing star in the 1920s; her father was a prop man in Hollywood during that same period, but after Joan's birth the family moved to Lake Forest, Illinois, where her father managed a movie theater; she developed a love of movies from watching so many at her father's theater, and she graduated from the Chicago National Association of Dancing Masters.
Joan Taylor came to Hollywood in 1946 and appeared for four years in various plays at the Pasadena Playhouse, where she was spotted by Victor Jory playing the role of Regina in "Another Part of the Forest." Joan then joined Paramount as a member of that studio's "Golden Circle" of promising future stars, and was soon cast as an Indian girl in "Fighting Man of the Plains" with Randolph Scott and "The Savage" with Charlton Heston. She then co-starred with Robert Stack in "War Paint" and with Ann Blyth and Howard Keel in "Rose Marie", after which she played in "Fort yuma", and in all these pictures she portrayed and Indian girl. She went on to do other movies and TV shows. One of her most recognized movies was 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957). She joined "The Rifleman" cast in 1960. After her two-year stint on "The Rifleman, " in 1962 she left the show to raise her children and moved to Hawaii with her husband, producer Leonard Freeman who created and produced "Hawaii five-0." After his death, she later married prolific TV director
Walter Grauman.
She later starred in 1998 movie as a Tourist in the movie "Split". Joan had wrote and directed a short 1990 drama called Redlands. In 1997 she helped write a 1997 movie called "Fools Rush In. In 2002 she helped write & teleplay for a TV movie called "Heart of a Stranger". Rumor has it that Joan is living in Santa Monica, California.
Millie [Joan Taylor] was obviously the woman that fanned Lucas' flames. Millie was definitely a welcome addition to the all-male cast of the series, a beautiful woman in her own right who fit in well with our heroes, Lucas, Mark and Micah. [this paragraph taken from ~ Chuck Connors ~ "The Man Behind the Rifle!" ~ David Fury]
Intro to Miss Millie
Chuck Connors did several introductions to episodes of The Rifleman for Nu Ventures Video. Unfortunately, Chuck Connors who died November 10th at the age of 71, just missed the release of 30 episodes of The Rifleman in a 10 volume video series from Nu Ventures.