Gretchen Wyler, 75, actress and animal-rights advocate
LOS ANGELES -- Gretchen Wyler, an actress who left a successful Broadway musical career to dedicate her efforts to protecting animals and eventually became an outspoken critic of the Los Angeles Zoo, has died. She was 75.
Ms. Wyler died Sunday at her home in Camarillo, Calif., after a long battle with breast cancer, friend and fellow activist Catherine Doyle said.
Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, praised Ms. Wyler's commitment as an animal-rights advocate. "She was a person of remarkable vigor and vision," Pacelle said Sunday. "And it's the loss of a major figure in the modern animal-protection movement."
A singer, dancer, and actress in such Broadway hits as "Guys and Dolls," "Silk Stockings," "Damn Yankees," and "Bye Bye Birdie," Ms. Wyler found a new passion in the late 1960s, after visiting a dog pound near her home in Warwick, N.Y.
Appalled by the inhumane conditions she saw there, Ms. Wyler decided to take action: She quit eating meat, gave away her fur coats, and opened an animal shelter. She kept acting, but most of her time was spent educating the public about animal rights.
"Her idea was never to preach to the choir but to broaden the message and try to reach mainstream America," Pacelle said.
The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals made her its first female board member in 1971 (though she was later dropped in a dispute with the board). She sat on the board of directors for the Fund for Animals and was vice chairman until 1991, when she founded the animal-rights group Ark Trust. In 2002 the Ark Trust merged with the Humane Society of the United States, and she served as vice president of the organization's Hollywood office until retiring last year.
Ms. Wyler also created the Genesis Awards, which since 1986 have recognized the media and entertainment industries for incorporating animal-protection themes in their work. The films "Fast Food Nation," "Happy Feet," and "Charlotte's Web" were among the honorees at this year's event, which featured actor James Cromwell and comedian Bill Maher.
Working tirelessly on myriad animal-rights issues, Ms. Wyler aimed to shut down horse-slaughtering factories, end the use of steel-jaw leg hole traps, prohibit the use of animal testing in research and development, and improve the treatment of animals in zoos and circuses -- anything that reflected her motto: "Animals should have the right to run if they have legs, swim if they have fins, and fly if they have wings."
Her passionate views sometimes ruffled the feathers of Los Angeles Zoo officials, whom she criticized from her position on the L.A. Zoo Directors Advisory Committee. "Her heart's in the right place, but she doesn't really know the animals' biology," Manuel Mollinedo, who was zoo director from 1995 to 2002, said last year. "She tends to look at animals more from an emotional perspective."
Ms. Wyler had come a long way from Bartlesville, Okla., where she was born Gretchen Patricia Wienecke. A dancer, she made her professional debut in St. Louis in 1950 in a ballet ensemble.
When she landed a spot in the chorus of "Where's Charley?" in 1951, she met Ray Bolger, the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz," who encouraged her to change her last name. She performed in eight Broadway productions, including "Sly Fox" with George C. Scott.
She moved to Los Angeles along with a traveling production of that show in 1979 and never left, adding TV, stage, and minor film roles to her activism. 