Betty McGuire, Growing Pains Grandmother, Dies at 100
The American actress, best known as Maggie Seaver's mother on the sitcom Growing Pains, died of natural causes in California. Her death became known only ten days later.
American actress Betty McGuire, best remembered as Kate Malone on the sitcom Growing Pains, died on October 8, 2026. She was 100.
News of her death reached the public only on Sunday, October 18, when Variety reported it. Keith Gerchak, who represented her interests, confirmed it. McGuire died of natural causes at the Wasserman residence for retirees, part of the Motion Picture & Television Fund campus in Woodland Hills, California. She left no surviving family members.
Who did Betty McGuire play on Growing Pains?
On the popular ABC comedy she played Kate Malone, mother of Maggie Malone Seaver, who was played by Joanna Kerns. Kate was also the grandmother of the four Seaver children: Mike (Kirk Cameron), Carol (Tracey Gold), Ben (Jeremy Miller) and Chrissy (Ashley Johnson).
The character appeared only occasionally. According to TVLine, McGuire turned up in 12 episodes over the seven seasons the show ran, from 1985 to 1992. According to Telegraf, she appeared as a guest star in the first and second seasons, returned in the fourth and stayed through the end of the seventh.
What else did she do on television and in film?
She guest-starred on many series: Falcon Crest, Hill Street Blues, ER, CSI: Miami, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Charlie’s Angels, Hart to Hart, Little House on the Prairie, Murphy Brown, Murder One and 7th Heaven. She had multiple episodes on Falcon Crest and Hill Street Blues. On the others she appeared in one episode each, according to TVLine.
On the big screen she worked in Coma, directed by Michael Crichton, and in Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke.
Broadway, Las Vegas and charity work
Her career was not limited to the screen. On Broadway she performed in Plain and Fancy, Happy Hunting and Oh, Captain!, and she worked alongside Ethel Merman, Barbara Cook, Bea Arthur and Tony Randall. In Las Vegas she headlined the cast of the musical Mame at Caesars Palace. She also appeared in touring productions of Gypsy, Auntie Mame, Oliver!, How to Succeed in Business… and The Ziegfeld Follies of 1956.
In later years she volunteered with the Coalition for Economic Survival in Los Angeles. She staffed the reception desk and helped in the legal clinic for low-income tenants facing eviction. In her own community, the Motion Picture & Television Fund complex, she hosted the show GabFest on its Channel 22.
