Dana Wynter | Sci-fi actress, 79

Dana Wynter, 79, an actress best known for her role in the 1956 science-fiction classic

Invasion of the Body Snatchers,

died Thursday of congestive heart failure at an Ojai Valley care center in Southern California.

She portrayed Becky Driscoll, the love interest of Kevin McCarthy's Dr. Miles Bennell in Body Snatchers, the tale of a small town whose residents were being replaced by emotionless duplicates grown in pods.

Ms. Wynter was born Dagmar Winter on June 8, 1931, in Germany and grew up in England. As a youth, she moved to what was then southern Rhodesia with her father, a surgeon, and stepmother. She was a premed student there for more than a year before returning to England and turning to acting.

Some of her favorite roles were in television programs such as Robert Montgomery Presents and Playhouse 90. She starred with Robert Lansing in the series The Man Who Never Was, which debuted in 1966, and appeared on such television series as Wagon Train, Cannon, and The Rockford Files. Other film roles included Sink the Bismarck! in 1960.

She was "the most wonderful woman and an incredibly talented writer," said her son, Mark Bautzer. - Los Angeles Times