Patricia Breslin
American actress (1931–2011)

Patricia Rose Breslin (March 17, 1926 - Oct 12, 2011) was an American actress and philanthropist. She had a prominent career in television, which included recurring roles as Amanda Miller on The People's Choice (1955–58), and as Laura Harrington Brooks on Peyton Place (1964–65). She also appeared in Go, Man, Go! (1954), and the William Castle horror films Homicidal (1961) and I Saw What You Did (1965).
In 1969, Breslin married NFL mogul Art Modell, and became a well-known philanthropist while living in both Cleveland, Ohio, and Baltimore, Maryland, donating millions of dollars to various educational, health, and art organizations, including the SEED Foundation of Maryland and the Baltimore Museum of Art. She also helped open the Hospice of the Western Reserve at the Cleveland Clinic.
Early life
Patricia Rose Breslin was born in New York City on St. Patrick's Day 1926, of Irish descent, one of three children born to Edward (a judge) and Marjorie Breslin. Her father was a Catholic of Irish descent and her mother was of Scottish descent. Breslin was raised in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Southeast Bronx.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Patricia Breslin” is american actress (1931–2011). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Patricia, Breslin and American, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “american actress (1931–2011)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q439022. VIAF identifies the subject as 315533361. The Library of Congress control number is n86139862. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 2011, 1955 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “Patricia Breslin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.