Television
McVeagh's career in television began in 1946 as a primary cast member in the first American network Soap Opera, Faraway Hill. Other notable early television series on which she guest starred included Dragnet and I Love Lucy (as Lucy's hairdresser, Roberta, in the classic "Black Wig" episode). She was featured in three episodes of Perry Mason and two episodes of The Twilight Zone, and was a regular guest on The Johnny Carson Show. Alfred Hitchcock notably hired actors he liked regularly. McVeagh was featured in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ("Last Seen Wearing Blue Jeans" in 1963). She co-starred on the Hitchcock-directed episode, "Incident at a Corner", of the television series Startime (pictured). Roles in the 1960s also included Frances Moseby, a series regular, on The Clear Horizon, a recurring character, Miss Hammond, on Petticoat Junction, as well as roles on Bonanza, Ironside and My Three Sons. Continuing in the 1970s, she appeared in the 1972 television movie "The Daughters of Joshua Cabe".
McVeagh was a regular on The Red Skelton Show for its last season. She also regularly performed in guest spots in Room 222 and McMillan & Wife. A favorite of Lucille Ball going back to I Love Lucy, she appeared with her on Here's Lucy. She guest starred in Love, American Style, and was featured in Little House on the Prairie, The Streets of San Francisco, The Virginian, The Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angels, The Jeffersons, Lou Grant, The Incredible Hulk, Knots Landing, Hill Street Blues, Hunter, and Airwolf. She rounded out the 1970s on a high note as socialite Helen Carrington in the 1979 critically acclaimed television movie Murder by Natural Causes with Hal Holbrook.
In the 1980s, her last decade in entertainment, McVeagh co-starred in an episode of Michael Landon's Highway to Heaven and was featured in two episodes of Simon & Simon. McVeagh guest starred in a 1985 episode of Cagney and Lacey as Dorothy Gantney, the grief-stricken mother of a murder victim in "The Psychic". McVeagh's last television credit was in 1988 on an episode of the Pat Morita series Ohara as Mabel Moore. Her career in television spanned 42 years.
