JOYCE JILLSON, 58 Astrologer started out as actress; column was in 200 newspapers

Jillson would neither confirm nor deny that she was Nancy Reagan's astrologer.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
NEW YORK -- Joyce Jillson, the bubbly "Peyton Place" actress-turned-astrologer whose musings were published daily in more than 200 newspapers, including The Vindicator, died in California on Friday from kidney failure. She was 58 and had been suffering from diabetes.
Although Jillson had been star-gazing professionally since the early 1970s, she gained her greatest notoriety in 1988, when former White House chief of staff Donald Regan disclosed that first lady Nancy Reagan had consulted an astrologer about the president's schedule.
Jillson was fingered. And though she never confirmed or denied the reports -- the White House denied them -- her ex-husband, Joe Gallagher, repeated her words Tuesday: "Joyce always said, 'Look at the White House logs. I was there.' I'll let her answer stand."
Jillson's real affection was for everyday followers. "Her contribution was mainstreaming astrology," Gallagher said. "She bridged the gap between astrology and self-help and astrology and the entertainment community."
Fascination with astrology
Jillson was born in Cranston, R.I., in 1946, but, ironically, her birth date is a matter of dispute. Records point to both Sept. 26 and Dec. 26, making her either a Libra or a Capricorn.
Either way, there seems to be little doubt that Jillson became fascinated with the stars as a child. But as she grew into adulthood, she put it on hold, focusing on acting.
Though she appeared on Broadway in "The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd," Jillson was perhaps most famous for her role in the 1960s TV show "Peyton Place."
But Jillson, a self-taught astrologer, never lost her love of the stars. And in 1973, she began doing daily forecasts for a local TV station in Los Angeles. She also began writing her first newspaper column for the New York Daily News.
As part of her on-air broadcasts, Gallagher said, she began predicting the outcome of LA Dodgers games. She became a consultant to Fox studios on "lucky" opening dates for films. Her most famous bet: the opening date for "Star Wars" in 1977.
In her final column, which will appear Nov. 2, Jillson's prediction for Capricorn reads: "Nothing happens by chance. Everything is cyclical -- it's just that the cycles are so long that sometimes events appear to us short-lived mortals as bizarre flukes."