Colleen Dewhurst (3 June 1924 - 22 August 1991) was a Canadian actress best known for playing Marilla Cuthbert in the various Anne of Green Gables productions from Sullivan Entertainment. Her breakthrough stage role, which made her a major success, came in 1974 after 27 years of acting, when she appeared in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten .

Dewhurst also had a recurring role on the CBS TV series Murphy Brown, for which she won two Emmys. Over the course of her 45 year career, she won a total of four Emmys, two Tony Awards, two Obie s and two Gemini Awards.

Dewhurst was born in Montreal, Quebec, but in the last years of her life she lived on a farm in South Salem, New York with a summer home on Prince Edward Island. She died of cervical cancer at age sixty-seven.

Dewhurst was married to James Vickery and to George C. Scott, and is the mother of actor Campbell Scott .