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Elaine Lefkowitz
Dinah played greedy, sex-hungry Elaine Lefkowitz for one year on the classic series, alongside future Empty Nest cast member Richard Mulligan.
When Danny Dallas breaks into the home of gangster Charles Lefkowitz with intentions to settle their affairs, he ends up in the room of Lefkowitz's daughter Elaine. Thinking he is a burglar she grabs her gun in defense. Her sex drive is evident from the get-go when she hopefully asks Danny if he is a rapist. Elaine agrees to get Danny off the hook with her father if he'll sleep with her. Her plan works, but Danny still owes Lefkowitz a favor. The favor: marry Elaine or else. The snotty Elaine apparently makes life a living hell for those around her, including Danny who reluctantly agrees to marry her. At the wedding, Lefkowitz announces that now that she's married, he is completely cutting Elaine off because she is a horrible person and he wants nothing more to do with her. The couple then moves in with Danny's mother Mary and stepfather Burt (Mulligan). Danny continues to hate Elaine, and she to treat him awful, until she finally breaks down and tells him why she acts the way she does. She had a sister who was good and kind and beautiful that died in a car wreck, and in his grief Lefkowitz said to Elaine, "Why wasn't it you?" So her mother was dead, her sister was dead, and her father, who she loved more than anyone in the world, wished she was dead. So she got angry, cold, and mean, and decided never to love anyone else again. But she realizes that she does love Danny and hopes it isn't too late for him to love her back. From then on the couple actually do have a great relationship and Elaine becomes a likable person.
However, before we can really enjoy the new side to her, Elaine is kidnapped and held for ransom. Just before Danny and Burt make the drop-off, Elaine tries to escape from her kidnappers and is shot. She manages to make it back to the house and collapses. After an emotional moment, Elaine dies in Danny's arms.
