She is best known for her roles on daytime serials, including Iris Cory Carrington on Another World and the spin-off series Texas from 1972 to 1981 and Alexandra Spaulding on Guiding Light from 1984 to 1992.

[2] In 1960 McKinsey was host of Make-Believe Clubhouse, a Monday - Friday afternoon children's program on WGBH-TV in Boston and WENH-TV in Durham, New Hampshire.

She also co-starred as Honey in the London production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill.

During much of her tenure on Another World, McKinsey's portrayal of Iris was part of an unconventional triangle - the character was trying to break up her father Mackenzie Cory and his new wife, Rachel Davis Frame.

She remains one of three actors on daytime television to be given a star billing on a soap opera, the others being Rosemary Prinz of All My Children and How to Survive a Marriage, and Dana Andrews of Bright Promise.

[citation needed] After McKinsey left the role of Iris in November 1981, NBC's Texas eventually lost one million viewers in the Nielsen ratings and was canceled in 1982.

Her ruthlessness was revealed when Alexandra married Roger Thorpe (Michael Zaslow), then subsequently discovered he was involved in an affair with the younger Mindy Lewis.

After she exited Guiding Light, McKinsey cited her "not very pleasant" work environment for one of the reasons she chose to leave the daytime serial.

In addition to her issues with storytelling, which she said would not have motivated her to leave if her working environment had been happier, McKinsey noted that acting had simply stopped being fun for her.

In an interview, she said she took the role to qualify for her medical insurance, but otherwise adamantly considered herself retired from soaps from that moment in 1992 when she last left the set of Guiding Light.

After some health issues, including a kidney transplant, McKinsey retired to Southern California and made few public appearances.

Logan, TV Guide's soap columnist, once called McKinsey "…the greatest actress ever to grace daytime drama.

"[citation needed] Beverlee McKinsey died on May 2, 2008, at the Olympic Medical Center in Los Angeles, from complications due to a kidney transplant, which she had undergone in 1998.