Jessica Walter

Jessica Walter (born January 31, 1941) is an American actress. She is known for appearing in the films Play Misty for Me (1971), Grand Prix and The Group (both 1966), her role as Lucille Bluth on the sitcom Arrested Development, and providing the voice of Malory Archer on the FX animated series Archer. Walter studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City.

For the Liechtenstein skier, see Jessica Walter (skier).

Jessica Walter
Walter at the 2019 WonderCon
Born	(1941-01-31) January 31, 1941 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1960–present
Spouse(s)	Ross Bowman ​ ( m. 1966; div. 1978) Ron Leibman ​ ( m. 1983; died 2019)
Children	1
Parent(s)	Esther Grossier David Walter
Relatives	Richard Walter (brother)
Awards	Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie
Signature

Walter was a series regular for the first half of season one of 90210, provided the voice of Fran Sinclair on the series Dinosaurs, and starred as the title character of the series Amy Prentiss, for which she won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie.[1]

Early life

Walter was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Esther (née Groisser) and David Walter, a musician who was a member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the NYC Ballet Orchestra.[2][3] Walter attended New York City's High School of Performing Arts.[4] Her family is Jewish.[5] Her mother was an immigrant from the USSR.[6] Her brother is screenwriter Richard Walter.

Career

Walter began her acting career on the stage. She won the Clarence Derwent Award in 1963 for Outstanding Debut Broadway Performance in Photo Finish by Peter Ustinov. She soon moved to television, and she played the character Julie Murano on the television series, Love of Life. While appearing on Love of Life from 1962 to 1965, she also acted on many other popular television series, including Naked City, East Side/West Side, Ben Casey, Route 66, The Doctors and the Nurses, The Rogues and The Defenders. Among those series is Walter's notable role as Lorna Richmond on "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour which aired on April 14, 1964, and a supporting role as William Shatner's wife on the short-lived drama For the People (1965).[7]

Walter appeared in the first episode of Flipper, shown in September 1964. Also in 1964, she guest-starred in the episode "How Much for a Prince?" of CBS's short-lived drama The Reporter. In 1966, she appeared in an episode of The Fugitive entitled "The White Knight".

Her earliest notable film role was in the movie Play Misty for Me (1971), in which she played a young woman with behavior consistent with borderline personality disorder who becomes infatuated with and ultimately stalks a disc jockey. For her performance, Walter received a Golden Globe Award nomination in the Best Motion Picture Actress – Drama category[8] and critical praise, with Roger Ebert describing Walter as demonstrating "unnerving effectiveness" in the role.[9] Walter's other film credits from that era include Lilith (1964), Grand Prix (1966), The Group (1966), Bye Bye Braverman (1968) and Number One (1969).

In 1974, Walter co-starred in an episode of Columbo, "Mind Over Mayhem". She starred on the short-lived series Amy Prentiss, a spinoff of Ironside and had a recurring role on Trapper John, M.D. as Melanie McIntyre, Trapper John's former wife. In 1983, she had a role on the short-lived NBC primetime soap opera Bare Essence as Ava Marshall. Since then, she has worked most frequently in television and theater, though she did appear in some films including The Flamingo Kid (1984) and the film PCU (1994). In the 1990s, she voiced Fran Sinclair on the ABC comedy Dinosaurs, and appeared on Just Shoot Me! as Eve Gallo, the mother of Maya and the ex-wife of magazine publisher Jack Gallo.

From 2003 to 2006, she appeared in a regular role as the scheming alcoholic socialite matriarch Lucille Bluth on Fox's critically acclaimed comedy series Arrested Development. In 2005, she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the role. Despite her convincing portrayal of Lucille, she states: "I'm nothing like Lucille. Nothing. My daughter will tell you. I'm really a very nice, boring person."[10] Despite acclaim from critics, Arrested Development received low ratings and viewership on Fox, which cancelled the series in 2006. It was revived by Netflix for season four in 2013, where it gained huge popularity. Walter reprised her role for season five, premiering in 2018.[11]

Walter played Tabitha Wilson on the first season of 90210, until the character was written off halfway through the season. She also guest-starred on the sitcom Rules of Engagement in the episode titled "Kids". She guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order: SVU in 2009, and appeared again later on as legal-aid lawyer Petra Gilmartin.[12]

Walter starred as Evangeline Harcourt in the Broadway revival of Anything Goes, which began previews in March 2011 and officially opened on April 7, 2011.[13]

She currently voices spymistress Malory Archer on the FX animated series Archer. She was drawn to the role after learning that the script for the pilot explicitly drew comparisons between Malory and Lucille Bluth.

Walter was at the center of a controversy which erupted in May 2018 over harassment she had received from Arrested Development co-star Jeffrey Tambor. During a cast interview with the New York Times, Walter was asked about an on-set incident which Tambor had alluded to several months before.[14] Walter teared up and stated that "in almost 60 years of working, I’ve never had anybody yell at me like that on a set and it's hard to deal with, but I’m over it now...He never crossed the line on our show, with any, you know, sexual whatever. Verbally, yes, he harassed me, but he did apologize. I have to let it go."[14] In the following exchange, Walter's co-stars Jason Bateman, Tony Hale and David Cross were criticized in multiple outlets for appearing to excuse Tambor's behavior without acknowledging Walter's experience.[15][16] Within days all three men had issued apologies to Walter.[17]

Personal life

Walter was married to Ross Bowman, a former Broadway stage manager and television director,[18] from 1966 to 1978.[19] With him, she has a daughter, Brooke Bowman, who was born in 1972 and is currently an executive for 21st Century Fox Television.[20]

She later married actor Ron Leibman in 1983, they remained married until his death in 2019.[21] They appeared together in Neil Simon's play Rumors, and portrayed husband and wife in the film Dummy (2003) and on Law & Order (in the episode "House Counsel"). He joined the cast of Archer, voicing her character's new husband. She describes herself as not religious but "very Jewish in my heart".[22]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Roles	Notes
1964	Lilith	Laura
1966	Grand Prix	Pat Stoddard	Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female
1966	The Group	Libby
1968	Bye Bye Braverman	Inez Braverman
1969	Number One	Julie Catlan
1971	Play Misty for Me	Evelyn Draper	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1976	Victory at Entebbe	Nomi Haroun
1979	Goldengirl	Melody
1979	The Concorde ... Airport '79	Helen Patroni	Uncredited deleted scene
1981	Going Ape!	Fiona Sabatini
1982	Spring Fever	Celia Berryman
1984	Terror in the Aisles	Evelyn Draper	Archival footage
1984	The Flamingo Kid	Phyllis Brody
1988	Tapeheads	Kay Mart
1993	Ghost in the Machine	Elaine Spencer
1994	PCU	President Garcia-Thompson
1995	Temptress	Dr. Phyllis Evergreen
1998	Slums of Beverly Hills	Doris Zimmerman
2001	My Best Friend's Wife	Mrs. Epstein
2003	Dummy	Fern Schoichet
2006	Unaccompanied Minors	Cindi
2012	Bending the Rules	Lena Gold
2017	Undercover Grandpa	Maddy Harcourt

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1964	Flipper	Elena	Episode: "300 Feet Below"
1968	Name of the Game	Linda Ramsey	Episode: "Ordeal"
1969	The Immortal	Janet Braddock	Pilot for TV series
1970	Mannix	Kathy Graves	Episode: "Who is Sylvia?"
1970	Mission: Impossible	Valerie	Episode: "Orpheus"
1970–71	The Immortal	Janet Braddock
1971	Name of the Game	Rita Mason / Allie Chambers	Episode: "The Showdown"
1971	Alias Smith and Jones	Louise Carson	Episode: "Everything Else You Can Steal"
1972	Cannon	Jane Butler	Episode: "That was No Lady"
1972	Women in Chains	Dee Dee	Television movie
1972	Home for the Holidays	Frederica "Freddie" Morgan	Television movie
1972	Mannix	Althea Blake	Episode: "Moving Target"
1973	Banacek	Erica Osburn	Episode: "Two Million Clams for Cap'N Jack"
1974	Barnaby Jones	Brooke Leighton	Episode: "Venus as in Flytrap"
1974	The Magician	Marian Tripp	Episode: "The Illusion Of The Evil Spikes"
1974	Columbo	Dr. Margaret Nicholson	Episode: "Mind Over Mayhem"
1974	Hawaii Five-O	Carla Crystal	Episode: "The Two Faced Corpse"
1974	Ironside	Amy Prentiss	Episode: "Amy Prentiss AKA The Chief" A two-hour episode shown in two parts in syndication. Pilot for the same-named series.
1974	Hurricane	Louise Damon	Television movie
1974–75	Amy Prentiss	Amy Prentiss	3 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1975	McCloud	Mrs. Jessica Wright	Episode: "Park Avenue Pirates"
1976	The Streets of San Francisco	Maggie Jarris	Episode: "Till Death Do Us Part"
1977	The New Adventures of Wonder Woman	Gloria	Episode: "The Return of Wonder Woman"
1977	McMillan	Donna Drake Linguist	Episode: "All Bets Off"
1978	Wheels	Ursula	Episode #1.1
1978	Dr. Strange	Morgan le Fay	Television movie
1978	Wild and Wooly	Megan	Television movie
1978	Quincy M.E.	Jessica Ross	Episode: "Images"
1979	Vampire	Nicole DeCamp	Television movie
1979	She's Dressed to Kill	Irene Barton	Television movie
1982	Joanie Loves Chachi	Vanessa Sterling	Episode: "Everybody Loves Aunt Vanessa"
1984–85	Three's a Crowd	Claudia Bradford	8 episodes
1985	Murder, She Wrote	Joyce Holleran	Episode: "Murder In The Afternoon"
1985	The Execution	Gertrude Simon	Television movie
1986	Magnum, P.I.	Joan Fulton	Episode: "Novel Connection"
1986	Murder, She Wrote	Joan Fulton	Episode: "Magnum On Ice"
1986	Wildfire	Lady Diabolyn (voice)	13 episodes
1991	Murder, She Wrote	Jane Dawson	Episode: "Unauthorized Obituary"
1991–94	Dinosaurs	Fran Sinclair Allosaurus (voice)	65 episodes
1994	Murder, She Wrote	Gwen Noble	Episode: "The Murder Channel"
1994	Babylon 5	Senator Elise Voudreau	Episode: "A Spider in the Web"
1995	Law & Order	Anna Kopell	Episode: "House Counsel"
1996	The Magic School Bus	Ashley Walker-Club-Dupree	Episode: "Rocks and Rolls"
1998	Just Shoot Me!	Eve Gallo	Episode: "Eve of Destruction"
2003–06, 2013, 2018–19	Arrested Development	Lucille Bluth	82 episodes Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2003) TV Land Award for Future Classic (2004) Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (2005) Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2005, 2006)
2006–07	The Life and Times of Juniper Lee	Demoness (voice)	2 episodes
2007	Rules of Engagement	Constance	Episode: "Kids"
2007	The Land Before Time	Old One (voice)	Episode: "The Brave Longneck Scheme"
2007–10	Saving Grace	Betty Hanadarko	5 episodes
2008	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Eleanor Reynolds	Episode: "Please Note We Are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger"
2008–09	90210	Tabitha Wilson	13 episodes
2009	Make It or Break It	Grandma Tanner	Episode: "Battle of the Flexes"
2009	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Attorney Petra Gilmartin	Episode: "Solitary"
2009–present	Archer	Malory Archer (voice)	110 episodes
2010	Gravity	Henrietta	5 episodes
2010	Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated	Mrs. Wyatt (voice)	Episode: "Howl Of The Fright Hound"
2011	The Big Bang Theory	Mrs. Latham	Episode: "The Benefactor Factor"[23]
2011–12	Retired at 35	Elaine Robbins	Main cast, 20 episodes
2013	Turbo: F.A.S.T.	Tabitha (voice)	1 episode
2014	Jennifer Falls	Maggie	Main cast, 10 episodes
2015–18	Star vs. the Forces of Evil	Miss Heinous / Meteora Butterfly (voice)	9 episodes
2015, 2017	NCIS	Judith McKnight	Episodes: "16 Years"; "Nonstop"
2016	The Odd Couple	Meredith	Episode: "Felix Navidad"
2017	Justice League Action	Athena (voice)	Episode: "The Trouble with Truth"
2017	Difficult People	Mrs. Chuck	Episode: "Criminal Minds"
2019	At Home with Amy Sedaris	Alice Brittlecrunch	2 episodes
2019–20	Good Girls	Judith	2 episodes
2020	Harley Quinn	Wendy Brown, Granny Goodness (voice)	Episode: "Inner (Para) Demons"

Theater

Year	Title	Roles	Venue
1960	Advise and Consent	Liz	Cort Theatre
1962	Night Life	Cigarette Girl	Brooks Atkinson Theatre
1963	Photo Finish	Clarice, Ada Cooney	Brooks Atkinson Theatre
1964	A Severed Head	Georgie Hands	Royale Theatre
1986	Tartuffe	Elmire	Los Angeles Theatre Center
1988	Rumors	Claire Ganz	Broadhurst Theatre
2001	A Connecticut Yankee	Guinevere	Encores!
2002	Going Native	Mother	Long Wharf Theatre
2011	Anything Goes	Evangeline Harcourt	Stephen Sondheim Theatre
2016	Steel Magnolias	Ouiser Boudreaux	Bucks County Playhouse

References

1. "Jessica Walter". IMDb. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
2. "Jessica Walter profile at". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
3. "David Walter". Liben.com. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
4. King, Susan. "Classic Hollywood Jessica Walter tests boundaries in 'Jennifer Falls'," Los Angeles Times (July 5, 2014).
5. Brook, Vincent (2006). 'You Should See Yourself': Jewish Identity in Postmodern American Culture. Rutgers University Press. p. 278. ISBN 9780813539966. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
6. https://www.elle.com/culture/a26431649/jessica-walter-arrested-development-interview/
7. https://www.imdb.com/tt0058804
8. "Golden Globe". imdb.com. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
9. Ebert, Roger (1971) Play Misty for Me, retrieved March 6, 2014
10. "Jessica Walter: Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development talks about her kooky character". Entertainment Weekly. 2005-06-24. Retrieved 2007-03-18.
11. "Netflix reveals trailer for Arrested Development season 5, confirms premiere date: Watch". Consequence of Sound. 7 May 2018.
12. Robyn Ross (August 5, 2009). "Jessica Walter on SVU: An Arresting Development". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
13. Jones, Kenneth."Bon Voyage! Anything Goes, With Sutton Foster and Joel Grey, Opens on Broadway" Archived 2011-06-13 at the Wayback Machine, playbill.com; accessed May 19, 2014.
14. Deb, Sopan (May 23, 2018). "'Arrested Development. We Sat Down with the Cast. It Got Raw". The New York Times. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
15. Debbie Emery (2018-05-23). "'Arrested Development' Men Accused of Gaslighting Jessica Walter to Defend Jeffrey Tambor". The Wrap. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
16. Fallon, Kevin (May 23, 2018). "Jessica Walter Shamed by Male 'Arrest Development' Co-Stars Over Jeffrey Tambor's 'Harassment'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
17. "Arrested Development cancels UK visit after tearful interview". BBC. May 25, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
18. "Egg Rolls Brought Ron Leibman and Jessica Walter to the Altar and Left Them Hungry for More", People, July 16, 1984; accessed May 19, 2014.
19. https://www.people.com/archive/egg-rolls-brought-ron-leibman-and-jessica-walter-to-the-altar-and-left-them-hungry-for-more-vol-22-no-3/amp/
20. Keck, William (2005-09-16). "A terrific 'Development' boosts Jessica Walter's career". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-03-18.
21. Koseluk, Chris (December 6, 2019). "Ron Leibman, Actor in 'Angels in America,' 'Where's Poppa?' and 'Friends,' Dies at 82". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
22. Sicha, Choire (October 26, 2008). "Her phone's still busy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
23. "Listings – BIG BANG THEORY, THE on CBS". TheFutonCritic.com. 2011-02-10. Retrieved 2012-08-13.

External links

• Jessica Walter on IMDb
• Jessica Walter at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jessica Walter at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Jessica Walter at AllMovie
• Jessica Walter on tvland.com