Joyce Jameson

Joyce Jameson (September 26, 1932 – January 16, 1987) was an American actress, known for many television roles, including recurring guest appearances as Skippy, one of the "fun girls" in the 1960s television series The Andy Griffith Show as well as "the Blonde" in the Academy Award-winning The Apartment (1960).

Joyce Jameson
Born	(1932-09-26)September 26, 1932 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	January 16, 1987(1987-01-16) (aged 54) Burbank, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Suicide
Resting place	Cremains scattered into the Pacific Ocean
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1951–1984
Spouse(s)	Billy Barnes (m. 195?; div. 19??)
Children	1

Joyce Jameson in an episode of G.E. Theater, "Blaze of Glory" (1958)

Early years

Jameson was born in Chicago.[1] She graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts degree.[2]

Career

Stage

Jameson's Broadway credits include Venus at Large (1961), The Billy Barnes People (1961) and The Billy Barnes Revue (1959).[3]

Films

Jameson began work in the early 1950s with numerous uncredited roles in films and television. She made her film debut in 1951 playing a chorus girl dancer in the motion picture Show Boat. Other notable film credits of that early period included Problem Girls (1953), Tip on a Dead Jockey (1957) and The Apartment (1960).

In 1962, she starred with Vincent Price and Peter Lorre in the Roger Corman horror film Tales of Terror as Annabel Herringbone. She played Lorre's vulgar, unfaithful wife, and during the course of the film, she and her paramour (Price) were locked up in Lorre's wine cellar. One year later, she again starred with Lorre and Price in the raucous comedy The Comedy of Terrors (released in 1964). In 1964, she appeared as a hotel hooker in the comedy Good Neighbor Sam, starring Jack Lemmon and Romy Schneider.

In 1966, she starred as Abigail in the Elvis Presley film Frankie and Johnny and in Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! with Bob Hope and Elke Sommer. She also appeared in 1968's The Split, a crime film with Jim Brown and Warren Oates, and in an unsold comedy pilot for CBS titled The Mouse That Roared.

Jameson had roles in Death Race 2000 (1975) playing Grace Pander, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) as Rose, Every Which Way but Loose (1978), and Hardbodies (1984).

Television

Jameson was also a television actress. She was a regular member of the cast on Club Oasis.[4]^:195 She made two appearances on Perry Mason: first as Lorraine Iverson who killed her husband in the 1963 episode "The Case of the Floating Stones", then as Dolly Jameson in the 1965 episode, "The Case of the Feather Cloak". She also had roles on The Dick Van Dyke Show (in the episode "A Day in the Life of Alan Brady"), Gunsmoke, Stagecoach West, The Twilight Zone, The Man from U.N.C.L.E (The Dippy Blonde Affair), McHale's Navy, My Favorite Martian, The Munsters, F-Troop, Hogan's Heroes (in the January 1967 episode "The Great Brinksmeyer Robbery" as Mady Pleiffer, and again later that same year in "Sgt. Schultz Meets Mata Hari" as the Gastapo agent, Eva Mueller), Alias Smith and Jones, Emergency! and Barney Miller. She appeared in The Rockford Files (in the 1974 episode "The Dexter Crisis" as Marge White). Later she appeared in Charlie's Angels, The Feather and Father Gang, and The Love Boat.

Her ongoing role as Skippy[4] paired with Daphne (played by Jean Carson) in The Andy Griffith Show established The Fun Girls.

Jameson provided one of the voices for the cartoon series Jokebook.[4]^:543

Jameson also was co-host of Tempo III, a program on KHJ-TV in Los Angeles.[5]

Personal life

She married actor/songwriter Billy Barnes in the 1950s, and they had one child together, son Tyler, before their divorce.[6] Subsequently, Jameson was a longtime girlfriend of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. star Robert Vaughn. She acted opposite Vaughn as the guest star on a 1966 U.N.C.L.E. episode "The Dippy Blond Affair".

According to Vaughn's autobiography, A Fortunate Life, Jameson suffered from depression. She was also an insomniac and regularly took Miltown to help her sleep.[7]

Death

On January 16, 1987, Jameson committed suicide by overdosing on pills at the age of 54.[8] Her body was cremated and her ashes scattered at sea.

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1951	Show Boat	Chorus Girl	Uncredited
1951	The Strip	Show Girl	Uncredited
1951	The Son of Dr. Jekyll	Barmaid	Uncredited
1953	Problem Girls	Peggy Carstairs
1954	Phffft!	Secretary	Uncredited
1956	Crime Against Joe	Gloria Wayne
1956	Tension at Table Rock	Singer	Uncredited
1957	Tip on a Dead Jockey	Sue Fan Finley
1960	The Apartment	The Blonde
1962	Tales of Terror	Annabel Herringbone	(segment "The Black Cat")
1963	The Balcony	Penitent
1963	The Comedy of Terrors	Amaryllis Trumbull
1964	Good Neighbor Sam	Elsie Hooker
1966	Frankie and Johnny	Abigail
1966	Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!	Telephone operator
1968	The Split	Jennifer
1975	Death Race 2000	Grace Pander
1976	The Outlaw Josey Wales	Rose
1976	Scorchy	Mary Davis	Alternative title: Race with Death
1979	Every Which Way but Loose	Sybil
1980	Pray TV	Millie Peebles	Alternative title: K-GOD
1983	Ladies Night	Emcee
1983	The Man Who Loved Women		Uncredited
1984	Hardbodies	Rounder's Mom
1984	Lovelines	Mary Assquith	(final film role)
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	Science Fiction Theatre	Nina Lasalle	1 episode
1958	Playhouse 90	Miss Cooper	1 episode
1959	Yancy Derringer	Bonnie Mason	1 episode
1960	The Betty Hutton Show	Beverly Bell
1961	Lock-Up	Coralee	1 episode
1961–1963	The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis	Lola LaVerne	3 episodes
1962	Outlaws	Lotus	1 episode
1962–1965	Andy Griffith Show	Skippy	3 episodes
1963	The Danny Thomas Show	Nikki Stewart	1 episode
1963	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Rosie Feather	1 episode
1963	McHale's Navy	Kate O'Hara	1 episode
1963	Perry Mason	Lorraine
1963	The Twilight Zone	Starlet	1 episode
1964	Grindl	Laverne	1 episode
1964	My Favorite Martian	Flossie	1 Episode
1965	The Baileys of Balboa	Mary Brown	1 episode
1965 & 1966	The Munsters	Miss Valentine & Lou	Season 1 Episode 23 & Season 2 Episode 16
1966	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	Jojo Tyler	Season 2 Episode 16
1966	The Dick Van Dyke Show	Blanche	1 episode
1966	Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.	Irene	1 episode
1966 & 1967	Hogan's Heroes	Mady Pfeiffer Eva Mueller	1 episode 1 episode
1967	The Big Valley	The Blonde	1 episode
1967	The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.	Shirley Fummer	1 episode
1969	The Virginian	Millie	1 episode
1970	Run, Simon, Run	Esther	Television movie Alternative titles: Savage Run The Tradition of Simon Zuniga
1971	Ironside	Mrs. Akerman	1 episode
1972	Women in Chains	Simpson	Television movie
1973	Here's Lucy	Prisoner	1 episode
1974	Movin' On	Angela Wentworth	1 episode
1974	The Rockford Files	Marge White	1 episode
1975	The First 36 Hours of Dr. Durant	Mrs. Graham	Television movie
1975	Barney Miller	Catherine Lindsay	1 episode
1976	Baretta	Lucille	1 episode
1977	The Feather and Father Gang	Norma	1 episode
1978	Crash	Sophie Cross	Television movie Alternative title: Crash of Flight 401
1979	The Wild Wild West Revisited	Lola (Showgirl)	Television movie
1982	The Fall Guy	Lucille	1 episode

References

1. Johnson, Erskine (July 18, 1960). "Hollywood Today". The Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Texas, Corpus Christi. Newspaper Enterprise Association. p. 29. Retrieved April 14, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
2. Gaver, Jack (March 25, 1962). "'Shadow' for Monroe? Joyce Just Fits". The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah, Salt Lake City. United Press International. p. 69. Retrieved April 14, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
3. "("Joyce Jameson" search results)". Playbill Vault. Playbill. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
4. Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
5. Vernon, Terry (November 30, 1967). "Progress Report on Ch. 9 Format". Independent. California, Long Beach. p. 48. Retrieved April 14, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
6. McLellan, Dennis (2012-09-25). "Billy Barnes dies at 85; satirical songwriter for Hollywood revues". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
7. Vaughn, Robert (2008). A Fortunate Life. Macmillan. pp. 88. ISBN 0-312-37112-8.
8. Del Valle, David (2001-01-01). "CAMP DAVID JANUARY 2007". filmsinreview.com. p. 4. Retrieved 2009-05-13.

External links

• Joyce Jameson discography at Discogs
• Joyce Jameson on IMDb 
• Joyce Jameson at AllMovie
• Joyce Jameson at the TCM Movie Database
• Joyce Jameson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Joyce Jameson at Find a Grave