Jessica Walter

Jessica Walter
Born	January 31, 1941 (1941-01-31) (age 68) Brooklyn, New York, United States
Occupation	Film, television actress
Years active	1962—present
Spouse(s)	Ron Leibman (1983-present)

Jessica Walter (born January 31, 1941) is an American actress, known for the film Play Misty for Me and for her role as Lucille Bluth on the sitcom Arrested Development. She recently had a starring role for the first half of season 1 of 90210.

Early life

Walter was born to a Jewish household in Brooklyn, the daughter of Esther (née Groisser) and David Walter, a musician.^[1] She was raised in Queens, New York and graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts. In the early 1960s, she trained alongside James Caan and Christopher Lloyd at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse before getting her big break, a regular role on the soap opera Love of Life.^[2] She appeared on the show from 1962 to 1965.

Career

In 1964, she guest starred with Jack Lord, Nick Adams, and Herb Edelman in the episode "How Much for a Prince?" of CBS's short-lived drama. The Reporter, with Harry Guardino in the title role. Walter had a recurring role on Trapper John, M.D. as Melanie McIntyre, Trapper John's former wife.

Her earliest notable film role was in the 1971 movie Play Misty for Me, in which she played a psychotic young woman stalking a disc jockey (played by Clint Eastwood), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination in the Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama category.^[3] Walter's other film credits from that era include Lilith, Grand Prix, The Group, Bye Bye Braverman, Number One and Dr. Strange.

In 1974, Walter co-starred with Peter Falk, Jose Ferrer and Lew Ayres in the Columbo episode Mind Over Mayhem. During the 1974-75 TV season, she was the star of Amy Prentiss, a spinoff of Ironside that became an element of the NBC Mystery Movie. She was the producers' first choice for the role of "Alexis Carrington" in the primetime soap opera Dynasty. In 1983, she had a role in 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 make an appearance in the 1994 film PCU. In the 1990s, Walter lent her voice to 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 (George Segal).

From 2003 to 2006, she appeared in a regular role as the scheming socialite matriarch Lucille Bluth on FOX's critically acclaimed comedy series, Arrested Development. Despite her convincing portrayal of Lucille (in 2005, Walter received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the role), the actress has maintained that "I'm nothing like Lucille. Nothing. My daughter will tell you. I'm really a very nice, boring person."^[2] Walter played Tabitha Wilson, a similar character, on 90210, for the first thirteen episodes of the first season, before she was written off. She also guest starred on the situational comedy Rules of Engagement in Season 1, Episode 5 "Kids".

Jessica Walter will guest-star in an episode of Law & Order: SVU in the fall. TVGuide.com has confirmed that Walter will appear in the third episode, which is titled "Solitary," as a legal-aid powerhouse named Petra Gilmartin.^[4]

Personal life

Walter's daughter, Brooke Bowman, was born in 1975.^[5] Since 1983, Walter has been married to actor Ron Leibman, with whom she co-starred in Neil Simon's play Rumors. They also appeared together as husband and wife in the film Dummy and in the TV series Law & Order in the episode, "House Counsel".

Filmography

References

External links

• Jessica Walter at the Internet Movie Database