Joyce Van Patten

Joyce Van Patten
Born	Joyce Benignia Van Patten March 9, 1934 (1934-03-09) (age 75) New York City, United States
Spouse(s)	Martin Balsam (1959-1962; divorced, 1 child) Dennis Dugan (divorced)

Joyce Benignia Van Patten (born March 9, 1934) is an American stage, film and television actress.

Personal life

Van Patten was born in New York City, the daughter of Josephine Rose (née Acerno), a magazine advertising executive, and Richard Byron Van Patten, an interior decorator.^[1]

She is the younger sister of actor Dick Van Patten, and aunt to actors Vincent Van Patten, James Van Patten and Nels Van Patten. She was formerly married to the late actor Martin Balsam, and is the mother of actress Talia Balsam, who was briefly married to actors George Clooney and Hal Lynch. She is divorced from actor-director Dennis Dugan.

Career

Van Patten has appeared in dozens of television series. She was a member of the original cast of the daytime drama As the World Turns. She also played Joyce, the jilted fiancee of Peter Sellers in the cult classic movie I Love You, Alice B. Toklas in 1968.

She made her prime-time TV debut as a featured regular on The Danny Kaye Show, after which she co-starred with Bob Denver and Herb Edelman in the 1968-70 sitcom The Good Guys as Claudia Gramus, the long-suffering wife of diner owner Bert Gramus (played by Edelman).

Her guest appearances include Gunsmoke, The Untouchables, The Law and Mr. Jones, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, The Andy Griffith Show, The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-0, The Bob Newhart Show, The Odd Couple, Lou Grant and Law & Order.

On a 1976 episode of Columbo, Van Patten had a leading role as a museum owner and curator who commits murder. In 1979, she appeared opposite Mary Tyler Moore in CBS's The Mary Tyler Moore Hour as Iris Chapman, secretary and assistant to Moore's Mary McKinnon character.

In 1995, she played Maureen, Jennie's mother for two seasons on the WB sit-com Unhappily Ever After.

Her last series role to date came as Carol Prudy on two episodes of the ABC Network comedy/drama Desperate Housewives.

Van Patten has had supporting roles in many films, among them the head of the Little League in the original Bad News Bears.

She also has appeared often on Broadway, in shows including Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, Murder at the Howard Johnson's, Rumors, and Rabbit Hole.

She has usually been astringent in her screen roles, except when she played Maude Pomfritt, schoolteacher Leander Pomfritt (played by William Schallert)'s treacly wife on the late 1950s/early 1960s TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

References

External links

• Joyce Van Patten at the Internet Movie Database
• Joyce Van Patten at the Internet Broadway Database
• Joyce Van Patten at Internet off-Broadway Database