Jessica Walter Biography

Jessica Walter (born January 31, 1941) is an American actress, known for the films Play Misty for Me, Grand Prix, and for her role as Lucille Bluth on the sitcom Arrested Development. She was a series regular for the first half of season one of 90210 as Tabitha Wilson, provided the voice of the character Fran Sinclair in the TV series Dinosaurs, and starred as the title character of the television series Amy Prentiss for which she won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie.

Currently she is the voice actor for Malory Archer in the FX animated series Archer and stars as Elaine Robbins in Retired at 35.

Early life

Walter was born in Brooklyn to Esther (née Groisser) and David Walter, a musician of some note who was a member of the NBC Symphony, and the NYC Ballet Orchestra. She was born Jewish and 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. She appeared on the show from 1962 to 1965.

Career

Jessica Walter began her on-screen acting career as Julie Murano on the television series, Love of Life, which ran from September 1951- February 1980. During Walters stint on Love of Life, she also acted in many other popular television series: namely Naked City, East Side/West Side, Ben Casey, Route 66, Lilith, The Doctors and the Nurses, The Rogues, and The Defenders. Amongst those series is Walter's notable role as Lorna Richmond on "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour which aired in April 14, 1964.

She appeared in the first episode of Flipper in September 1964. Also 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. In 1966 she appeared in an episode of The Fugitive entitled "The White Knight."

Her earliest notable film role was in the 1971 movie Play Misty for Me, in which she played a young woman with borderline personality disorder stalking a disc jockey (played by Clint Eastwood in his directorial debut), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination in the Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama category. 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 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 (George Segal).

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. 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." 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 the Season 1, Episode 5 "Kids." She currently voices spy boss Malory on the FX network's animated show Archer.

Walter guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order: SVU in the fall of 2009. Walter appeared in the third episode of Season 11, which is titled "Solitary," as a legal-aid lawyer named Petra Gilmartin.

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

Personal life

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," and he joined the cast of Archer, playing Malory Archer's new husband. Walter's daughter, Brooke Bowman, was born in 1972. Her brother is writer Richard Walter.

Filmography

Year	Filmography	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
1970	Mission: Impossible	Valerie	(1 episode, Orpheus)
1971	Play Misty For Me	Evelyn Draper	Nominated "? Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Motion Picture Drama
1973	Banacek	Erica Osburn	(1 episode, Two Million Clams for Cap'N Jack)
1974	Columbo: Mind Over Mayhem	Dr. Margaret Nicholson
1974"1975	Amy Prentiss	Amy Prentiss	TV series Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress " Miniseries or a Movie
1977	"The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (TV Series)"	Gloria
1978	Dr. Strange	Morgan le Fay	(TV)
1979	Goldengirl	Melody
1979	Vampire	Nicole DeCamp	(TV film)
1981	Going Ape!	Fiona
1982	Spring Fever	Celia Berryman
1984	Terror in the Aisles	Evelyn Draper	Archival - segment Play Misty for Me
1984	The Flamingo Kid	Phyllis Brody
1984	Secret Places	Girl #1 in art room
1986	Novel Connection & Magnum on Ice	Joan Forrester	Crossover episode of Magnum PI and Murder She Wrote
1988	Tapeheads	Kay Mart
1991	Murder She Wrote	Jane Dawson
1991"1995	Dinosaurs	Fran Sinclair (voice)
1993	Ghost in the Machine	Elaine	aka Deadly Terror
1994	PCU	President Garcia-Thompson
1994	Babylon 5	Senator Elise Voudreau	(1 episode, A Spider in the Web)
1995	Temptress	Dr. Phyllis Evergreen
1996	The Magic School Bus	Ashley Walker-Club-Dupree	(1 episode, "Rocks and Rolls")
1998	Slums of Beverly Hills	Doris Zimmerman
2001	My Best Friend's Wife	Mrs. Epstein
2003	Dummy	Fern Schoichet
2003"2006, 2013	Arrested Development	Lucille Bluth	(68 episodes) Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress " Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2003) TV Land Award for Future Classic (2004) Nominated "? Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress " Comedy Series (2005) Nominated "? Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2005, 2006)
2006	Unaccompanied Minors	Cindi
2007-2010	Saving Grace	Betty Hanadarko	(5 episodes)
2007	Rules of Engagement	Constance	(1 episode, Kids)
2008	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Eleanor Reynolds	(1 episode)
2008"2009	90210	Tabitha Wilson	series regular (13 episodes)
2009	Make It Or Break It	Grandma Tanner	(1 episode, Battle of the Flexes)
2009	Law & Order: SVU	Attorney Petra Gilmartin
2009"present	Archer	Malory Archer (voice)	series regular
2011"2012	Retired at 35	Elaine Robbins	series regular
2011	The Big Bang Theory	Mrs. Latham	(1 episode, The Benefactor Factor)
2012	Bending the Rules	Lena Gold