Jessica Walter

Walter was born on January 31, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York,^[2][3] to Esther (née Groisser), a teacher,^[4] and David Walter, a musician who was a member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the NYC Ballet Orchestra.^[5][6][7] Both of Walter's parents were Jewish,^[8] with her mother having immigrated to the US from the Soviet Union in 1923.^[4][9] Her brother, Richard, is a retired professor who led the screenwriting program at UCLA.^[10] The siblings were raised in Elmhurst, Queens.^[11] Walter attended the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan, graduating in 1959.^[12][13]

Walter began her acting career on stage, winning a Clarence Derwent Award in 1963 for Outstanding Debut Broadway Performance in Photo Finish by Peter Ustinov. She soon moved to television, and played Julie Muranoon on the television series, Love of Life.^[14] 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 role as Lorna Richmond on "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (April 14, 1964), and a supporting role as William Shatner's wife on the legal drama For the People (1965).

In 1964, Walter appeared in the first episode of the television series Flipper as well as the episode "How Much for a Prince?" in CBS's drama The Reporter. In 1966, she appeared in "The White Knight" episode of The Fugitive.^[15]

Her earliest notable and acclaimed screen role was in the Clint Eastwood-directed film, Play Misty for Me (1971). Walter played Evelyn, a young woman who becomes violently obsessed with a disc jockey. Evelyn is known to repeatedly call a California radio station during a jazz music program hosted by Eastwood's character, Dave Garver, always requesting he play the Erroll Garner standard, "Misty". In the course of becoming infatuated with Garver, Evelyn seduces him and then attempts suicide in his home. Her obsessive behavior intensifies and she begins stalking him relentlessly and eventually breaks into his house. In a frenzy, Evelyn destroys the interior of the home and stabs his housekeeper Birdie (played by Clarice Taylor), who is hospitalized but survives. For her performance, Walter received a Golden Globe Award nomination in the Best Motion Picture Actress – Drama category ^[10][16] as well as critical praise. Film critic Roger Ebert described Walter as demonstrating "unnerving effectiveness" in the role.^[17]

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). She was also in three episodes of Mannix (starring Mike Connors) in three separate seasons.

During the 1970s, Walter co-starred in an episode of Columbo, "Mind Over Mayhem", had a recurring role on Trapper John, M.D. as Melanie McIntyre, Trapper John's former wife, and starred on the series Amy Prentiss, a spinoff of Ironside, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award.

In 1980s, she had a role on the NBC primetime soap opera Bare Essence as Ava Marshall. Following Bare Essence, Walter worked most frequently in television and theater, though she did appear in some films including The Flamingo Kid (1984) and PCU (1994). She recorded a performance as the doll form of Chucky for the 1988 horror film Child's Play, but her lines were redubbed by Brad Dourif after negative test screenings which Tom Holland and Don Mancini attributed partially to Walter's performance; they claimed Walter was effectively frightening in the role but failed to convey the sense of black humor they envisioned the character to have and that her voice seemed out of place because the character was male.^[18][19]

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.

From 2003 to 2006, she appeared in a regular role as the scheming alcoholic socialite matriarch Lucille Bluth on Fox's comedy series Arrested Development. In 2005, she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series for the role. Despite her convincing portrayal of Lucille, she stated: "I'm nothing like Lucille. Nothing. My daughter will tell you. I'm really a very nice, boring person."^[20] 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.^[21]

Walter played Tabitha Wilson on the first season of 90210 (2008-2009), until the character was written off halfway through the season. In 2007, she guest-starred on the sitcom Rules of Engagement in the episode titled "Kids" and in 2009 guest-starred in an episode of Law & Order: SVU as legal-aid lawyer Petra Gilmartin. Previously in 2008, she had appeared in Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Eleanor Reynolds in the episode "Please Note We Are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger".^[22] From 2011 to 2012, she starred in the TV Land sitcom Retired at 35 alongside her Bye Bye Braverman co-star George Segal.^[23]

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.^[24]

Walter voiced spymaster Malory Archer on the FX animated series Archer. ^[10] Walter mentioned that her performance in Arrested Development was explicitly referenced when auditions for the part of Malory were sought.^[25]

In May 2018, Walter became part of an on-set controversy regarding harassment she said she had received from Arrested Development co-star Jeffrey Tambor. During a cast interview with the New York Times, Walter was asked about an incident which Tambor had alluded to several months before.^[26] Walter teared up and stated that "[i]n like 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", while also noting that Tambor had apologized and had not done anything sexually inappropriate, and that she would work with him again.^{[26][27][28][a]} During the same interview, co-stars Jason Bateman, Tony Hale, and David Cross were criticized in multiple media outlets for appearing to excuse Tambor's behavior without acknowledging Walter's experience.^[29][30] Within days, all three men had issued apologies to Walter.^[31]

On March 27, 1966, Walter married Ross Bowman, a Broadway stage manager and television director from Portland, Oregon.^[32] The marriage produced a daughter, Brooke (born May 18, 1972), formerly an executive for 21st Century Fox and currently a Senior Vice President of development at ABC Family.^[33] Walter filed for divorce from Bowman in November 1976, and the divorce became final in 1978.^[34][35] Their grandson Micah was born on July 7, 2013, to Brooke and her husband, David Heymann.^[36]

During her first marriage, a fire broke out in the couple's tenth-floor apartment on September 28, 1966, while Bowman was out of town. Walter was rescued by a firefighter.^[37]

On June 26, 1983, Walter married actor Ron Leibman.^[35] They remained married until his death on December 6, 2019.^[38] Walter and Leibman appeared together in Neil Simon's play Rumors, and portrayed a husband and wife in the film Dummy (2003), and on Law & Order (in the episode "House Counsel"). Leibman joined the cast of Archer, voicing her character's new husband.

While Walter's mother raised her in the Jewish tradition, Walter later described herself as not religious but "very Jewish in my heart".^[39]

On March 24, 2021, Walter died in her sleep at her Manhattan home. She was 80 years old.^[40][41][42]

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