JESSICA WALTER

(31 January 1941 - 24 March 2021)

The American actress Jessica Walter was a popular figure on television and in films. She often played smart women with edge. Born in New York to Russian immigrants (her father played in the NBC Symphony Orchestra) she studied at the New York High School of Performing Arts. On stage from 1963, she started on television in the series Love of Life, then Naked City, Ben Casey, Route 66, The Rogues and episode one of Flipper. Her first cinema film was Robert Rossen’s Lilith (1964) with Warren Beatty, but it was Sidney Lumet’s film of Mary McCarthy’s book The Group that brought fame to her and other budding actresses Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, Shirley Knight and Joanna Pettet. This was followed by John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix with James Garner, Sidney Lumet’s Bye Bye Braverman with George Segal, and Tom Gries’ Number One with Charlton Heston. Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me gave Walter her best role as his horrific stalker, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe. She continued on TV in The F.B.I., Mannix, Calling Dr Gannon, Love, American Style and the title role on Amy Prentiss, then returned to films in Goldengirl with James Coburn, had a small part in Airport ’79, while the likes of Going Ape!, Spring Fever, The Flamingo Kid (with Matt Dillon), Tapeheads (with John Cusack and Tim Robbins), The Dummy (with Adrien Brody), and others were mostly fairly forgettable. Then her career was again mostly on TV, the best of which were her appearances in 90210 as Tabitha Wilson, Saving Grace as Betty Hanadarko, Gravity as Henrietta and Arrested Development as Lucille Bluth, for which she won a Primetime Emmy. She was also the voice of Mallory Archer in the animated Archer series. Jessica Walter, who has died of natural causes at the age of 80, was married to the director Ross Bowman and then to the actor Ron Leibman (who died in 2019). She has a daughter, the TV executive Brook Bowman.

MICHAEL DARVELL