Autographed, original matte, double-weight 11" x 14" photograph by photographer Ray Fisher, inscribed to the photographer by the actress, "To Ray, Peace and Love" Jessica Walter. She is shown here in a stage role in 1977, but not on Broadway. As the photo is dark and signed in red ballpoint, we have also shown a close-up.
Jessica
Walter (1941 - ) is an American
actress. She is known for appearing in the films Play Misty for Me (1971),
Grand Prix and The Group (both 1966), her role as Lucille Bluth on the sitcom
Arrested Development, and providing the voice of Malory Archer on the FX
animated series Archer. Walter studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse
School of the Theatre in New York City.
Walter
was a series regular for the first half of season one of 90210, provided the
voice of Fran Sinclair on the series Dinosaurs, and starred as the title
character of the series Amy Prentiss, for which she won the Emmy Award for
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie.
Walter
was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Esther (née Groisser) and David
Walter, a musician who was a member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the NYC
Ballet Orchestra. Walter attended New York City's High School of Performing
Arts. Her family is Jewish. Her mother
was an immigrant from the USSR. Her brother is screenwriter Richard Walter.
Walter
began her acting career on the stage. She won the Clarence Derwent Award in
1963 for Outstanding Debut Broadway Performance in Photo Finish by Peter
Ustinov. She soon moved to television, and she played the character Julie
Murano on the television series, Love of Life. 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
notable role as Lorna Richmond on "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" episode
of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour which aired in April 14, 1964, and a supporting
role as William Shatner's wife on the short-lived drama For the People (1965).
Walter
appeared in the first episode of Flipper, shown in September 1964. Also in
1964, she guest-starred in the episode "How Much for a Prince?" of
CBS's short-lived drama The Reporter. In 1966, she appeared in an episode of
The Fugitive entitled "The White Knight".
Her
earliest notable film role was in the movie Play Misty for Me (1971), in which
she played a young woman with behavior consistent with borderline personality
disorder who becomes infatuated with and ultimately stalks a disc jockey. For
her performance, Walter received a Golden Globe Award nomination in the Best
Motion Picture Actress – Drama category and critical praise, with Roger Ebert
describing Walter as demonstrating "unnerving effectiveness" in the
role. 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).
In
1974, Walter co-starred in an episode of Columbo, "Mind Over Mayhem".
She starred on the short-lived series Amy Prentiss, a spinoff of Ironside and
had a recurring role on Trapper John, M.D. as Melanie McIntyre, Trapper John's
former wife. In 1983, she had a role on 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 appear in some films including The
Flamingo Kid (1984) and the film PCU (1994). In the 1990s, she 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 critically acclaimed comedy series
Arrested Development. In 2005, she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the role. Despite her convincing
portrayal of Lucille, she states: "I'm nothing like Lucille. Nothing. My
daughter will tell you. I'm really a very nice, boring person." 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.
Walter
played Tabitha Wilson on the first season of 90210, until the character was
written off halfway through the season. She also guest-starred on the sitcom
Rules of Engagement in the episode titled "Kids". She guest-starred
in an episode of Law & Order: SVU in 2009, and appeared again later on as
legal-aid lawyer Petra Gilmartin.
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.
She
currently voices spy mistress Malory Archer on the FX animated series Archer.
She was drawn to the role after learning that the script for the pilot
explicitly drew comparisons between Malory and Lucille Bluth.
Walter
was at the center of a controversy which erupted in May 2018 over harassment
she had received from Arrested Development co-star Jeffrey Tambor. During a
cast interview with the New York Times, Walter was asked about an on-set
incident which Tambor had alluded to several months before. Walter teared up
and stated that "in 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...He never crossed the line on our show, with any, you know, sexual
whatever. Verbally, yes, he harassed me, but he did apologize. I have to let it
go." In the following exchange, Walter's co-stars Jason Bateman, Tony Hale
and David Cross were criticized in multiple outlets for appearing to excuse
Tambor's behavior without acknowledging Walter's experience. Within days all three men had issued apologies
to Walter.
Walter
was married to actor Ron Leibman from 1983 until his death in 2019. They
appeared together in Neil Simon's play Rumors, and portrayed husband and wife
in the film Dummy (2003) and on Law & Order (in the episode "House
Counsel"). He joined the cast of Archer, voicing her character's new
husband. She describes herself as not religious but "very Jewish in my
heart".
Walter
has a daughter, Brooke Bowman, who was born in 1972 and is currently an
executive for 21st Century Fox Television, from her 12-year marriage to Ross
Bowman, a former Broadway stage manager and television director.
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