Joyce Van Patten
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Joyce Van Patten (born March 9, 1934) is an American actress who has appeared on TV (As The World Turns, The Odd Couple), in movies (The Bad News Bears, and on Broadway (Rumors).
Van Patten was born in New York City, New York to Josephine Rose Acerno, an Italian American, and Richard Byron Van Patten, who had distant Dutch ancestry from a great-grandfather.[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 mother of actress Talia Balsam, who was later married to actor George Clooney for a while.
Joyce made her prime-time TV series 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 CBS sitcom The Good Guys as Claudia Gramus, the long-suffering wife of diner owner Bert Gramus (played by Edelman). 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. Her last series role to date was as Maureen Slattery on the 1995 WB Network sitcom Unhappily Ever After.
She was usually astringent in her roles, except when she played Maude Pomfritt, schoolteacher Leander Pomfritt (played by William Schallert)'s treacly wife on the late 1950s/early 1960s series, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.
