Mariette Hartley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mariette Hartley (born Mary Loretta Hartley on June 21, 1940, in Weston, Connecticut) is a prolific American character actress, who now plays Courteney Cox's mother, Dorothy Spiller on Dirt.
She began her career in her teens as a stage actress, coached and mentored by the noted Eva Le Gallienne.
She launched her film career in Ride the High Country, a classic western with actors Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea; and directed by Sam Peckinpah.
She has worked with Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry, two famed creators of television and film science fiction. She first appeared in The Twilight Zone episode "The Long Morrow" (1964), along with Serling.
In 1969, she acted in the next-to-last broadcast "Classic" Star Trek episode, All Our Yesterdays (1969), under Roddenberry. Also in 1969, she appeared in the movie Marooned. Next came Earth II (1971), and Genesis II (1973), another Roddenberry production.
On television, she appeared as Dr. Claire Morton, the daughter of Leslie Nielsen on the primetime adaption of Peyton Place.
In 1978, she appeared in the TV series Logan's Run, based on the film of the same name, and in The Incredible Hulk alongside Bill Bixby for two episodes as Dr. Carolyn Fields. In this role, in which she marries the title character, Ms. Hartley won an Emmy Award. Hartley co-starred in the 1983 sitcom Goodnight, Beantown, also with Bixby.
During the late 1970s Hartley also appeared with James Garner in a noted series of television commercials advertising Polaroid cameras. The two actors worked so well together that it was often erroneously supposed that they were married in real life. Her biography contains a photo of her in a T-shirt proclaiming, "I am NOT Mrs. James Garner."
Hartley also guest-starred in a memorable episode of Garner's TV series The Rockford Files during this period. The script required them to kiss at one point. Unknown to them, a paparazzo was photographing the scene from a distance. The photos were run in a tabloid trying to provoke a scandal, causing a good deal of attention.
In the 1990s, she toured with Elliott Gould and Doug Wert in the revival of the mystery Deathtrap.
She has spoken in public about her experience of bipolar disorder, and was a founder of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Recently, she has also starred in commercials featuring Eddie Z's Express Blinds.
She is the author of Breaking The Silence with Anne Commire, and stars in her own one-woman show, If You Get to Bethlehem, You've Gone Too Far currently running in Los Angeles.
Currently, she plays the mother of Courteney Cox's character, Dorothy Spiller, on the hit drama series, Dirt, on FX Networks. Hartley has also had a recurring role on Law and Order: SVU as attorney Lorna Scarry.
[edit] Trivia
- Hartley is a granddaughter of American psychologist John B. Watson through Watson's daughter from his first marriage.
[edit] Awards and recognition
- Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the episode "Married" of The Incredible Hulk (1978)
[edit] External links
- Mariette Hartley at the Internet Movie Database
- Mariette Hartley article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
- USA Today article about her experience of bipolar disorder
- Mariette Hartley's own personal web site
- Mariette Hartley's autobiography and John B. Watson - an article about the children of psychologists J.B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, and what Mariette Hartley (Watson's granddaughter) had to say about the family saga in "Breaking The Silence".
