Jessica Walter, an award-winning celebrity with a six-decade career, died peacefully at her home in New York City on March 24. She had reached the age of eighty.
Who is Jessica Walter?
Jessica Walter’s filmography spanned everything from Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, through The Flamingo Kid and Emmy-nominated roles on Trapper John M..D. and Streets of San Francisco. Walter received another Emmy nomination as well as two SAG nods for her role as Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development.
In the mid-1970s, Walter earned an Emmy for her role as Amy Prentiss, an Ironside spinoff about a young San Francisco police investigator. On FXX’s animated tv show Archer, she also played Malory Archer.
Jessica Walter was the Screen Actors Guild’s 2nd National Vice President and a part of the SAG Board of Directors for almost a decade.
Jessica Walter’s Arrested co-stars and many others began to comment as word of her death emerged, with co-star David Cross calling her “an absolutely brilliant actress and amazing talent.”
Jessica Walter made her Broadway debut in Advise and Consent, Neil Simon’s Rumors, A Severed Head, Nightlife, and Photo Finish, for which she won the Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Newcomer.
Jessica Walter also worked on stage at Playwright’s Horizons in New York and the Los Angeles Theater Center, where she played in Tartuffe alongside her late husband, Ron Leibman, an Emmy and Tony winner. She also won multiple Tony Awards for her performance in the Broadway version of Anything Goes.
Jessica Walter’s private life
Jessica Walter is survived by her daughter Brooke Bowman, who works at Fox Entertainment as SVP Drama Programming, and her grandson Micah Heymann.
“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of my beloved mom Jessica” Bowman stated in a statement. “A working actor for over six decades, her greatest pleasure was bringing joy to others through her storytelling both on-screen and off. While her legacy will live on through her body of work, she will also be remembered by many for her wit, class, and overall joie de vivre.”
