Elaine Joyce
Encyclopedia
Elaine Joyce is an American
actress.
Joyce was born in Kansas City, Missouri
. She made her film debut in 1961 as an extra
in West Side Story
and made uncredited appearances in several musical film
s, including The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie
, and Funny Girl
before being cast in Such Good Friends
in 1971. She had recurring roles in The Young and the Restless
and Days of Our Lives
, made guest appearances in such series as The Andy Griffith Show
, The Red Skelton Show
, Love, American Style
, Kojak
, Green Acres
, and Hawaii Five-O
, and was a regular panelist on several games shows, including Match Game
, What's My Line?
, and I've Got a Secret
. In the 1976 TV series City of Angels
, she played Marsha Finch, the ditzy secretary to Los Angeles private eye Jake Axminster (Wayne Rogers
), who ran a call-girl service on the side. Joyce was also the host of The All New Dating Game
for one season. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s she was featured in many series, including Mr. Merlin
, Here Come the Brides
, Beverly Hills, 90210
, Melrose Place, Magnum, P.I.
, Simon & Simon
, and Murder, She Wrote
.
In 1972, Joyce made her Broadway
debut in the title role in Sugar
, the musical adaptation of the film Some Like It Hot
, in which she portrayed band singer Sugar Kane, the role originated by Marilyn Monroe
in the movie. She won the 1972 Theatre World Award
for her performance.
Joyce was married to Bobby Van from 1968 until his death from brain cancer in 1980.
In May 1982, Joyce performed at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre
in Jacksonville, Florida
. Author and legendary recluse J.D. Salinger attended the opening night of the production to see Joyce and accompany her after the show. She told a reporter that it was the first time the two had met, but Salinger had been calling and writing her letters for more than 3 months.
She has been married to playwright Neil Simon
since September 1999. She has two children, a daughter Taylor by Bobby Van and a son Michael by her second husband, television producer John Levoff.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress.
Joyce was born in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. She made her film debut in 1961 as an extra
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
in West Side Story
West Side Story (film)
West Side Story is a 1961 musical film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was adapted from William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno,...
and made uncredited appearances in several musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
s, including The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie
Bye Bye Birdie (film)
Bye Bye Birdie is a 1963 musical comedy film from Columbia Pictures. It is a film adaptation of the stage production of the same name. The screenplay was written by Michael Stewart and Irving Brecher, with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams....
, and Funny Girl
Funny Girl (film)
Funny Girl is a 1968 romantic musical film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Isobel Lennart was adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same title...
before being cast in Such Good Friends
Such Good Friends
Such Good Friends is a 1971 American comedy-drama film directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Esther Dale is based on the novel of the same title by Lois Gould.-Plot:...
in 1971. She had recurring roles in The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
and Days of Our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
, made guest appearances in such series as The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
, The Red Skelton Show
The Red Skelton Show
The Red Skelton Show is an American variety show that was a television staple for two decades, from 1951 to 1971. It was second to Gunsmoke and third to The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings during that time. Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had appeared in several motion pictures as...
, Love, American Style
Love, American Style
Love, American Style is an hour-long TV anthology produced by Paramount Television and originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974...
, Kojak
Kojak
Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
, Green Acres
Green Acres
Green Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...
, and Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
, and was a regular panelist on several games shows, including Match Game
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...
, What's My Line?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
, and I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret is a panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?...
. In the 1976 TV series City of Angels
City of Angels (1976 TV series)
City of Angels is a 1976 television series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins, who had previously worked together on The Rockford Files...
, she played Marsha Finch, the ditzy secretary to Los Angeles private eye Jake Axminster (Wayne Rogers
Wayne Rogers
William Wayne McMillan Rogers III is an American film and television actor, best known for playing the role of 'Trapper John' McIntyre in the U.S...
), who ran a call-girl service on the side. Joyce was also the host of The All New Dating Game
The Dating Game
The Dating Game is an ABC television show that first aired on December 20, 1965 and was the first of many shows created and packaged by Chuck Barris from the 1960s through the 1980s...
for one season. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s she was featured in many series, including Mr. Merlin
Mr. Merlin
Mr. Merlin, a Larry Larry Company Production in association with Columbia Pictures Television, was a 1981–82 sitcom starring Barnard Hughes as Merlin the wizard, disguised as Max Merlin, a mechanic in modern-day San Francisco.-Plot:...
, Here Come the Brides
Here Come the Brides
Here Come the Brides is an American comedy Western series from Screen Gems that aired on the ABC television network from September 25, 1968 to April 3, 1970...
, Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
, Melrose Place, Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....
, Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon is an American detective television series starring Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker.-History:The original 1978 pilot called Pirate's Key was set in Florida...
, and Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
.
In 1972, Joyce made her Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in the title role in Sugar
Sugar (musical)
Sugar is a musical with a book by Peter Stone, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. It is based on the film Some Like It Hot, which was adapted by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond from a story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan...
, the musical adaptation of the film Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot is an American comedy film, made in 1958 and released in 1959, which was directed by Billy Wilder and starred Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and George Raft. The supporting cast includes Joe E. Brown, Pat O'Brien and Nehemiah Persoff. The film is a remake by Wilder and I....
, in which she portrayed band singer Sugar Kane, the role originated by Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
in the movie. She won the 1972 Theatre World Award
Theatre World Award
The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
for her performance.
Joyce was married to Bobby Van from 1968 until his death from brain cancer in 1980.
In May 1982, Joyce performed at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre
Alhambra Dinner Theatre
The Alhambra Dinner Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida is the oldest continually operating Dinner theater in the United States, and the only professional resident theatre in the area south of Atlanta, east of New Orleans and north of Orlando.-History:...
in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
. Author and legendary recluse J.D. Salinger attended the opening night of the production to see Joyce and accompany her after the show. She told a reporter that it was the first time the two had met, but Salinger had been calling and writing her letters for more than 3 months.
She has been married to playwright Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
since September 1999. She has two children, a daughter Taylor by Bobby Van and a son Michael by her second husband, television producer John Levoff.