Joan Copeland
Encyclopedia
Joan Copeland is an American actress and the younger sister of celebrated playwright Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...

. She began her career appearing in theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 during the mid 1940s. She moved into television and film during the 1950s while still maintaining an active stage career. She is best known for her performances in the 1977 Broadway revival of Pal Joey and her award winning performance in the 1981 play The American Clock
The American Clock
The American Clock is a play by Arthur Miller. The play is about 1930s America during The Great Depression. It is based in part on Studs Terkel's Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression. The play premiered on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on November 11, 1980; closing on November 30,...

. She has also played a number of prominent roles on various soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

s throughout her career, including Andrea Whiting
Andrea Whiting
Andrea Whiting, played by actress Joan Copeland was a fictional character, on the cancelled American Soap opera Search for Tomorrow.Andrea was the spiteful former wife of Sam Reynolds, who had fallen in love with Joanne Gardner. Her daughter, Patti Tate fell for Andrea's son, Dr. Len Whiting. Len...

 on Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...

and Gwendolyn Lord Abbott on One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...

.

Life and career

Copeland was born Joan Maxine Miller to a middle-class Jewish family in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Her father, Isidore, was a woman's clothes manufacturer and her mother, Augusta (née Barnett), was a schoolteacher and a housewife. She is the younger sister of the late playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...

, and was briefly sister-in-law to 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....

. She is married to George J. Kupchik, an engineer, with whom she has one son, Eric.

Copeland began her career in the theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

, making her professional debut as Juliet in William Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

 in 1945. She 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 as Nadine in the original 1948 production of Bessie Breuer
Bessie Breuer
Bessie Breuer was an American journalist, novelist, writer, and playwright.-Biography:Breuer was born with the name Bessie Freedman in Cleveland, Ohio to Samuel and Julia Freedman. She studied journalism at Missouri State University and then worked as a reporter for the St. Louis Times in her late...

's Sundown Beach
Sundown Beach
Sundown Beach is a 1948 play in two acts by American playwright Bessie Breuer. The play opened on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre on September 7, 1948, closing after seven performances on September 11, 1948. The cast notably included Julie Harris who won a Theatre World Award for her portrayal of...

. Since then she has maintained an active career in the theatre. Her other Broadway credits include Detective Story
Detective Story (play)
Detective Story is a 1949 play in three acts by American playwright Sidney Kingsley. The play opened on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre on March 23, 1949 where it played until the production moved to the Broadhurst Theatre on July 3, 1950. The production closed on August 12, 1950 after 581 ...

(1949), Not for Children
Not for Children
Not for Children is a 1934 play by Elmer Rice. It was premiered in 1935 at the Fortune Theatre in the West End of London. The work was performed for the first time on Broadway on February 13, 1951 at the Coronet Theatre; closing four days later after only seven performances. Incidental music was...

(1951), Handful of Fire
Handful of Fire
Handful of Fire is a 1958 play in two acts by American playwright N. Richard Nash. The play opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 1, 1958, closing after five performances on October 4, 1958....

(1958), Tovarich
Tovarich (musical)
Tovarich is a 1963 musical play in two acts with book by David Shaw; music by Lee Pockriss and lyrics by Anne Croswell; based on the comedy by Jacques Deval and Robert E...

(1963), Something More!
Something More!
Something More! is a musical with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Marilyn Bergman and Alan Bergman. The book by Nate Monaster is based on the 1962 novel Portofino P.T.A. by Gerald Green...

(1964), The Price
The Price (play)
The Price is a 1968 play by Arthur Miller. It is a piece about family dynamics, the price of furniture and the price of one's decisions. The play opened on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre on February 7, 1968 where it played until the production moved to the 46th Street Theatre on November 18, 1968....

(1968), Coco
Coco (musical)
Coco is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by André Previn. It starred Katharine Hepburn in her only stage musical.-Background:...

(1969), Two By Two
Two by Two (musical)
Two By Two is a Broadway musical with a book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and music by Richard Rodgers.Based on Clifford Odets's play The Flowering Peach, it tells the story of Noah's preparations for the Great Flood and its aftermath....

(1970), Checking Out
Checking Out (play)
Checking Out is a 1976 Broadway play written by Allen Swift. It opened on September 14, 1976 at the Longacre Theatre and closed on September 25, 1976 after 16 performances.-Original Production:...

(1976), 45 Seconds from Broadway
45 Seconds from Broadway
45 Seconds from Broadway is a play by Neil Simon, his thirty-third.The title refers to the amount of time it takes to walk to Broadway from the play's setting, a coffee shop inspired by the one located off the lobby of midtown-Manhattan's tourist-class Edison Hotel, a long-time watering hole for...

(2002), Wit & Wisdom
Wit & Wisdom
Wit & Wisdom is a play conceived and put together by Vivian Gornick and Nora Eisenberg and done by the Colleagues Theatre Company which premiered at the Off-Broadway Arclight Theatre in New York City, New York. It ran from March 5 to March 30, 2003.-Plot:...

(2003) among others. Copeland was nominated for a Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...

 for the 1977 production of Pal Joey and won a Drama Desk Award in 1981 for The American Clock
The American Clock
The American Clock is a play by Arthur Miller. The play is about 1930s America during The Great Depression. It is based in part on Studs Terkel's Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression. The play premiered on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on November 11, 1980; closing on November 30,...

.

Copeland has also worked extensively Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 in New York City. Notable credits include Desdemona in Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...

at the Equity Library Theatre (1946), Betty Shapiro in The Grass is Always Greener at the Downtown National Theatre (1955), Melanie in Conversation Piece
Conversation Piece (musical)
Conversation Piece, billed as "A Romantic Comedy with Music", is a musical written by Noel Coward. It premiered at His Majesty's Theatre, London, on 16 February 1934, and ran for 177 performances over five months...

at the Barbizon-Plaza Theatre (1957), Mrs. Erlynne in Delightful Season at the Gramercy Arts Theatre (1960), Leonie Frothingham in End of Summer at the Manhattan Theatre Club
Manhattan Theatre Club
Manhattan Theatre Club is a theater company located in New York City. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1970 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country’s most acclaimed...

 (1974), Lillian Hellman in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been at the Promenade Theatre (1978), the title role in Candida
Candida (play)
Candida, a comedy by playwright George Bernard Shaw, was first published in 1898, as part of his Plays Pleasant. The central characters are clergyman James Morell, his wife Candida and a youthful poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who tries to win Candida's affections. The play questions Victorian notions...

at the Roundabout Theatre (1979), Tasha Blumberg in Isn't It Romantic at the Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons
Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work....

 (1983), Mrs. Thompson in Hunting Cockroaches at the Manhattan Theatre Club (1987), Rose Brill in The Rose Quartet at the Circle Repertory Theatre (1991), Aida Gianelli in Over the River and Through the Woods
Over the River and through the Woods
"Over the River and through the Woods" is a Thanksgiving song by Lydia Maria Child. Written originally as a poem, it appeared in her Flowers for Children, Volume 2, in 1844. The title of the poem is, "A Boy's Thanksgiving Day". It celebrates her childhood memories of visiting her Grandfather's House...

at the John Houseman Theatre (1998), Nelly Fell in The Torchbearers at the Greenwich House Theatre (2000), and a part of a rotating cast in Wit & Wisdom
Wit & Wisdom
Wit & Wisdom is a play conceived and put together by Vivian Gornick and Nora Eisenberg and done by the Colleagues Theatre Company which premiered at the Off-Broadway Arclight Theatre in New York City, New York. It ran from March 5 to March 30, 2003.-Plot:...

at the Arclight Theatre
Arclight Theatre
The Arclight Theatre, located at 152 West 71st Street, between Broadway & Columbus Avenues.The theater has a seating capacity of 99 seats and is located on the lower level of The Church of the Blessed Sacrament, down one flight of stairs....

 (2003) to name just a few. She won an Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...

 in 1991 for her portrayal of Eva Adler in The American Plan
The American Plan
The American Plan is a play by Richard Greenberg. It was first produced and performed by Manhattan Theatre Club Stage II on January 23, 1990, in New York City, where it ran for 32 performances. The original cast included Rebecca Miller, Tate Donovan, Beatrice Winde, Joan Copeland, and Eric...

at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Copeland began working on television in the early 1950s as a guest actress on such shows as Suspense
Suspense (US TV series)
Suspense is an American television anthology series that ran on CBS Television from 1949 to 1954. It was adapted from the radio program of the same name which ran from 1942 to 1962. Like many early television programs, the show was broadcast live from New York City...

and The Web
The Web (Series)
The Web is a series of 12 books for young adults, novellas about the internet of the future, edited by Simon Spanton, written by well-known science fiction and fantasy authors like Stephen Baxter, Stephen Bowkett, Eric Brown, Pat Cadigan, Maggie Furey, Peter F...

. She went on to portray prominent roles on a number of soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

s. She portrayed Andrea Whiting
Andrea Whiting
Andrea Whiting, played by actress Joan Copeland was a fictional character, on the cancelled American Soap opera Search for Tomorrow.Andrea was the spiteful former wife of Sam Reynolds, who had fallen in love with Joanne Gardner. Her daughter, Patti Tate fell for Andrea's son, Dr. Len Whiting. Len...

 (Joanne's daughter, Patti's malevolent former mother in-law) on Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow
Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera which premiered on September 3, 1951 on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast it was the...

, twin sisters, twin sisters Maggie and Kay Logan on Love of Life
Love of Life
Love of Life is an American soap opera which aired on CBS Daytime from September 24, 1951 to February 1, 1980. It was created by Roy Winsor, whose previous creation Search for Tomorrow had premiered three weeks before Love of Life, and who would go on to create The Secret Storm two and a half years...

, and roles on The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...

, How to Survive a Marriage
How to Survive a Marriage
How to Survive a Marriage is a soap opera which aired on the NBC television network from January 7, 1974 to April 17, 1975. The serial was created by Anne Howard Bailey, with much input from then-NBC Vice President Lin Bolen...

and As the World Turns
As the World Turns
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...

. She also portrayed Gwendolyn Lord Abbott on One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...

from 1978–1979, and later returned to the series to play Selma Hanen in 1995. Between 1993-1997 she portrayed the recurring character of Judge Rebecca Stein on Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

. Her other television credits include guest appearances on Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994, to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.-Premise:The show stars Mandy Patinkin as Dr...

, ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

, All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...

, and Naked City
Naked City (TV series)
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format....

to name just a few.

Copeland made her first film appearance as Alice Marie in The Goddess (1958). Her film career has been sporadic and her appearances have been almost exclusively in prominent secondary roles. Her film credits include Middle of the Night
Middle of the Night
Middle of the Night is a 1959 American drama film directed by Delbert Mann, and released by Columbia Pictures. It was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. The screenplay was adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from his Broadway play of the same name.-Plot:...

(1959), The Iceman Cometh
The Iceman Cometh (1960 film)
The Iceman Cometh is a 1960 teleplay of the Eugene O'Neill play of the same title. Two separate parts were originally broadcasted as episodes of Play of the Week in National Educational Television .-Cast and characters:...

(1960), Roseland
Roseland
Roseland may refer to:* Roseland , the 1977 Merchant Ivory film* Roseland, a musical collaboration between Tyler Bates and Azam Ali.* Roseland NYC Live, a live album and DVD by Portishead* Roseland Peninsula, Cornwall, United Kingdom...

(1977), It's My Turn
It's My Turn
"It's My Turn" is a 1980 song used as the theme to the film of the same name. The song, written by Carole Bayer Sager and Michael Masser for Diana Ross, was released as a single and became a top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number nine.Aretha Franklin recorded the song for her...

(1980), A Little Sex
A Little Sex
A Little Sex is a 1982 comedy film by MTM Enterprises and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Bruce Paltrow and written by Robert De Laurentiis...

(1982), Happy New Year (1987), The Laser Man
The Laser Man (1988 film)
The Laser Man is a 1988 Hong Kong film in the style of a crime drama parody....

(1988), Her Alibi
Her Alibi
Her Alibi is a 1989 American romantic comedy directed by Bruce Beresford, written by Charlie Peters, and starring Paulina Porizkova, Tom Selleck, and William Daniels.-Plot summary:...

(1989), Jungle 2 Jungle
Jungle 2 Jungle
Jungle 2 Jungle is a 1997 comedy feature film starring Tim Allen, Martin Short and Sam Huntington. It is an American remake of the 1994 French film Un indien dans la ville . Jungle 2 Jungles plot follows the original film fairly closely...

(1997), The Peacemaker (1997), The Object of My Affection
The Object of My Affection
The Object of My Affection is a 1998 romantic comedy film, adapted from the book of the same title by Stephen McCauley, and starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd. The story concerns a pregnant New York social worker who develops romantic feelings for her gay best friend, and the complications...

(1998), The Adventures of Sebastian Cole
The Adventures of Sebastian Cole
The Adventures of Sebastian Cole is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Tod Williams and starring Adrian Grenier as the title character.-Plot:...

(1998), The Audrey Hepburn Story
The Audrey Hepburn Story
The Audrey Hepburn Story is a 2000 television movie biography of actress and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn. Jennifer Love Hewitt, who also produced the film, starred as the actress although her casting drew criticism from some of Hepburn's fans and the media...

(2000), The Last Request (2006), and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is a 2009 American drama film written and directed by Rebecca Miller. The screenplay is based on her novel of the same title. The film premiered on February 9, 2009, at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival and was shown at the Sydney Film Festival and the...

(2009). She also was the voice of Tanana in Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...

's Brother Bear
Brother Bear
Brother Bear is a 2003 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures, the forty-fourth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. In the film, an Inuit boy pursues a bear in revenge for a battle that he provoked in which...

(2003).

External links

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