Joyce Jameson
Encyclopedia
Joyce Jameson was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress best remembered for her blonde bimbo roles during the 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....

 period. She was known for many television roles including recurring guest appearances as “Skippy” one of the "fun girls" in the 1960s television series 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...

and also for film portrayals such as "The Blonde" in the 1960 Academy Award winner The Apartment
The Apartment
The Apartment is a 1960 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray. It was Wilder's follow-up to the enormously popular Some Like It Hot and, like its predecessor, was a commercial and critical hit, grossing $25...

.

Films

Jameson began work in the early 1950s with numerous uncredited roles in films and television. She made her film debut in 1951 playing a chorus girl dancer in the motion picture Show Boat
Show Boat (1951 film)
Show Boat is a 1951 Technicolor film based on the musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and the novel by Edna Ferber....

. Her other notable film credits of that early period included Problem Girls (1953), Tip on a Dead Jockey (1957) and The Apartment
The Apartment
The Apartment is a 1960 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray. It was Wilder's follow-up to the enormously popular Some Like It Hot and, like its predecessor, was a commercial and critical hit, grossing $25...

(1960).

In 1962, she starred alongside Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...

 and Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...

 in the Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...

 horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 Tales of Terror
Tales of Terror
Tales of Terror is an American International Pictures horror film starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone; it is the fourth in a series of adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories directed by Roger Corman and released by AIP.-Plot:...

as Annabel Herringbone. She played Lorre's vulgar, unfaithful wife and during the course of the film she and her paramour (Price) were locked up in Lorre's wine cellar. One year later, she again starred alongside Lorre and Price in the raucous comedy The Comedy of Terrors
The Comedy of Terrors
The Comedy of Terrors is an American International Pictures comedy horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Joe E. Brown . The film also features Orangey the cat, billed as "Rhubarb the Cat"...

(released in 1964), where she was more typically cast as she had been in the 1950s. In 1964, she appeared as a hotel hooker in the comedy Good Neighbor Sam
Good Neighbor Sam
Good Neighbor Sam is a 1964 American comedy movie co-written and directed by David Swift and starring Jack Lemmon and Romy Schneider.It was based on the novel by Jack Finney. The screenplay was the motion picture debut of James Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, who had written many American...

, starring Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...

 and Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born German film actress who also held French citizenship.-Early life:Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in Nazi-era Vienna, six months after the Anschluss, into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian...

.
For Jameson, 1966 proved to be an important year. She starred as Abigail in the Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 film Frankie and Johnny
Frankie and Johnny (1966 film)
Frankie and Johnny is a 1966 musical film starring Elvis Presley as a riverboat gambler. The role of "Frankie" was played by Donna Douglas from The Beverly Hillbillies TV series. The film reached #40 on the Variety weekly national box office list for 1966. The budget of the film was estimated at...

and in Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! is a 1966 American comedy film starring Bob Hope and Elke Sommer.- Plot :A gorgeous actress named Didi has become more famous for commercials involving bubble baths than for acting...

alongside Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

 and Elke Sommer
Elke Sommer
Elke Sommer , born Baroness Elke Schletz, is a German actress, entertainer and artist.-Career:Sommer was born in Berlin to a Lutheran minister and his wife...

. She also appeared in an unsold comedy pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

 for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 called The Mouse That Roared but it was never released. In the 1970s, Jameson had notable roles in films such as Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000 is a 1975 cult action film directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine, Simone Griffeth and Sylvester Stallone. The film takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transcontinental Road Race has become a form of national entertainment...

(1975) playing Grace Pander and she appeared in the 1976 Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...

 western The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Outlaw Josey Wales is a 1976 American revisionist Western film set during and after the end of the American Civil War. It was directed by and starred Clint Eastwood , with Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Sam Bottoms, and Geraldine Keams.The film was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman...

as Rose, further illustrating that her acting spanned a great number of genres. She also appeared in Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and one of her last roles was Hardbodies
Hardbodies
Hardbodies is a 1984 sex comedy film about three middle-aged men who hire a younger man to help them pick up women at the beach. The film was directed by Mark Griffiths, and stars Grant Cramer, Courtney Gains, and Gary Wood...

(1984).

Television

Jameson was also well credited as a television actress. She appeared in guest roles in numerous television series including Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

, Club Oasis
Club Oasis
Club Oasis is a 24-episode half-hour comedy-variety show, set in a chic simulated nightclub, which appeared on NBC in the 1957–1958 television season. The series alternated with The Polly Bergen Show in the 9 p.m. EST time slot on Saturday evenings...

(as a regular), The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...

, McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy is an American television sitcom series which ran for 138 half-hour episodes from October 11,1962, to August 31, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated in a one-hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962...

, My Favorite Martian
My Favorite Martian
My Favorite Martian is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from September 29, 1963 to May 1, 1966 for 107 episodes...

, The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...

, F-Troop, Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E...

, Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones is an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from 1971 to 1973. It stars Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, a pair of Western cousin outlaws trying to reform...

, Emergency!
Emergency!
Emergency! is an American television series that combines the medical drama and action-adventure genres. It was produced by Mark VII Limited and distributed by Universal Studios...

and Barney Miller
Barney Miller
Barney Miller is a situation comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker...

. Towards the late 1970s she appeared in Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...

and in the early 1980s The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...

. Her ongoing role as Skippy paired with Daphne (played by Jean Carson
Jean Carson
Jean Carson was an American stage, film and television actress best known for her work on the classic 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show as one of the "fun girls".-Biography:Born to Alexander W...

) in the The Andy Griffith Show established The Fun Girls
The Fun Girls
The Fun Girls were fictional recurring characters on the 1960s American television sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show....

, and inspired the characters for the later series Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from January 26, 1976, to May 10, 1983...

.

Personal life and death

Contrary to her onscreen stereotype, off screen Jameson was said to be the direct opposite of her screen persona. She was reportedly intelligent, sensitive, and extremely well read. She was married to actor/songwriter Billy Barnes
Billy Barnes (composer)
Billy Barnes is a composer and lyricist from Los Angeles, California. His hit songs include " Too Long at the Fair" recorded by Barbra Streisand , and "Something Cool", recorded by jazz vocalist June Christy...

 for much of her earlier life, and was a longtime girlfriend of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...

star Robert Vaughn
Robert Vaughn
Robert Francis Vaughn, , is an American actor noted for stage, film and television work. His best known roles include the suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., wealthy detective Harry Rule in the 1970s television series The Protectors, Albert Stroller in...

. She acted opposite Vaughn as the guest star on U.N.C.L.E. episode #45, The Dippy Blond Affair in 1967.

According to Vaughn's autobiography A Fortunate Life, Jameson suffered from mild depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...

. She was also an insomniac and regularly took Miltowns
Meprobamate
Meprobamate is a carbamate derivative which is used as an anxiolytic drug...

 to help her sleep. On January 16, 1987, Jameson committed suicide by overdosing on pills at the age of 54. Her body was cremated and her ashes scattered at sea.

Selected filmography

Film
Year Film Role Notes
1951 The Son of Dr. Jekyll
The Son of Dr. Jekyll
The Son of Dr. Jekyll is a horror film made and distributed by Columbia Pictures in 1951, directed by Seymour Friedman, based on a screenplay by Jack Pollexfen and Mortimer Braus. The film is a continuation of Robert Louis Stevenson's original classic novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,...

Barmaid Uncredited
1954 Phffft!
Phffft!
Phffft! is a 1954 black and white romantic comedy starring Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, Jack Carson and featuring Kim Novak, in a small but notable role...

Secretary Uncredited
1956 Crime Against Joe Gloria Wayne
1960 The Apartment
The Apartment
The Apartment is a 1960 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray. It was Wilder's follow-up to the enormously popular Some Like It Hot and, like its predecessor, was a commercial and critical hit, grossing $25...

The Blonde
1963 The Balcony
The Balcony (film)
The Balcony is a 1963 cinematic adaptation of Jean Genet's play The Balcony, directed by Joseph Strick. It starred Shelley Winters, Peter Falk, Lee Grant and Leonard Nimoy. George J. Folsey was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Ben Maddow was nominated for a Writers Guild of...

Penitent
1964 Good Neighbor Sam
Good Neighbor Sam
Good Neighbor Sam is a 1964 American comedy movie co-written and directed by David Swift and starring Jack Lemmon and Romy Schneider.It was based on the novel by Jack Finney. The screenplay was the motion picture debut of James Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, who had written many American...

Elsie Hooker
1968 The Split
The Split
The Split is a 1968 film directed by Gordon Flemyng and written by Robert Sabaroff based upon the novel by Donald E. Westlake.-Plot synopsis:...

Jennifer
1975 Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000 is a 1975 cult action film directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine, Simone Griffeth and Sylvester Stallone. The film takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transcontinental Road Race has become a form of national entertainment...

Grace Pander
1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Outlaw Josey Wales is a 1976 American revisionist Western film set during and after the end of the American Civil War. It was directed by and starred Clint Eastwood , with Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Sam Bottoms, and Geraldine Keams.The film was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman...

Rose
1976 Scorchy Mary Davis Alternative title: Race with Death
1980 Pray TV
Pray TV
Pray TV is a 1980 comedy film spoofing televangelism.-Synopsis:Failing UHF TV station KRUD, Channel 17, is "reborn" as Christian television station KGOD. The new format is a big success but attracts an incompatible mix of fringe ministries and broadcasters wanting time on the station...

Millie Peebles Alternative title: K-GOD
1983 The Man Who Loved Women Uncredited
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1956 Science Fiction Theatre
Science Fiction Theatre
Science Fiction Theatre is an American science fiction anthology series that aired in syndication from April 1955 to April 1957. It was produced by Ivan Tors and Maurice Ziv.-Overview:...

Nina Lasalle 1 episode
1958 Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...

Miss Cooper 1 episode
1959 Yancy Derringer
Yancy Derringer
Yancy Derringer is an American Western series that ran on CBS from 1958 to 1959, with Jock Mahoney in the title role. It was produced by Derringer Productions and filmed in Hollywood by Desilu Productions...

Bonnie Mason 1 episode
1960 The Betty Hutton Show
The Betty Hutton Show
The Betty Hutton Show is an American sitcom that aired on CBS's Thursday night schedule during the 1959-1960 season. The show was sponsored by General Foods' Post Cereals, and was produced by Desilu and Hutton Productions....

Beverly Bell
1961 Lock-Up
Lock-Up (TV series)
Lock-Up is an American legal drama series that premiered in syndication in September 1959 and concluded in June 1961. The half-hour episodes had little time for character development or subplots and presented a compact story without embellishment....

Coralee 1 episode
1961–1963 The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963. The series and some episode scripts were adapted from a 1951 collection of short stories of the same name, written by Max Shulman, that also inspired the 1953 film The Affairs of Dobie Gillis with Debbie...

Lola LaVerne 3 episodes
1962 Outlaws Lotus 1 episode
1962–1965 Andy Griffith Show Skippy 3 episodes
1963 The Danny Thomas Show
The Danny Thomas Show
The Danny Thomas Show is an American sitcom which ran from 1953-1957 on ABC and from 1957-1964 on CBS...

Nikki Stewart 1 episode
1963 Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...

Rosie Feather 1 episode
1963 McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy is an American television sitcom series which ran for 138 half-hour episodes from October 11,1962, to August 31, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated in a one-hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962...

Kate O'Hara 1 episode
1964 Grindl
Grindl
Grindl is an American situation comedy that began in the fall of 1963 on NBC, originally sponsored by Procter & Gamble. The show, starring Imogene Coca in the title role, lasted for one season.-Synopsis:...

Laverne 1 episode
1965 The Baileys of Balboa
The Baileys of Balboa
The Baileys of Balboa is an American sitcom that appeared on CBS in the 1964-1965 season on Thursdays at 9:30pm ET. The series lasted only one 26-episode season...

Mary Brown 1 episode
1966 The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....

Blanche 1 episode
1966 Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. Irene 1 episode
1966 Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E...

Mady Pfeiffer
Eva Mueller
1 episode
1 episode
1967 The Big Valley
The Big Valley
The Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman...

The Blonde 1 episode
1967 The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. is an American spy-fi TV series that aired on NBC for one season from September 16, 1966 to April 11, 1967. The series was a spin-off from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and used the same theme music composed by Jerry Goldsmith, which was rearranged into a slightly different,...

Shirley Fummer 1 episode
1969 The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...

Millie 1 episode
1970 Run, Simon, Run Esther Television movie
Alternative titles: Savage Run
The Tradition of Simon Zuniga
1971 Ironside
Ironside (TV series)
Ironside is a Universal television series which ran on NBC from September 14, 1967 to January 16, 1975. The show starred Raymond Burr as the wheelchair-using Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside. The character's debut was in a TV-movie on March 28, 1967. The original title of the show in the...

Mrs. Akerman 1 episode
1972 Women in Chains Simpson Television movie
1973 Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy is Lucille Ball's third network television sitcom. It ran on CBS from 1968 to 1974.-Background:Though The Lucy Show was still hugely popular during the previous season, finishing in the top five of the Nielsen Ratings , Ball opted to end that series at the end of that season and create...

Prisoner 1 episode
1974 Movin' On
Movin' On (TV series)
Movin' On is an American drama series that ran for two seasons , between 1974 and 1976. It originally appeared on the NBC television network...

Angela Wentworth 1 episode
1975 The First 36 Hours of Dr. Durant Mrs. Graham Television movie
1976 Baretta
Baretta
Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma...

Lucille 1 episode
1977 The Feather and Father Gang Norma 1 episode
1978 Crash Sophie Cross Television movie
Alternative title: Crash of Flight 401
1979 The Wild Wild West Revisited Lola (Showgirl) Television movie
1982 The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy is an American action/adventure television program produced for ABC and originally broadcast from November 4, 1981 to May 2, 1986. It starred Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas. Majors and Barr are the only two actors to appear in all 112 episodes of the series...

Lucille 1 episode

External links

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