Lois Nettleton
Encyclopedia
Lois June Nettleton was an American actress of film, stage, and television. She was Miss Chicago of 1948 as well as a semifinalist at that year's Miss America
Pageant.
(near Chicago
) to Edward and Virginia Nettleton, her professional acting career began in 1949. She understudied Barbara Bel Geddes
in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams
' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
and first appeared on television in Captain Video
.
(in the classic episode "The Midnight Sun
" in 1961), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (episode "The Dark Pool", 1963), Route 66
, The Virginian
, The Eleventh Hour
, Night Gallery
(in the 2nd season episode "I'll Never Leave You—Ever"), The Fugitive
, The Mary Tyler Moore Show
, Kung Fu, Centennial, Cagney & Lacey
, Seinfeld
, Baywatch Nights
, Murder, She Wrote
, and Babylon 5
("Soul Mates
", 1994). In 1987, she portrayed the role of Penny VanderHof Sycamore on the TV series version of the classic Hart/Kauffman comedy play You Can't Take It With You
with Harry Morgan
(of M*A*S*H fame) and Richard Sanders (WKRP in Cincinnati
). She was a regular celebrity guest on various versions of the game show Pyramid
from the 1970s through 1991.
Nettleton won two Emmy Award
s during her career. She won one for, "The American Woman: Profiles in Courage" (1977), and one for, "A Gun For Mandy" (1983), which was an episode of the religious anthology, "Insight." She also received an Emmy Award nomination for, "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series," for an episode of, The Golden Girls
, titled, "Isn't It Romantic?," in which she portrayed a lesbian and college friend of "Dorothy" bereaving from the loss of her long-term partner; and, she received Emmy nominations for her work in the TV movie, Fear on Trial (1975) ("Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special") and for a recurring role on the series In the Heat of the Night
, in 1989 ("Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series"). She won two Daytime Emmy Awards for her work on General Hospital
.
for her performance as "Amy" in a 1976 revival of They Knew What They Wanted
, and she received critical praise for her stage performance as Blanche DuBois
in a 1973 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire
. Other stage credits include Broadway productions of Darkness at Noon and Silent Night, Lonely Night.
She appeared in a 1959 off-Broadway production of Look Charlie, which was written by her future husband, humorist Jean Shepherd
. Nettleton continued to act on stage into her seventies. Her final stage performance was in 2004, in an off-Broadway play called How to Build a Better Tulip.
' Period of Adjustment
, Elia Kazan
's A Face in the Crowd, The Man in the Glass Booth
,and Colin Higgins
'
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
. In 1964 she played the role of the bride in Mail Order Bride, a western film also starring Buddy Ebsen
and Keir Dullea
. She was also in The Honkers with James Coburn
. She also played the villainous murderer Maud Wendell in the TV mini series Centennial.
(as Maleficent
), and Herc's Adventures
.
's late-night radio program on WOR-AM. She became a regular guest, known to listeners as "The Caller," and they married in 1960, divorcing seven years later. They had no children.
TV movie special, "The Christmas Card
," and her last public appearance was at the 2007 Twilight Zone Convention, in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
, in August 2007. She died at the age of 80, from lung cancer
, in Woodland Hills, California, on January 18, 2008. She was interred in New York City
's Saint Raymond's Cemetery
.
Miss America
The Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
Pageant.
Early years
Born in Oak Park, IllinoisOak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
(near Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
) to Edward and Virginia Nettleton, her professional acting career began in 1949. She understudied Barbara Bel Geddes
Barbara Bel Geddes
Barbara Bel Geddes was an American actress, artist and children's author. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the role of Maggie...
in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...
and first appeared on television in Captain Video
Captain Video
Captain Video and His Video Rangers is an American science fiction television series. It was broadcast on the DuMont Television Network, and was the first series of its kind on American television...
.
Television roles/Emmy Award nominations
She performed in dozens of guest-starring roles on shows, including the original Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
(in the classic episode "The Midnight Sun
The Midnight Sun
"The Midnight Sun" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:The Earth has begun moving away from its usual orbit and is gradually falling in its rotation towards the sun. A prolific artist, Norma, and her landlady, Mrs. Bronson, are the last people in...
" in 1961), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (episode "The Dark Pool", 1963), Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
, 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...
, The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (1962 TV series)
The Eleventh Hour is an American medical drama about psychiatry starring Wendell Corey, Jack Ging, and Ralph Bellamy, which aired sixty-two new episodes plus selected rebroadcasts on NBC from October 3, 1962, to September 9, 1964.-Series premise:...
, Night Gallery
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...
(in the 2nd season episode "I'll Never Leave You—Ever"), The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
, The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977...
, Kung Fu, Centennial, Cagney & Lacey
Cagney & Lacey
Cagney & Lacey is an American television series that originally aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from October 8, 1981 to May 16, 1988...
, Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
, Baywatch Nights
Baywatch Nights
Baywatch Nights was an American police and science fiction drama series that aired in syndication from 1995 to 1997. Created by Douglas Schwartz, David Hasselhoff, and Gregory J. Bonann, the series is a spin-off from the popular television series, Baywatch.-Synopsis:The original premise of the show...
, 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,...
, and Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
("Soul Mates
Soul Mates
"Soul Mates" is a second season episode of the science fiction television series Babylon 5.-Synopsis:Londo Mollari brings his three wives, all of whom barely tolerate him, to the station for the purpose of divorcing two of them as part of a special boon granted by the Centauri Emperor...
", 1994). In 1987, she portrayed the role of Penny VanderHof Sycamore on the TV series version of the classic Hart/Kauffman comedy play You Can't Take It With You
You Can't Take It with You
You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play opened at the Booth Theater on December 14, 1936, and played for 837 performances...
with Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan is an American actor. Morgan is well-known for his roles as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H , Pete Porter on both Pete and Gladys and December Bride , Detective Bill Gannon on Dragnet , and Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey...
(of M*A*S*H fame) and Richard Sanders (WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati
WKRP in Cincinnati is an American situation comedy that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta...
). She was a regular celebrity guest on various versions of the game show Pyramid
Pyramid (game show)
Pyramid is an American television game show which has aired several versions. The original series, The $10,000 Pyramid, debuted March 26, 1973 and spawned seven subsequent Pyramid series...
from the 1970s through 1991.
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s during her career. She won one for, "The American Woman: Profiles in Courage" (1977), and one for, "A Gun For Mandy" (1983), which was an episode of the religious anthology, "Insight." She also received an Emmy Award nomination for, "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series," for an episode of, The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
, titled, "Isn't It Romantic?," in which she portrayed a lesbian and college friend of "Dorothy" bereaving from the loss of her long-term partner; and, she received Emmy nominations for her work in the TV movie, Fear on Trial (1975) ("Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special") and for a recurring role on the series In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night (TV series)
In the Heat of the Night is a television series based on the motion picture and novel of the same name. It was broadcast on NBC from 1988 until 1992, and then on CBS until 1995...
, in 1989 ("Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series"). She won two Daytime Emmy Awards for her work on General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
.
Stage roles
She was nominated for a Tony AwardTony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for her performance as "Amy" in a 1976 revival of They Knew What They Wanted
They Knew What They Wanted (play)
They Knew What They Wanted is a 1924 play written by Sidney Howard that tells the story of Tony, an aging Italian winegrower in the California Napa Valley, who proposes by letter to Amy, a San Francisco waitress who waited on him once. Fearing that she will find him too old and ugly, Tony sends her...
, and she received critical praise for her stage performance as Blanche DuBois
Blanche DuBois
Blanche DuBois is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire...
in a 1973 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
. Other stage credits include Broadway productions of Darkness at Noon and Silent Night, Lonely Night.
She appeared in a 1959 off-Broadway production of Look Charlie, which was written by her future husband, humorist Jean Shepherd
Jean Shepherd
Jean Parker Shepherd was an American raconteur, radio and TV personality, writer and actor who was often referred to by the nickname Shep....
. Nettleton continued to act on stage into her seventies. Her final stage performance was in 2004, in an off-Broadway play called How to Build a Better Tulip.
Film roles
Her film roles included Tennessee WilliamsTennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
' Period of Adjustment
Period of Adjustment (film)
Period of Adjustment is a 1962 drama film directed by George Roy Hill. his first feature-length film, and based on the play of the same name by Tennessee Williams.-Plot summary:...
, Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
's A Face in the Crowd, The Man in the Glass Booth
The Man in the Glass Booth
The Man in the Glass Booth is a 1975 American drama film directed by Arthur Hiller. The screenplay was adapted from Robert Shaw's 1967 novel and 1968 stage play, both of the same name. The plot was inspired by images of the trial of Adolf Eichmann....
,and Colin Higgins
Colin Higgins
Colin Higgins was an Australian-American screenwriter, actor, director, and producer. He was best known for writing the screenplay for the 1971 film Harold and Maude. and for directing the films Foul Play and Nine to Five .-Biography:Higgins was born in Nouméa, New Caledonia to an Australian...
'
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (film)
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a 1982 film adaptation of the musical of the same name released by Universal Pictures, which was co-written and directed by Colin Higgins...
. In 1964 she played the role of the bride in Mail Order Bride, a western film also starring Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
and Keir Dullea
Keir Dullea
Keir Dullea is an American actor best known for the character of astronaut David Bowman, whom he portrayed in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and in 1984's 2010: The Year We Make Contact...
. She was also in The Honkers with James Coburn
James Coburn
James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...
. She also played the villainous murderer Maud Wendell in the TV mini series Centennial.
Voice roles
In recent years, she did several voice roles for Disney, such as Disney's House of MouseDisney's House of Mouse
Disney's House of Mouse is an American animated television series, produced by Walt Disney Television, that originally aired from 2001 to 2003-Premise:...
(as Maleficent
Maleficent
Maleficent is a fictional character and the main antagonist in Walt Disney's 1959 adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. She is the self-proclaimed "Mistress of All Evil" who, after not being invited to the baby's christening, curses the infant Princess Aurora to "prick her finger on the spindle of a...
), and Herc's Adventures
Herc's Adventures
Herc's Adventures is the title of a video game released for the Sega Saturn and the PlayStation by LucasArts Entertainment in 1997.The overhead, action-adventure format was similar to Zombies Ate My Neighbors...
.
Marriage
She was the first caller to Jean ShepherdJean Shepherd
Jean Parker Shepherd was an American raconteur, radio and TV personality, writer and actor who was often referred to by the nickname Shep....
's late-night radio program on WOR-AM. She became a regular guest, known to listeners as "The Caller," and they married in 1960, divorcing seven years later. They had no children.
Last years/Death
Nettleton appeared in a 2006 ChristmasChristmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
TV movie special, "The Christmas Card
The Christmas Card
The Christmas Card is a Hallmark Channel original movie produced by RHI Entertainment. It was released December 2, 2006, and was written by Joany Kane and directed by Stephen Bridgewater...
," and her last public appearance was at the 2007 Twilight Zone Convention, in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
Hasbrouck Heights is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 11,842. An inner-ring suburb of New York City, Hasbrouck Heights is located approximately northwest of Midtown Manhattan and west of Upper Manhattan.Hasbrouck Heights was...
, in August 2007. She died at the age of 80, from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
, in Woodland Hills, California, on January 18, 2008. She was interred 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...
's Saint Raymond's Cemetery
Saint Raymond's Cemetery, Bronx
Saint Raymond's Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery at 2600 Lafayette Avenue in the Throggs Neck section of The Bronx, New York City. The cemetery is composed of two separate locations: the older section , located west of the Hutchinson River Parkway; and the newer section , which is east of...
.