Jessica Walter (born January 31 1941) is an Emmy Award-winning American actress best known for her role as Lucille Bluth on the critically acclaimed television show Arrested Development.
Born in Brooklyn, Jessica Walter was raised in Queens, New York and graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts. In the early 1960s, she trained alongside James Caan and Christopher Lloyd at NYC's Neighborhood Playhouse before getting her big break, a regular role on the soap opera Love of Life. She appeared on the show from 1962 to 1965. She also had a recurring role on Trapper John, M.D. as Melanie McIntyre, Trapper John's ex-wife.
Her earliest notable film role was in the 1971 movie Play Misty for Me, in which she played a psychotic young woman stalking a disc jockey (played by Clint Eastwood). Walter's other film credits from that era include Lilith, Grand Prix, The Group, Bye Bye Braverman, and Number One.
She was the producers first choice for the role of "Alexis Carrington" in the primetime soap opera Dynasty.
In 1983, she had a role in the short-lived NBC primetime soap opera Bare Essence as "Ava Marshall".
Since then, Walter has worked most frequently in television and theater, though she did make an appearance in the 1994 film PCU. In the nineties, Walter lent her voice to Fran Sinclair on the ABC comedy Dinosaurs, and appeared on Just Shoot Me! as Eve Gallo, the mother of Maya and the ex-wife of magazine publisher Jack Gallo (George Segal).
From 2003 to 2006, she appeared in a regular role as the scheming socialite matriarch Lucille Bluth on FOX's critically acclaimed comedy series, Arrested Development. Despite her convincing portrayal of Lucille (in 2005, Walter received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the role), the actress has maintained that "I'm nothing like Lucille. Nothing. My daughter will tell you. I'm really a very nice, boring person."
Walter's daughter, Brooke, was born in 1975. Since 1983, Walter has been married to actor Ron Leibman, with whom she co-starred in Neil Simon's play Rumors. They also appeared together as husband and wife in the film Dummy and in the TV Series Law & Order in the episode, "House Counsel."
A graduate of New York's High School of the Performing Arts and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, Walter's extensive theater credits include productions both on and off Broadway. On Broadway, she has appeared in Peter Ustinov's "Photo Finish" (which earned her the Clarence Derwent Award as Most Promising Newcomer), "A Severed Head", "Advise and Consent", "Night Life" and Neil Simon's "Rumors". Her off-Broadway credits include roles at Playwrights Horizons and in Tartuffe, opposite Ron Leibman, at the Los Angeles Theater Center. Walter's feature films include Play Misty for Me (1971), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination, and the comedy Slums of Beverly Hills (1998). She has also appeared in Group, The (1966), Flamingo Kid, The (1984), Grand Prix (1966), Tapeheads (1988) and PCU (1994), among other films. Walter received an Emmy Award for Best Dramatic Actress in the television series "Amy Prentiss" (1974). She also earned Emmy nominations for her guest-starring roles in episodes of "Trapper John, M.D." (1979) and "Streets of San Francisco, The" (1972). Walter has starred in several series, miniseries and television movies.
