Joanne Linville

Joanne Linville (January 15, 1928 – June 20, 2021) was an American actress. She later taught at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre in Los Angeles.

Early life Linville was born in Bakersfield, California, on January 15, 1928. She attended high school in Long Beach, California, and worked as an oral surgeon's assistant before studying acting. While she studied with Stella Adler, she danced professionally to pay her tuition.

Career Acting Linville's motion-picture credits include The Goddess (1958), Scorpio (1973), Gable and Lombard (1976), A Star Is Born (1976), The Seduction (1982), and James Dean (2001).

In 1959, Linville appeared on the CBS daytime drama The Guiding Light as Amy Sinclair, a runaway drug addict whose daughter was nearly taken from her as part of an illegal adoption scam ring. Linville starred in two television presentations of One Step Beyond— as Aunt Mina in the episode "The Dead Part of the House" (1959) and as Karen Wadsworth in the episode "A Moment of Hate" (1960).

In 1961, she starred in the Twilight Zone episode "The Passersby". Also in 1961, she was in the second episode of The Defenders with William Shatner.

In 1968, Linville guest-starred as an unnamed Romulan commander (retroactively named Liviana Charvanek in printed materials) in Star Trek episode "The Enterprise Incident". This role earned Linville cult status and remains her best-known performance.

Linville's other television appearances include Decoy (in the premiere episode), Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Have Gun Will Travel, Coronado 9, Checkmate, Adventures in Paradise, Empire, Gunsmoke (three episodes), Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, Route 66, The Eleventh Hour, I Spy, Bonanza, The Fugitive, The F.B.I. (two episodes), The Invaders (two episodes), Felony Squad, Hawaii Five-O (three episodes), Kojak, Columbo: Candidate for Crime, The Streets of San Francisco (two episodes), Barnaby Jones, Switch, Charlie's Angels, CHiPs, Mrs. Columbo, Dynasty, and L.A. Law.

Linville appeared in the made-for-TV movies House on Greenapple Road (and the resulting series Dan August) (1970), Secrets (1977), The Critical List (1978), The Users (1978), and The Right of the People (1986). Linville played the mother of Janine Turner's character in Behind the Screen. Linville and George Grizzard starred in "I Kiss Your Shadow", the final episode of the television series Bus Stop.

Linville portrayed Valeria in the Broadway production Daughter of Silence (1961). Linville played gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in the television movie James Dean (2001), directed by her former husband Mark Rydell, who also played Jack L. Warner.

Writing and teaching Linville retired from acting in the 1980s to concentrate on teaching.

Filmography Film

Television