| Mariette Hartley | |
| Birth Date: | 21 June 1940[1] |
| Birth Place: | Weston, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education: | Carnegie Institute of Technology (BFA) |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Yearsactive: | 1962–present |
| Spouse: | |
| Children: | 2 |
| Father: | Paul Hartley |
| Relatives: | John B. Watson (grandfather) |
Mary Loretta Hartley (born June 21, 1940) is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her roles in film as Elsa Knudsen in Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962), Susan Clabon in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), and Betty Lloyd in John Sturges' Marooned (1969). She has appeared extensively on television, with notable roles as Claire Morton in the ABC soap opera Peyton Place (1965), various roles in the CBS television Western drama series Gunsmoke, and a series of commercials with James Garner in the 1970s and 1980s.
Hartley was born in Weston, Connecticut on June 21, 1940, the daughter of Mary "Polly" Ickes (née Watson), a manager and saleswoman, and Paul Hembree Hartley, an account executive. Her maternal grandfather was John B. Watson, an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism.[2] She grew up in Weston, Connecticut, an affluent Fairfield County suburb within commuting distance to Manhattan.[3]
She graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1965.[4]
Hartley began her career as a 13-year-old in the White Barn Theatre in Norwalk, Connecticut. In her teens as a stage actress, she was coached and mentored by Eva Le Gallienne. She graduated in 1957 from Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut, where she was an active member of the school's theater group, Staples Players. While a student at Staples, she boldly telephoned screenwriter Rod Serling to ask him to speak in her class. Serling answered the call himself, chose to visit and speak in her classroom, and years later remembering their previous interaction, cast Hartley in an episode ("The Long Morrow") of The Twilight Zone.[5] Hartley also worked at the American Shakespeare Festival.[6]
Her film career began with an uncredited cameo appearance in From Hell to Texas (1958), a Western with Dennis Hopper. In the early 1960s, she moved to Los Angeles and joined the UCLA Theater Group.[7]
Hartley's first credited film appearance was alongside Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea in the 1962 Sam Peckinpah Western Ride the High Country; the role earned her a BAFTA award nomination.[8] She continued to appear in film during the 1960s, including the lead role in the adventure Drums of Africa (1963), and prominent supporting roles in Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Marnie (1964) — alongside Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery — and the John Sturges drama Marooned (1969).
Hartley also guest-starred in numerous TV series during the decade, with appearances in Gunsmoke (five times including the title character in “Cotter’s Girl” in 1962); The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters; Death Valley Days; Judd, for the Defense; Bonanza; and Star Trek (as Zarabeth, Spock's love interest in S3 E23 "All Our Yesterdays", which aired on 3/13/1969) [9] among others. In 1965, she had a significant role as Dr. Claire Morton in 32 episodes of Peyton Place.
Hartley continued to perform in film and TV during the 1970s, including two Westerns alongside Lee Van Cleef, Barquero (1970) and The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972); and TV series including The Love Boat; The Streets of San Francisco; Emergency!; McCloud; Little House on the Prairie; Love, American Style; Police Woman; and Columbo (1974’s Publish or Perish co-starring Jack Cassidy and 1977’s Try and Catch Me with Ruth Gordon). Hartley portrays similar characters as a publisher's assistant in both episodes.
In 1977, Hartley appeared in the TV movie The Last Hurrah, a political drama based on the Edwin O'Connor novel of the same name; and earned her first Emmy Award nomination.
Her role as psychologist Dr. Carolyn Fields in "Married", a 1978 episode of the TV series The Incredible Hulk in which she marries Bill Bixby's character, the alter ego of the Hulk, won Hartley the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She was nominated for the same award for her performance in an episode of The Rockford Files the following year.
In 1983, Hartley reunited with Bixby in the sitcom Goodnight, Beantown, which ran for two seasons and brought her another Emmy Award nomination. (She worked with Bixby again in the 1992 TV movie A Diagnosis of Murder, the first of three TV movies that launched the series ).
In 1987, she co-hosted CBS's The Morning Program weekday morning news show alongside Rolland Smith, for ten months.[10] [11]
In the 1990s, Hartley toured with Elliott Gould and Doug Wert in the revival of the mystery play Deathtrap.Numerous roles in TV movies and guest appearances in TV series during the 1990s and 2000s followed, including Murder, She Wrote (1992), Courthouse (1995), Nash Bridges (2000), and NCIS (2005). She had recurring roles as Sister Mary Daniel in the soap opera One Life to Live (1999–2001; 10 episodes), and as Lorna Scarry in six episodes of (2003–2011).
From 1995 to 2015, she hosted the long-running television documentary series Wild About Animals, an educational program.
In 2006, Hartley starred in her own one-woman show, If You Get to Bethlehem, You've Gone Too Far, which ran in Los Angeles. She returned to the stage in 2014 as Eleanor of Aquitaine (with Ian Buchanan as Henry) in the Colony Theater Company production of James Goldman's The Lion in Winter.
In January 2018, Hartley began a recurring role on the Fox first-responder drama 9-1-1 as Patricia Clark, the Alzheimer's-afflicted mother of dispatcher Abby Clark (Connie Britton).
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hartley appeared with James Garner in a popular series of television commercials advertising Polaroid cameras. The two actors had such natural on-screen chemistry that many viewers erroneously believed that they were married in real life. Hartley's 1990 biography, Breaking the Silence, indicates that she began to wear a T-shirt printed with the phrase "I am not Mrs. James Garner."[12] (Hartley went as far to have a shirt made for her infant son, reading "I am not James Garner's Child" and even one for her then-husband: "I am not James Garner!" James Garner's actual wife then jokingly had a T-shirt printed with "I am Mrs. James Garner.") Hartley guest-starred in an episode of Garner's television series The Rockford Files in 1979. The script required the two to kiss at one point and unbeknownst to them, a paparazzo was photographing the scene from a distance. The photos were run in a tabloid trying to provoke a scandal. An article that ran in TV Guide was titled: "That woman is not James Garner's wife!"
Between 2001 and 2006, Hartley endorsed the See Clearly Method, a commercial eye exercise program, whose sales were halted by an Iowa court after a finding of fraudulent business practices and advertising.[13] [14]
Hartley received an honorary degree from Rider College in 1993.
Hartley has been married three times. Her first marriage was to John Seventa (1960–1962). She married Patrick Boyriven on August 13, 1978; they had two children, Sean and Justine.[15] The couple divorced in 1996. In 2005, Hartley married Jerry Sroka.[16] Hartley and Sroka co-wrote and starred in a romantic comedy based on their lives titled Our Almost Completely True Story, released in 2022.[17]
In her 1990 autobiography Breaking the Silence, written with Anne Commire, Hartley talked about her struggles with psychological problems, pointing directly to her grandfather's (Dr. Watson) practical application of his theories as the source of the dysfunction in his family. She has also spoken in public about her experience with bipolar disorder and was a founder of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.[18] She currently serves as the foundation's national spokesperson.
In 2003, Hartley was hired by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline to increase awareness of bipolar medications and treatments. She frequently promotes awareness of bipolar disorder and suicide prevention.[19]
In 2009, Hartley spoke at a suicide and violence prevention forum about her father's suicide.[20]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1958 | From Hell to Texas | Uncredited | |
| 1962 | Ride the High Country | Elsa Knudsen | Nominated—BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles |
| 1963 | Drums of Africa | Ruth Knight | |
| 1964 | Marnie | Susan Clabon | |
| 1969 | Marooned | Betty Lloyd | |
| 1969 | The Vendors | Hooker | |
| 1970 | Barquero | Anna | |
| 1971 | The Return of Count Yorga | Cynthia Nelson | |
| 1972 | Skyjacked | Harriet Stevens | |
| 1972 | The Magnificent Seven Ride! | Arrila | |
| 1973 | Genesis II | Lyra-a | |
| 1981 | Improper Channels | Diana Martley | |
| 1982 | O'Hara's Wife | Harry O'Hara | |
| 1988 | 1969 | Jessie Denny | |
| 1992 | Encino Man | Mrs. Morgan | Also known as California Man |
| 1996 | Snitch | Kinnison | |
| 2003 | Baggage | Emily Wade | |
| 2006 | Novel Romance | Marty McCall | |
| 2009 | The Inner Circle | Sister Madeleine | |
| 2016 | Three Days in August | Maureen | |
| 2016 | Silver Skies | Harriet | |
| 2017 | Counting for Thunder | Tina Stalworth | |
| 2019 | The Message | Esther Barnes | |
| 2022 | Our Almost Completely True Story | Mariette | |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | Stoney Burke | Laura Grayson | Episode: "Bandwagon" | |
| 1963–1964 | Breaking Point | Various | 2 episodes | |
| 1963–1974 | Gunsmoke | Various | 5 episodes | |
| 1963 | Dr. Kildare | Ellen Hendricks | Episode: "Face of Fear" | |
| 1963 | Ben Casey | Julie Carr | Episode: "For I Will Plait thy Hair with Gold" | |
| 1963 | The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters | Hagar Menifee | Episode: "The Day of the Misfits" | |
| 1963 | Channing | Evelyn Crown | Episode: "The Last Testament of Buddy Crown" | |
| 1964 | The Twilight Zone | Sandra Horn | Episode: "The Long Morrow" | |
| 1964 | The Virginian | Various | 2 episodes | |
| 1964 | My Three Sons | Mary Kathleen Connolly | 2 episodes | |
| 1965–1968 | Death Valley Days | Various | 4 episodes | |
| 1965–1971 | Bonanza | Various | 4 episodes | |
| 1965 | Peyton Place | Claire Morton | 32 episodes | |
| 1966–1967 | The Hero | Ruth Garret | 16 episodes | |
| 1966 | The Legend of Jesse James | Polly Dockery | Episode: "A Burying for Rosey" | |
| 1967 | He & She | Dorothy Webb | Episode: "The Coming-Out Party" | |
| 1968–1970 | Daniel Boone | Various | 2 episodes | |
| 1968 | Judd, for the Defense | Erica Cosgrove | Episode: "No Law Against Murder" | |
| 1968 | Cimarron Strip | Jessica Cabot | Episode: "Big Jessie" | |
| 1969 | The Outsider | Mary Smith | Episode: "The Girl from Missouri" | |
| 1969 | Zarabeth | S3:E23, "All Our Yesterdays" | ||
| 1970–1973 | The F.B.I. | Various | 2 episodes | |
| 1970–1975 | Insight | Various | 2 episodes | |
| 1970 | Love, American Style | Ruth Dabb | Episode: "Love and the Fighting Couple" | |
| 1970 | Marcus Welby, M.D. | Maggie Lynch | Episode: "To Carry the Sun in a Golden Cup" | |
| 1971 | Cade's County | Frances Pilgrim | Episode: "The Armageddon Contract" | |
| 1971 | Earth II | Lisa Karger | TV movie | |
| 1972 | Mannix | Nurse Cara Guild | Episode: "Death Is the Fifth Gear" | |
| 1972 | Night Gallery | Prof. Diana Parker/Terry Parker | Episode: "Eye of the Haunted" | |
| 1972 | Sandcastles | Sarah | TV movie | |
| 1972 | The Delphi Bureau | Sarah Bowmont | Episode: "The White Plague Project" | |
| 1972 | Ghost Story | Sheila Conway | Episode: "Cry of the Cat" | |
| 1972 | Helen Burke | Episode: "A Purge of Madness" | ||
| 1973–1974 | The Streets of San Francisco | Various | 2 episodes | |
| 1973 | Mystery in Dracula's Castle | Marsha Booth | TV movie | |
| 1973 | The Magical World of Disney | Marsha Booth | 2 episodes | |
| 1973 | The F.B.I. | Doe Riley | Episode: The Double Play | |
| 1973 | Genesis II | Lyra-a | TV movie | |
| 1973 | The Bob Newhart Show | Marilyn Dietz | Episode: "Have You Met Miss Dietz?" | |
| 1973 | Emergency! | Vera Mannering | Episode: "Zero" | |
| 1973 | Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law | Roberta Laughlin | Episode: "Snatches of a Crazy Song" | |
| 1974–1977 | Columbo | Various | 2 episodes | |
| 1974 | The Wide World of Mystery | Various | 2 episodes | |
| 1974 | Friends and Lovers | Sandra | Episode: "Moran's the Man" | |
| 1974 | Barnaby Jones | Various | 2 episodes | |
| 1975 | McCloud | Ann Lassiter | Episode: "Lady on the Run" | |
| 1976 | Little House on the Prairie | Elizabeth Thurmond | Episode: "For My Lady" | |
| 1976 | The Killer Who Wouldn't Die | Heather McDougall | TV movie | |
| 1976 | The Quest | Vay | Episode: "Shanklin" | |
| 1976 | Most Wanted | Lt. Ruth Massey | Episode: "The Corrupter" | |
| 1977 | Police Woman | Gloria Turner | Episode: "Banker's Hours" | |
| 1977 | Delvecchio | Angela Atkins | Episode: "Dying Can Be a Pleasure" | |
| 1977 | The African Queen | Rose Sayer | TV movie | |
| 1977 | Kathleen Morgan | Episode: "Shadow Game" | ||
| 1977 | The Last Hurrah | Clare Gardiner | TV movie Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie | |
| 1977 | The Oregon Trail | Susan | Episode: "Wagon Race" | |
| 1978 | Logan's Run | Ariana | Episode: "Futurepast" | |
| 1978 | The Incredible Hulk | Dr. Carolyn Fields | Episode: "Married" Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series | |
| 1979 | M*A*S*H | Dr. Inga Halvorsen | Episode: "Inga" | |
| 1979 | A Rainy Day | Stephanie Carter | Short | |
| 1979 | Stone | Mrs. Diane Stone | Pilot | |
| 1979 | The Rockford Files | Althea Morgan | Episode: "Paradise Cove" Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series | |
| 1979 | The Halloween That Almost Wasn't | The Witch | Short Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program | |
| 1980 | The Love Tapes | Barbara Welles | TV movie | |
| 1980 | The Secret War of Jackie's Girls | Jackie | TV movie | |
| 1981 | No Place to Hide | Adele Manning | TV movie | |
| 1982 | Drop-Out Father | Katherine McCall | TV movie | |
| 1983–1984 | Goodnight, Beantown | Jennifer Barnes | 18 episodes Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | |
| 1983 | M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers | Candy Lightner | TV movie Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie | |
| 1983 | The Love Boat | Martha Chambers | 2 episodes | |
| 1984 | Silence of the Heart | Barbara Lewis | TV movie | |
| 1985 | Rahab | Episode: "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho" | ||
| 1986 | One Terrific Guy | Mrs. Burton | TV movie | |
| 1986 | My Two Loves | Gail Springer | TV movie | |
| 1989 | Passion and Paradise | Lady Oakes | TV movie | |
| 1990–1991 | WIOU | Liz McVay | 14 episodes | |
| 1990 | Murder C.O.D. | Sally Kramer | TV movie | |
| 1992 | A Diagnosis of Murder | Kate Hamilton | TV movie | |
| 1992 | Murder on Sycamore Street | TV movie | ||
| 1992 | Child of Rage | Dr. Rosemary Myers | TV movie | |
| 1992 | Murder, She Wrote | Susan Lindsay | Episode: "Night of the Coyote" | |
| 1993 | Perry Mason: The Case of the Telltale Talk Show Host | Dr. Sheila Carlin | TV movie | |
| 1994 | Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III | Prudence | Miniseries | |
| 1995–2015 | Wild About Animals | Hostess | 70 episodes | |
| 1995 | Freefall: Flight 174 | Beth Pearson | TV movie | |
| 1995 | Courthouse | Judge Katherine Wilkes | Episode: "Justice Delayed" | |
| 1996 | Caroline in the City | Margaret Duffy | Episode: "Caroline and the Twenty-Eight-Pound Walleye" | |
| 1998 | Conan the Adventurer | Queen Veeta | Episode: "Heir Apparent" | |
| 1998 | To Have & to Hold | Ellen Cornell | 8 episodes | |
| 1999–2001 | One Life to Live | Sister Mary Daniel | 10 episodes | |
| 1999 | Kismet | Mother | Short | |
| 1999 | The Brothers Flub | Voice | 16 episodes | |
| 1999 | Twice in a Lifetime | Brooke Canby/Janet Bryant | Episode: "O'er the Rampants We Watched" | |
| 2000 | Nash Bridges | Libby | Episode: "Manhunt" | |
| 2001 | Kate Brasher | Gloria Raskin | Episode: "Simon" | |
| 2003–2011 | Lorna Scarry | 6 episodes | ||
| 2004 | Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus | Joanna | TV movie | |
| 2005 | NCIS | Hanna Lowell | Episode: "SWAK" | |
| 2005 | Meet the Santas | Joanna | TV movie | |
| 2007 | Love Is a Four Letter Word | Audrey | TV movie | |
| 2007 | Dirt | Dorothy Spiller | 2 episodes | |
| 2008 | Saving Grace | Emily Jane Ada | Episode: "You Are My Partner" | |
| 2008 | Grey's Anatomy | Betty Kenner | 2 episodes | |
| 2008 | Cold Case | Gloria Flagstone '08 | Episode: "Wings" | |
| 2009 | The Cleaner | Jane O'Hara | Episode: "Hello America" | |
| 2010 | Nurses Who Kill... | Paulette | Short | |
| 2011 | Big Love | Major | Episode: "A Seat at the Table" | |
| 2013 | The Mentalist | Elise Vogelson | Episode: "Red Lacquer Nail Polish" | |
| 2014–2015 | The Comeback Kids | Richie's Mom | 4 episodes | |
| 2014–2018 | Fireside Chat with Esther | Various | 10 episodes | |
| 2015 | The Dentros | Joan Dentro | Short | |
| 2018 | 9-1-1 | Patricia Clark | 7 episodes | |
| 2019 | Homeless at 17 | Marnie | TV movie | |
| 2019 | House on the Hill (aka He's Out to Get You) | Ellen Snow | TV movie | |
| 2020 | "Escaping My Stalker" | Grandmother | TV movie |