Mariette Hartley
Mary Loretta Hartley is an American Emmy Award winning character actress, and a founder of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Early life
Hartley was born in New York City, the daughter of Mary "Polly" Ickes, 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. Hartley has a younger brother, Paul, who is a writer and research philosopher. She grew up in Weston, Connecticut, an affluent Fairfield County suburb within commuting distance to Manhattan.She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1965. She received an Honorary degree from Rider College in 1993.
Acting career
Early acting appearances
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 from Westport's Staples High School in 1957, where she was an active member of the school's theater group, Staples Players. Hartley also worked at the American Shakespeare Festival.Her film career began with an uncredited cameo appearance in From Hell to Texas, a western with Dennis Hopper. In the early 1960s, she moved to Los Angeles and joined the UCLA Theater Group.
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 nomination. She continued to appear in film during the 1960s, including the lead role in the adventure Drums of Africa, and prominent supporting roles in Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Marnie — alongside Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery — and the John Sturges drama Marooned.
Hartley also guest starred in numerous TV series during the decade, with appearances in Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, the syndicated Death Valley Days, Judd, for the Defense, Bonanza and among others. In 1965, she had a significant role as Dr. Claire Morton in 32 episodes of Peyton Place.
in Gunsmoke
1970s and 1980s
Hartley continued to feature in numerous film and TV roles during the 1970s, including appearances in two Westerns alongside Lee Van Cleef, Barquero and The Magnificent Seven Ride, as well as landing guest roles in episodes of series including Emergency, McCloud, Little House on the Prairie, Police Woman and Columbo — starring in two editions of the latter alongside Peter Falk;Publish or Perish co-starring Jack Cassidy and 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 film
based on the Edwin O'Connor novel of the same name; the role earned Hartley 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 would be 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; the role earned her yet another Emmy Award nomination..
Later career
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 would follow, including Murder, She Wrote, Courthouse, Nash Bridges and NCIS. She had recurring roles as Sister Mary Daniel in the soap opera One Life to Live, and as Lorna Scarry in 6 episodes of .
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's 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.
Advertising
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 amazing 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." 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.
Personal life
Hartley has been married three times. Her first marriage was to John Seventa. She married Patrick Boyriven on August 13, 1978, with whom she had two children, Sean and Justine. The couple divorced in 1996.In 2005, Hartley married Jerry Sroka.
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 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. 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.
In 2009, Hartley spoke at a suicide and violence prevention forum about her father's suicide.