And The Name Is Mariette Hartley!

Mariette Hartley is not just someone who has worked a lot (although she has), she is someone who has gone through a lot of real life drama as well...
...and I'm not even talking about working with Sam "Bloody Sam" Peckinpah in "Ride The High Country"...
...and I doubt working with the mighty James Garner in both Polaroid commercials and "The Rockford Files" would've been too stressful...
...or working with the great Bill Bixby in "The Incredible Hulk"(an Emmy award-winning performance) or the short lived sitcom "Goodnight Beantown". Although this still makes it look like Bixby's about to push her off a cliff.



But I digress.

I can remember the first time I saw her in a TV movie made for "The Wonderful World Of Disney" entitled "The Mystery in Dracula's Castle", but she had been working way before then.

And don't take my word for it. Her website's bio will corroborate (yay, I said "corroborate")...

Mariette Hartley is an Emmy Award-winning (and six times nominated) Best Actress. She has established herself as an enduring star on stage, in five television series, countless television movies, and more than a dozen feature films. Her adventurous stage career has embodied the works of Chekhov and Shakespeare as well as musicals, and she has shared the stage with such notables as Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy and Charlton Heston. Her tireless efforts in helping humanity through myriad charitable involvements has not only distinguished her career from its early beginnings, but has made her one of the top motivational speakers in the country.

One of the last young performers chosen by MGM Studios to be groomed for motion picture stardom, Hartley conquered Hollywood in Sam Peckinpah's classic Ride the High Country. Her subsequent starring roles included Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Marnie, with Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren; Skyjacked, with Charlton Heston; and Improper Channels, opposite Alan Arkin, for which she was nominated for a Genie Award (Canada's equivalent of the Oscar) for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress.

Hartley has also appeared in dozens of television projects. She was a regular cast member on the series Peyton Place and Goodnight, Beantown, and guest-starred on episodes of Gunsmoke, The Bob Newhart Show, The Streets of San Francisco, McCloud, M*A*SH, Nash Bridges, and many more. She also starred in such acclaimed TV movies as M.A.D.D.: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and Silence of the Heart. Hartley may be best known for those great Polaroid commercials she did for six years with James Garner, and for which she won three Clio awards, advertising's highest honor. In 1980, she substituted for Jane Pauley on NBC's Today Show, and in 1987 was co-host of CBS's The Morning Program.

More recently, Mariette starred in Hallmark Channel's Meet the Santas, and she currently has a recurring role on Law & Order: SVU.

Hartley studied with Eva Le Gallienne and John Houseman, touring with Houseman's Stratford, CT Shakespeare Festival in A Midsummer Night's Dream and in The Winter's Tale with Bert Lahr. In the early 60s, after moving to Los Angeles, she was a member of the UCLA Theatre Group, starring in To Clothe the Naked, Measure for Measure, and Antigone. She reprised her role as Isabella in Measure for the famed Joe Papp at the Delacorte, who brought her back to play Constance in King John. Regionally, she appeared in The Merchant of Venice (Goodman), Mrs. Warren's Profession (Huntington Theatre); A.R. Gurney's Buffalo Gals (Williamstown); and The Seagull, directed by Jack O'Brien (Old Globe). Locally, she appeared in The Miser with Hume Cronym and Jessica Tandy (Mark Taper) and Chemin de Fer. She received a Drama-Logue Award for Trojan Women and an Ovation nomination for Enchanted April, and toured in The Sisters Rosensweig (Drama-Logue Award), Death Trap, and Copenhagen (for which she received the Broadway Ovation Award). Most recently, her Broadway credits include A.R. Gurney's Ancestral Voices at Lincoln Center, Sylvia at MTC, and Cabaret at Studio 54.

Born in Weston, Connecticut, she is the granddaughter of John B. Watson, the internationally renowned psychologist who founded the school of behaviorism and who taught that children were to be trained, not touched or nurtured. Her warm and affectionate personality is a stunning contrast to her upbringing. In 1990 her autobiography "Breaking the Silence" was a bestseller in hard cover and paperback; it publicly chronicled her personal memories as a child in a home torn apart by alcoholism and depression.

Hartley feels privileged that her celebrity has allowed her to make contributions to society. She is the national spokesperson for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which honored her with an Humanitarian Award for her outstanding work in the field of suicide prevention and research. For her involvement with organizations combating mental illness, Hartley was honored by the Southern California Counseling Center, and received the PSYCHE Award from the L.A. County Psychological Association. She was the first recipient of the California Family Studies Center's "Life Achievement Award" for her strength and ability to overcome family difficulties, and she was honored with the Larry Stewart Leadership and Inspiration Award from the Entertainment Industries Council.

Hartley is also involved with the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, SOJOURN, and M.A.D.D. She hosted an educational video entitled How to Stop the One You Love From Drinking and Using Drugs, which is part of the Paramount Home Video's "Strong Families, Safe Families" series. She was also named Outstanding Mother of the Year by the National Mother's Day Committee in Washington, D.C.



I love watching her in anything, to the point of I will probably try to catch her on Courtney Cox's "Dirt" as she plays Cox's mother on the show.

One of the things I love about her is that she can imbue any character she plays with a real sincerity, even when she plays morally suspect characters.

In the Columbo episode "Try and Catch Me", she plays the murderer's (Ruth Gordon) assistant. For most of the story, until about 3/4 in, you're not quite sure if Hartley is aware of what Gordon did. Finally, they have a scene where they lay the cards on the table and Hartley not only holds her on with Ruth "the only thing you remember about 'Rosemary's Baby'" Gordon, she plays completely against being the blackmailer that her character is.

Hartley just smiles very sweetly and tells her employer that she might like to join her on her upcoming cruise, and that she might also want to talk about her future as Gordon's assistant. And while she gets even more explicit about what she knows, she never loses the smile on her face or the warmth in her eyes. It is amazing watching her in this.

Mariette Hartley is someone that David E. Kelly should call immediately for "Boston Legal" as she is one of these stage trained actors that can frickin' deliver.