Joanne Linville

Joanne Linville
Linville in 1960
Born	(1928-01-15)January 15, 1928 Bakersfield, California, U.S.
Died	June 20, 2021(2021-06-20) (aged 93) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1950–2005, 2016
Known for	The Enterprise Incident The Passersby
Spouse	Mark Rydell ​ ​ (m. 1962; div. 1973)​
Children	2, including Christopher Rydell

Joanne Linville (January 15, 1928 – June 20, 2021) was an American actress. She later taught at the Stella Adler Academy, Los Angeles. Linville guest-starred as a Romulan Commander on Star Trek: The Original Series.

Biography

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.

Acting career

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, she guest-starred as a Romulan commander in Star Trek episode "The Enterprise Incident". In this episode she falls for Spock after taking him aboard her spaceship for violating Romulan territory. She offers Spock an opportunity to command a ship of his own if he agrees to lead some Romulans on board the Enterprise and bring it to Romulus. Spock pretends to go along with her in order to steal the cloaking device from her ship, and he is successful. In the aftermath, however, Spock tells her that although “military secrets are the most fleeting of all”, he hopes that what they exchanged between them is “something more permanent”. This role earned Linville cult status, and remains her best-known performance.

Her 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, Gunsmoke, 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.

She 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. She taught "The Power of Language" course at the Stella Adler Academy in Los Angeles in 1985. One of her students was Mark Ruffalo, who wrote that she "does not theorise about great acting. She is great acting".

Personal life

Linville was married to actor/director Mark Rydell from 1962 until their divorce in 1973. Linville had two children with Rydell: Amy and Christopher, both actors. Her daughter Amy Rydell reprised her mother's role as Romulan commander Charvanek on episodes 10 and 11 of fan production Star Trek Continues.

Linville was also an amateur tennis player, and appeared at charity events where people were invited to pay $100 to challenge her in a game.

Death

Linville died on June 20, 2021, aged 93.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950	Copper Canyon	Showgirl	Uncredited
1958	The Goddess	Joanna
1973	Scorpio	Sarah Cross
1976	Gable and Lombard	Ria Gable
	A Star Is Born	Freddie
1982	The Seduction	Dr. Weston
2005	Beyond Lovely	Voice over	Short film

Partial television credits

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954–58	Studio One	Various roles	6 episodes
1956	The Kaiser Aluminum Hour	Gwyneth	Episode: "Gwyneth"
1957	The Alcoa Hour	Daisy Sage	Episode: "The Animal Kingdom"
	Decoy	Molly Orchid	Episode: "Stranglehold"
	Robert Montgomery Presents	—	Episode: "Return Visit"
1958	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Millie Manners	Season 3 Episode 36: "The Safe Place"
	Kraft Television Theatre	Pat Colson	Episode: "Killer's Choice"
	The United States Steel Hour	Martha Purvis	Episode: "Old Marshals Never Die"
	Suspicion	Lois	Episode: "Someone Is After Me"
1959	Guiding Light	Amy Sinclair
	The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen	—	Episode: "Bury Me Deep"
	The Third Man	Marguerite	Episode: "Confessions of an Honest Man"
	Playhouse 90	June	Episode: "In Lonely Expectation"
	The DuPont Show of the Month	Antonia	Episode: "I, Don Quixote"
	Deadline	Peg Joyce	Episode: "Charm Boy"
	One Step Beyond	Aunt Minna Boswell	Episode: "The Dead Part of the House"
1960	Hotel de Paree	Jennifer Wheatley	Episode: "Sundance and the Barren Soil"
	Have Gun – Will Travel	Maggie	Episode: "Saturday Night"
1961	Gunsmoke	Beulah Parker	Episode: "Old Yellow Boots"
	Our American Heritage	Alice Hathaway Roosevelt	Episode: "The Invincible Teddy"
	The Twilight Zone	Lavinia	Episode: "The Passersby"
1962	Bus Stop	Donna Gibson	Episode: "I Kiss Your Shadow"
1962	Gunsmoke	Susan Bart	Episode: "The Ditch"
1963	The Dick Powell Show	Aura Tomlin	Episode: "Everybody Loves Sweeney"
1966	Bonanza	Maggie Dowling	Episode: "The Bridegroom"
1967	The Invaders	Angela Smith	Episode: "Moonshot"
1968		Professor Pat Reed	Episode: "The Pit"
	Star Trek	Romulan Commander	Episode: "The Enterprise Incident"
1969	Judd, for the Defense	Paula Miles	2 episodes
1969	Hawaii Five-0	Dr. C.L. Fremont	2 Episodes: "Once Upon a Time, part 1" and "Once Upon a Time, part 2"
1970	House on Greenapple Road	Connie Durstine	TV movie
1970	Hawaii Five-0	Camilla Carver	Kiss the Queen Goodbye
1973	Columbo	Vickie Hayward	Episode: "Candidate for Crime"
1973	The Streets of San Francisco	Rosemary	Episode: "Before I Die"
1974		Martha Howard	Episode: "One Chance to Live"
1979	Barnaby Jones	Mimi Nettleson Chiles	2 episodes
	Charlie's Angels	Maggie Brill	Episode: "Angels Go Truckin"
	Mrs. Columbo	Paula	Episode: "Falling Star"
1981	Behind the Screen	Zina Willow	Episode: "Pilot"
1982–83	Dynasty	Claire Maynard	2 episodes
1986	The Right of the People	Rosalind	TV movie
1988	L.A. Law	Rona Samuels	Episode: "Romancing the Drone"
1989	From the Dead of Night	Dr. Ann Morgan	TV movie
2001	James Dean	Hedda Hopper	TV movie
2016	Starship Excelsior	The Delegate	Episode: "Tomorrow's Excelsior"

External links

• Joanne Linville at IMDb 
• Joanne Linville at Rotten Tomatoes
• Joanne Linville at AllMovie
• Joanne Linville at the Internet Broadway Database
• Joanne Linville at the Internet Off-Broadway Database