Joan Hotchkis (September 21, 1927 – September 27, 2022) was an American stage, screen and television actress, writer and performance artist. A lifetime member of the Actors Studio[1] and the Dramatists Guild, Hotchkis was best known for playing Dr. Nancy Cunningham for several seasons on The Odd Couple, for co-writing with Eric Morris the seminal acting manual "No Acting Please" (1977),[2] which is still used in colleges and conservatories,[3][4][5] and for her groundbreaking performance art works in the 1990s.
Early life
Hotchkis was born in Los Angeles on September 21, 1927.[6][7] Her father, Preston, worked in insurance and investment;[7] her mother, Katharine (Bixby), hailed from a family of cattle ranchers in Orange County that turned Rancho Los Alamitos into a 26,000-acre cattle ranch.[6][8] Hotchkis was raised in San Marino,[9] and attended Westridge School in nearby Pasadena.[10] She studied at Smith College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1949. She then obtained a master's degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street Teachers College three years later,[7] before teaching nursery school and kindergarten for three years.[8][11]
Career
At the age of 26, Hotchkis switched from teaching to acting,[11] joining the Actors Studio and studying acting in New York City.[8] She made her Broadway debut in Advise and Consent, adapted from the novel by the same name.[8] From the 1950s through the 1990s, Hotchkis played various roles in television, film and theater (summer stock and Broadway). She was featured in Broadway productions of It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman (Philadelphia previews),[12] and Write Me A Murder,[13] before playing Myra on the soap opera The Secret Storm for several years in the early 1960s.[14] She moved back to Los Angeles in 1967 and worked steadily in television through the 1970s.[15] Most notably, Hotchkis played Dr. Nancy Cunningham, sometime girlfriend of Oscar Madison on the television version of The Odd Couple and Ellen in the Emmy-winning series My World and Welcome to It.[16]
Hotchkis also made many guest appearances on TV shows such as Bewitched,[16]St. Elsewhere,[7]Lou Grant,[17]Charlie's Angels, Mannix,[16]Marcus Welby,[18]Barnaby Jones,[16] and more. On the big screen, she co-starred as Mama Hartley in the feature film Ode to Billy Joe (1976).[16]
Hotchkis began writing original material in the 70s, beginning with a one-woman play, Legacy depicting an upper-class housewife having a mental and emotional breakdown. Eric Morris directed the play on stage; director Karen Arthur saw the play and approached Hotchkis proposing to make a film version, with Arthur as director and Hotchkis as writer, producer and star.[19][20] The resulting film, Legacy (1975), won Best Newcomer at the Tehran Film Festival.[15]
During the early 1980s, Hotchkis returned to the stage, performing for several years in regional theaters such as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Milwaukee Repertory Theater.[21] She subsequently starred in The Glass Menagerie at Los Angeles Theater Center and did occasional television roles.[15][22]
Tearsheets Productions
Beginning in the late 1980s, Hotchkis resumed writing original material, this time moving beyond legitimate theater into the performance art world. She founded the Santa Monica-based Tearsheets Productions[23] and wrote, produced and performed two solo performance pieces.[8] The first, Tearsheets: Rude Tales from the Ranch,[11][24] toured the United States in the early 1990s [25] and went abroad to the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe,[26] where it was the only U.S. production to win a Fringe First Award.[27] Her second solo work was Elements of Flesh: Or Screwing Saved My Ass (1996), about aging and sexuality.[28][29][30]
Personal life
Hotchkis married Robert Foster in June 1958.[10] They met while filming a live commercial.[15] Together, they had one child, Paula. They eventually divorced in 1967, and Hotchkis consequently returned to Los Angeles with Paula.[11][15] Hotchkis' lifelong interest in psychology led her to eventually become a part-time paraprofessional in aggression training at the Institute of Group Psychotherapy (mentored by George Bach).[6][31]
Hotchkis died on September 27, 2022, in Los Angeles. She was 95, and suffered from congestive heart failure prior to her death.[15][32]
^Elston, Ken (Approved September 19, 2012). George Mason University Course Approval Form. George Mason University College of Visual and Performing Arts; retrieved 2012-12-13 (Scroll to "Professional Perspectives on Performance: Recommended Reading").
^ abcdHubbard, Linda S.; Steen, Sara J. (1989). Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television. Cengage Gale. p. 184. ISBN9780810320703. Personal: Born September 21, 1927, in Los Angeles, CA; daughter of Preston (in the insurance and investment business) and Katharine (Bixby) Hotchkis; married Robert Foster (a film director and writer) … Education: Smith College, B.A., 1949; Bank Street College of Education, M.S., 1952, studied acting with Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, Kristen Linklater, Eric Morris …
^ abcdeCurtis, Cathy (October 18, 1996). "Acting Her Age". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
