Kathryn Joosten (born December 20, 1939) is an Emmy Award-winning American television actress. Joosten did not begin to hone her craft until middle age in the 1980s, after taking acting classes in Chicago, Illinois. She started acting at age 44.
It was not until the mid-1990s that Joosten made the move to Hollywood, where she took guest roles in television series such as Home Improvement, Picket Fences, Murphy Brown, ER, Seinfeld, Frasier, Just Shoot Me!, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dharma & Greg and The Drew Carey Show.
In the 1997 episode of Frasier, 'Roz's Turn', Joosten appeared as Vera, the mother and personal secretary of Frasier's conniving agent, Bebe Glazer, played by Harriet Sansom Harris. The pair would later be reunited to play opposite neighbors in the first season of Desperate Housewives.
In 1999, Joosten took the role for which she is best-known, as Delores Landingham, secretary to President of the United States Josiah Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) on The West Wing. Joosten played the role for two seasons, until her character's death in a car crash in 2001. She would return to the show twice more in flashback episodes.
Joosten's role on The West Wing gave her an entrance into more significant guest roles on significant television series. Since 2001, she has appeared on TV in such shows as Scrubs (appearing in "My Old Lady", which won a Humanitas Prize as well as reappearing in a later episode), My Name is Earl, Spin City, The X-Files, Judging Amy, Monk, Charmed, Will & Grace, Malcolm in the Middle, Grey's Anatomy, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, So Little Time, Gilmore Girls, The Closer and a recurring role as one of the less intimidating incarnations of God seen by the title character (played by Amber Tamblyn) on the now cancelled TV series Joan of Arcadia.
Recently, Joosten appeared in the film Wedding Crashers, starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. Joosten also has appeared in numerous episodes of Desperate Housewives as Karen McCluskey, Lynette Scavo's (Felicity Huffman) bickering neighbor. For this role, Joosten won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, and appeared as a presenter at the 2005 Emmy Awards telecast. She was nominated again for the same role on 2008. She also received 2006 and 2007 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations with the rest of the cast for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
In addition, Joosten has appeared in numerous television commercials such as one for V8. In 2007, in an appearance on The View, she revealed that she was a lung cancer survivor, after many years of smoking (which she subsequently quit), and gave some tricks for trying to beat the habit of smoking. Interestingly, her guest role on My Name is Earl revolved largely around her character attempting to quit smoking.
External links
Official website
Kathryn Joosten at the Internet Movie Database
v • d • e
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress - Comedy Series
Jean Smart (2001) · Cloris Leachman (2002) · Christina Applegate (2003) · Laura Linney (2004) · Kathryn Joosten (2005) · Cloris Leachman (2006) · Elaine Stritch (2007)
Complete list: (1975-2000) · (2001-present)
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Joosten"
Categories: 1939 births | Actors from Chicago | American film actors | American television actors | Cancer survivors | Emmy Award winners | Living people
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