Emmy-Winning 'Arrested Development' Actress Dead at 80
Jessica Walter, who played a scheming matriarch in TV’s “Arrested Development” and a stalker in Clint Eastwood’s “Play Misty for Me,” has died. She was 80.
Walter’s death was confirmed Thursday by her daughter, Brooke Bowman, an entertainment industry executive.
A cause of death and other details were not immediately provided.
“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of my beloved mom Jessica. A working actor for over six decades, her greatest pleasure was bringing joy to others through her storytelling both on screen and off,” Bowman said in a statement.
Walter will be well remembered for “her wit, class and overall joie de vivre,” her daughter added.
Walter’s feature debut was in the 1964 film “Lilith,” with Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg and Gene Hackman.
She won a role in John Frankenheimer’s 1966 racing epic “Grand Prix” as the glamorous but discontented wife of a Formula One racer who falls for another driver.
Her most memorable film role was in Clint Eastwood’s 1971 thriller “Play Misty For Me,” in which she plays Evelyn Draper, a woman who becomes obsessed with Eastwood’s disc jockey character. Walter was widely praised for her unnerving performance.
In the mid-1970s she starred in the television police drama Amy Prentiss, winning an Emmy for her turn as a San Francisco detective.
“Arrested Development” represented a late-career second act for Walter, earning her admiration from a new generation of fans.
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