Joan Hotchkis

Joan Hotchkis
Hotchkis in a trailer for Breezy (1973)
Born	(1927-09-21)September 21, 1927 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	September 27, 2022(2022-09-27) (aged 95) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actor, writer, performance artist
Years active	c. 1954–1997
Spouse	Robert Foster ​ ​ (m. 1958; div. 1967)​
Children	1

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.

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]

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]

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]

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]

• Joan Hotchkis at IMDb
• Joan Hotchkis at the Internet Broadway Database