Diana Muldaur

Diana Muldaur is an American actress born on August 19, 1938, in Brooklyn, New York, who was raised on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. She began acting during her high school years and continued through her studies at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, from which she graduated in 1960. She subsequently trained under acting teacher Stella Adler and established herself on the New York stage.

Muldaur's Broadway career spanned 1962 to 1965, during which she appeared in three productions: Seidman and Son, Poor Bitos, and A Very Rich Woman. Following her stage work, she transitioned to television, landing the role of Ann Wicker on the CBS daytime soap opera The Secret Storm in 1965, then appearing in a five-episode arc as Jeannie Orloff in the final season of the NBC medical drama Dr. Kildare.

Her early television work encompassed a wide range of guest appearances across numerous series, including Bonanza, I Spy, Mannix, Mod Squad, Hawaii Five-O, The Virginian, The F.B.I., The Invaders, and The Courtship of Eddie's Father, among others. A recurring professional connection with Burt Reynolds developed during this period, beginning with her appearance in his 1966 procedural series Hawk, continuing with a shared episode of The F.B.I. in 1968, and extending to a guest role on his series Dan August in 1970. In 1967, she guest-starred in the Gunsmoke episode "Fandango" alongside James Arness; dialogue from that episode was later sampled on the Pink Floyd album The Wall.

Muldaur appeared in two separate episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series in 1968, portraying astrobiologist Lieutenant Commander Dr. Ann Mulhall in "Return to Tomorrow" and psychologist Dr. Miranda Jones in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" Her work on those episodes led to a friendship with series creator Gene Roddenberry, who later cast her as Marg in his 1974 television film Planet Earth, opposite John Saxon. That relationship ultimately resulted in Roddenberry selecting her to join Star Trek: The Next Generation as Dr. Katherine Pulaski, the chief medical officer, for the show's second season in 1988–1989, a role she played across 20 episodes.

Her first major primetime role came in 1970 with the ABC serial Harold Robbins' The Survivors, in which she played Belle. The series, which had been conceived in part as a vehicle for Lana Turner, was cancelled after 15 episodes. During the same era, Muldaur took on a substantial recurring role as Chris Coughlin, the love interest of the title character, in the Dennis Weaver mystery series McCloud. Her character was introduced in the 1970 pilot and made a total of 16 appearances through April 1977; she reprised the role in the 1989 reunion film The Return of Sam McCloud.

Her film work during the late 1960s and 1970s included supporting roles in The Swimmer (1968) with Burt Lancaster, the football drama Number One (1969), Sidney J. Furie's The Lawyer (1970), One More Train to Rob (1971) with George Peppard, the psychological thriller The Other (1972) with Uta Hagen, the John Wayne crime film McQ (1974), and the ensemble thriller Chosen Survivors (1974) with Jackie Cooper and Richard Jaeckel. In 1977, she played Elaine Mati, the wife of a mentally unstable doctor portrayed by Telly Savalas, in the independent film Beyond Reason.

Muldaur starred as conservationist Joy Adamson in the NBC drama Born Free, which filmed on location in Kenya and co-starred Gary Collins. The series debuted in the fall of 1974 and ran for one season. She also held a recurring role as Judge Eleanor Hooper on The Tony Randall Show during its 1976–1978 run, starred with David Huddleston in the short-lived 1979 NBC sitcom Hizzonner — in which she played the mayor's secretary, Ginny — and appeared as Dr. Alice Foley in the NBC drama A Year in the Life, which featured a cast that included Richard Kiley and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Her most prominent television role came with the legal drama L.A. Law, on which she played attorney Rosalind Shays. The performance earned her two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, in 1990 and 1991. Off-screen, Muldaur served as a board member of the Screen Actors Guild and became the first woman to serve as president of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, holding that position from 1983 to 1985.