Jackie Joseph

Jackie Joseph is a retired American actress and writer born on November 7, 1933, in Los Angeles County, California. Her mother was nineteen years old at the time of her birth, and her father had died three months before she was born. She attended John Marshall High School in Los Angeles and later studied at UCLA.

Joseph launched her professional career as a featured performer and singer in the Billy Barnes Revue of 1958, a production in which future husband Ken Berry also appeared. That work led to Broadway, where she performed in both the Billy Barnes Revue and the revue The Billy Barnes People between 1959 and 1961. Her Los Angeles roots and early stage work in the Barnes productions established the foundation for a career that would extend across film, television, and theater over several decades.

On screen, Joseph is perhaps most recognized for two early roles: Audrey Fulquard in Roger Corman's The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) and Jackie Parker in The Doris Day Show, a part she held from 1971 to 1973. She returned to genre film audiences as Sheila Futterman in Gremlins (1984) and its sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). Additional film credits include Who's Minding the Mint? (1967), in which she played the love interest of Bob Denver's character Willie; A Guide for the Married Man (1967); With Six You Get Eggroll (1968); The Split (1968); The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969); The Cheyenne Social Club (1970); Get Crazy (1983); and Small Soldiers (1998). She also appeared as Mrs. Kirkland in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985) and Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987).

Joseph's television work was extensive. She was a regular on The Bob Newhart Show and The Magic Land of Allakazam, and she voiced the character Melody in both Josie and the Pussycats and Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space. Her guest appearances spanned a wide range of programs, including The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl, F Troop, Hogan's Heroes, McHale's Navy, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., Petticoat Junction, CHiPs, Full House, and Designing Women, where she played Mary Jo's mother. She also held recurring roles as Miss Oglethorpe on Run, Buddy, Run and Sandy on The All New Popeye Hour, and she appeared for a week on the game show Match Game '74. Though she appeared only once on the 1964 sitcom My Living Doll, she participated in a retrospective featurette included on the series' 2012 DVD release as one of the few surviving cast members.

Beyond performing, Joseph became a fashion show producer in 1977, organizing the Western Children's Brand Wagon show, which drew an audience of 600 and featured youngsters modeling garments from 85 companies.

Joseph married Ken Berry on May 29, 1960. Their son, Joseph Larson Berry, was born on November 29, 1962, and died six days later on December 5, 1962. The couple subsequently adopted two children, John, born in 1964, and Jennifer, born in 1965. Joseph and Berry divorced in 1977. She married David Lawrence in 2003. Her son John died of brain cancer in 2016 at the age of 51, and her daughter Jennifer died of natural causes in 2020 at the age of 55. In 2023, Joseph joined actor Adam Arkin and his wife Michelle on a picket line in front of Disney offices during the SAG-AFTRA strike.