Joyce Bulifant

Joyce Collins Bulifant, born December 16, 1937, in Newport News, Virginia, is an American actress and author whose career has spanned Broadway, film, television, and game shows. She attended Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1956 alongside her first husband, actor James MacArthur, the son of Helen Hayes and Charles MacArthur. She subsequently trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Bulifant's Broadway career ran from 1959 to 1967 and included the comedy Tall Story, which opened in 1958, and The Paisley Convertible in 1966. Additional stage work included productions of Glad Tidings, Auntie Mame, Gentlemen, The Queens!, and Under the Yum-Yum Tree. Her performance in Whisper to Me earned her a Theatre World Award for the 1961–1962 season. She has also written and performed autobiographical stage shows, among them Life Upon the Wicked Stage and Remembering Helen Hayes with Love, the latter drawing on her relationship with her former mother-in-law, as well as a show about Lillian Gish. Her advocacy work on dyslexia extended to the stage as well, resulting in two musicals on the subject, Gifts of Greatness and Different Heroes, Different Dreams.

On television, Bulifant accumulated an extensive list of regular roles across multiple decades. Among her earliest credits was a recurring presence as a dancer on Arthur Murray's Dance Party. She went on to play Timmie Barnes in Too Young to Go Steady in 1959, Lois on It's a Man's World from 1962 to 1963, Mary Gentry in Tom, Dick and Mary from 1964 to 1965, Marsha Patterson on The Bill Cosby Show from 1969 to 1971, and Peggy Wilson on Love Thy Neighbor in 1973. Her most recognized television role was Marie Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which she played from 1970 to 1977. She also appeared as Miriam Willoughby on Flo from 1980 to 1981, voiced Queen Vanda on the syndicated animated series Sport Billy in 1982, played Marjorie Martin on Big John, Little John from 1976 to 1977, and portrayed David Spade's mother on Just Shoot Me. From 1994 to 1997, she played Emily Wallace in Weird Science, the mother of a character portrayed by her real-life son John Asher. Guest appearances spanned a wide range of series including Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Perry Mason, Wagon Train, McHale's Navy, Dr. Kildare, Three's Company, and The Facts of Life, among many others. A 1962 episode of Alcoa Presents cast her opposite Fred Astaire and Elizabeth Montgomery, and she appeared with Eva Le Gallienne in The Play of the Week's production of Thérèse Raquin. Television movie credits include Hanging by a Thread, Better Late Than Never, Little Women, Charley's Aunt, and The Shining. Bulifant was also the original choice for the role of Carol Brady on ABC's The Brady Bunch, a part that ultimately went to Florence Henderson.

Her film work includes the role of Rosemary in the Disney live-action feature The Happiest Millionaire, in which she performed the song "Bye-Yum Pum Pum," and a prominent part in the 1980 comedy Airplane!, where she played the mother of a child requiring a heart transplant. She has appeared in two films directed by her son John Asher, Diamonds and Tooken, and in a comedic short, The Haircut, opposite John Cassavetes.

As a frequent game show panelist, Bulifant appeared on Match Game, Password, Chain Reaction, Password Plus, Name That Tune, Crosswits, Tattletales, To Tell the Truth, and the $25,000 Pyramid, among others.

Bulifant has been married five times. Her first marriage, to James MacArthur on November 2, 1958, produced two children, Mary MacArthur and Charles MacArthur, and ended in divorce in 1967. She married Days of Our Lives actor Edward Mallory on September 19, 1969; they had one son, John Mallory Asher, and divorced in 1974. Her third husband, television director William Asher, whom she married on August 28, 1976, adopted her son John, and the marriage lasted until 1993. A fourth marriage, to Glade Bruce Hansen in 2000, ended the following year. Her fifth husband was actor Roger Perry, whom she married in 2002; Perry died on July 12, 2018. She has a grandson, Evan Joseph Asher, from her son John's marriage to Jenny McCarthy.

Bulifant discovered she had dyslexia in her forties and became a sustained advocate for dyslexia research. She founded the Hans Christian Andersen Award, which recognizes dyslexic individuals who have made positive contributions to society; recipients have included Stephen J. Cannell and Whoopi Goldberg. She herself received the 2015 Broken Glass Award from The Dyslexia Foundation. She has also served as a Celebrity Ambassador and vice-president on the National Board of Directors of Childhelp, a nonprofit focused on child abuse prevention, and has advocated for autism research. In 2014, Bulifant and Roger Perry were honored with a Golden Palm Star on the Walk of Stars in Palm Springs, California. Her memoir, My Four Hollywood Husbands, addresses the alcoholism of four of her spouses and her recovery from codependent relationships.