Martine Bartlett

Martine Bartlett (April 24, 1925 – April 5, 2006) was an American actress born in St. Louis, Missouri, whose career spanned stage, film, and television across more than three decades. A life member of The Actors Studio, she earned a master's degree from the Graduate Drama School at Yale and developed her early stage experience with the St. Louis Community Playhouse, the Rooftop Players, and the Empress Theater.

Bartlett's Broadway career ran from 1950 to 1961. She made her debut on the New York stage in 1950 as a townsperson in The Devil's Disciple, followed the next year by a role in the ensemble of Saint Joan, which starred Uta Hagen. After a period away from Broadway, she returned in 1957 to play Loreena Lovejoy in Carson McCullers' The Square Root of Wonderful, a production starring Anne Baxter. In 1959 she appeared in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth, taking the role of Aunt Nonnie. Her Broadway work also included The Garden of Sweets, rounding out a stage career notable for its range of dramatic material.

Her screen debut came in 1961 with Splendor in the Grass, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty, in which Bartlett played the English teacher Miss Metcalf. Subsequent film appearances included The Prize (1963), Lord Love a Duck (1966), No Way to Treat a Lady (1968) — in which she played Alma Mulloy, the first victim of Rod Steiger's serial killer — Fuzz (1972), Kansas City Bomber (1972), Aloha, Bobby and Rose (1975), and I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), where she portrayed a self-abusing mental patient called the Secret Wife.

Bartlett's most widely recognized screen performance came in the 1976 NBC miniseries Sybil, in which she played Hattie Dorsett, the psychotic mother of Sally Field's title character, appearing in flashbacks that depicted the abuse and torment of a young Sybil played by Natasha Ryan. Her television work extended across multiple decades and included episodes of Robert Montgomery Presents, The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Dr. Kildare, The Virginian, Kojak, Cannon, Mission: Impossible, and Quincy, M.E. She received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actress for her work in the Arrest and Trial episode "Journey Into Darkness" in 1963. Her final known screen appearance was in an episode of Remington Steele in 1983.

Bartlett died on April 5, 2006, in Tempe, Arizona, at the age of 80. She is buried at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, and was survived by a brother and a sister.