by Nathaniel R
Showbiz lost another great this week as Jessica Walter passed away at 80 years of age. Her sensational and much-memed performance of smug, biting, privileged Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development, will live forever but it was just a small portion of her long career...
Despite reports that Walter was nothing like the character, she appeared to pull it off effortlessly. Still consider, if you will, that the actress had decades in Hollywood to observe ownership of rooms, extreme narcissism, and über-moneyed confidence even if her performance (and Arrested Development's superb writing) did the genius comic twisting.
She worked with major legends early on in the movies: Clint Eastwood, Charlton Heston, Warren Beatty, James Garner. And formidable women, too, especially on TV: Christine Baranski, Angela Lansbury, Candice Bergen, Holly Hunter.
her screen debut opposite Warren Beatty in "Lilith"
romantically paired with James Garner in "Grand Prix"
with Christine Baranski in the Broadway run of "Rumors"
Golden globe Best Actress nomination for "Play Misty For Me"
Lucille may have been the sozzled cream on top of her career but there was even a cherry on top of that. After Lucille came Malory, another boozy take-no-prisoners mother. Her voice work on all 11 seasons of Archer as the lead mom and boss Malory Archer was utter perfection and in some ways an alternate universe winking mirror to Lucille. Much has been made of Jessica's superb comic timing, and the big laughs she could wring from something as simple as a wink or a glass lift but in Archer, deprived of both her face and gestural comedy, she still sold every joke for all it was worth.
What a delicious final double act Lucille and Malory were. In a just-right reversal of emotional fortune, this actress was as warmly beloved playing coldly unloveable mothers, as it was possible to imagine.
What is your favourite Lucille Bluth moment? And do you have other favourite Jessica Walter performances?