Joyce DeWitt

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Birthday:

23 April 1949, Wheeling, West Virginia, USA

Birth Name:

Joyce Anne DeWitt

Height:

161 cm

Joyce Anne DeWitt was born the second oldest of four to parents Paul and Norma DeWitt on April 23, 1949 in Wheeling, West Virginia but grew up in Indiana. Joyce began taking acting lessons when she was in high school. Although her father was hardly thrilled at his daughter's ambition, she persuaded him to let her major in theater in college. DeWitt soon moved to UCLA where she received her master's degree. After college, she worked as a legal secretary while at the same time going from audition to audition. Months passed before ABC offered her a choice of two comedy pilots but gave her only 24 hours to decide on which. After reading both scripts in a hurry, she chose the one about one guy living with two girls (Three's Company (1976)). She chose well - the other show never sold. She had been in numerous amounts of plays before but became familiar to everyone as the sensible, down-to-earth, football jersey wearing, brunette roommate Janet Wood.DeWitt became famous and while many celebrities would automatically welcome in the huge amounts of attention, she usually kept to herself and didn't care too much for publicity. Show less «

[on the politics of Hollywood] If that's the way the game is played, I don't want to play anymore.

[on her stardom] Shirley MacLaine once said that she didn't want to be a big star, just a long star. That's what I want too.

[on Suzanne Somers (2009)] I rarely talk about this, but we never actually had an argument. After her fight with the producers, as part of h...Show more »

[on Suzanne Somers (2009)] I rarely talk about this, but we never actually had an argument. After her fight with the producers, as part of her publicity tour to make herself seem innocent, she made John [Ritter] and I the enemy. Several times over the past 20 years I've left messages, notes, letters, and have given her the phone number for the phone that rings right beside my bed, but she has never chosen to reach me, and, yet, publicly and in the press, she still tells people that I don't speak to her. Show less «

[2009: on rumors that she spent her pre-Hollywood years as a contractor who, after painting the garage of Barney Miller (1974) co-star Abe V...Show more »

[2009: on rumors that she spent her pre-Hollywood years as a contractor who, after painting the garage of Barney Miller (1974) co-star Abe Vigoda, became a sort of surrogate daughter to the actor] It's totally untrue. I've never even met Abe Vigoda. I never painted his house, his garage or any other thing he has. I often wonder if he thinks I'm this crazy person who made all of this up. Show less «

[on Farrah Fawcett] She had a beautiful heart. She was a lovely human being and such a brave woman, right up to her final moments. She chose...Show more »

[on Farrah Fawcett] She had a beautiful heart. She was a lovely human being and such a brave woman, right up to her final moments. She chose to share her circumstances, her illness, with the world in order that those who had similar circumstances would be enlightened and inspired, and I have a great deal of respect for the way she left this life. Show less «

[2009: on Three's Company (1976) and Hollywood] I really felt that Three's Company was a gift. When it ended, I had money in the bank and ha...Show more »

[2009: on Three's Company (1976) and Hollywood] I really felt that Three's Company was a gift. When it ended, I had money in the bank and had the luxury to pursue a life that meant something, to learn and discover. Hollywood can be brutal, inhuman, the opposite of what the theater is and I had little desire to be part of it. But now, I'm excited to work again and to, at my age, be able to keep working. Show less «

[Denying Three's Company (1976) producers' assertion that she wanted her character Janet to be Jack(John Ritter)'s love interest in the spin...Show more »

[Denying Three's Company (1976) producers' assertion that she wanted her character Janet to be Jack(John Ritter)'s love interest in the spin-off Three's a Crowd (1984), which was canceled after one season] Well, then they should have asked me if I wanted to be one. Perhaps my diplomatic side would have dropped for once, and I would have been frank about what a nightmare the idea of doing another project with them would be. I think they made two big mistakes when they did the spin-off. First and foremost, they utterly underestimated the importance of the affection and intimacy of the relationship of the audience with the other characters. Secondly, they grossly underestimated the relationship between Jack and Janet. She was the burr under his saddle-the voice of his conscience, if you will. Without that element of consistent friction, a lot of comedy is lost. It didn't have to be Janet, and the role didn't have to played by me. Nor can I imagine I would have agreed to work with these producers again. But some version of that relationship needed to be in the new show. Show less «