Biography for
Mariette Hartley More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

21 June 1940, Weston, Connecticut, USA

Birth Name

Mary Loretta Hartley

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Mariette Hartley was born Mary Loretta, a name she dislikes, in Weston, Connecticut. She was raised in accordance with the principles espoused by her behavorial psychologist grandfather, John B. Watson, who believed that children should never be held or cuddled. She says that the lack of warmth at home is what drove her to the theatre. She studied with John Houseman at the Repertory Stratford and with Eva Le Gallienne at Lucille Lortel's White Barn Theatre. It took her six years to get her first movie, Ride the High Country (1962) with Joel McCrea. She then made a series of TV appearances and sitcoms. Ultimately, she appeared with co-host Bill Beutel on "A.M. America", the the predecessor to ABC's "Good Morning America" (1975). She is most known, however, for her series of Polaroid commercials with James Garner. Mariette's father committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot in 1962. Her family kept it a secret for 25 years, but she eventually revealed the incident. This brought her considerable acclaim for speaking out about her devastation. She co-founded a suicide prevention foundation based her own past situation. She continues to work in the theatre and, in 2000, was hosting the syndicated "Wild About Animals" (1995). Her children, Justine E. Boyriven (b. 1978) is an actress and singer, and Sean Boyriven (b. 1975) is a film-school graduate.

IMDb Mini Biography By: John Sacksteder

Spouse

Patrick Boyriven	(13 August 1978 - 1996) (divorced) 2 children
John Seventa	(1960 - 1962) (divorced)

Trivia

Educated at Carnegie Tech

Mariette was not allowed to show her belly button in Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" (1966) episode "All Our Yesterdays" (1969) due to censors. But Gene got even: he had Mariette show TWO belly buttons in Genesis II (1973) (TV).

Is the grand niece of FDR's famous Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes.

Won an Emmy Award for her role in the memorable 1978 TV movie "The Incredible Hulk: Married (#2.1)" (1978) which co-starred the late Bill Bixby. Hartley and Bixby worked together on the pilot episode for "Diagnosis Murder" (1993) and the television series "Goodnight, Beantown" (1983).

She is the grand-daughter of psychologist John Broadus Watson

In 2006, she performed her one-woman show "If You Get to Bethlehem, You've Gone Too Far," which is based on her 1990 best-selling biography "Breaking the Silence." Mariette enacts eleven characters from her memories as a child living in a home beset by acute depression and alcoholism.

Rose in celebrity with her notable Polaroid commercial run with James Garner starting in 1977. She and Garner were so naturally convincing as husband and wife that Mariette had a tee-shirt that proclaimed, "I am not James Garner's wife!" More than 300 commercials were produced.

National spokesperson for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and works assertively with many organizations that deal with mental illness. Her father, uncle and cousin all committed suicide.

Former actress-turned-nun Dolores Hart is Mariette's spiritual advisor, and by happenstance gave Mariette the inspired title of her one-woman show, "If You Get to Bethlehem, You've Gone Too Far." It seems those are the driving directions Sister Dolores gives when describing how to get to her convent in Woodbury, Connecticut.

Was the spokesperson for Eddie Z's blinds and drapery commercials in the mid to late 90s

Along with her adult son, was spokesperson for the See Clearly Method (a VHS/DVD tutorial by Vision Improvement Technologies to naturally correct impaired vision) in 2003.

Was the head of her high school drama department.

Personal Quotes

I believe in the expression, "}Many of us get to heaven by backing away from hell".

I have learned that one's deepest wounds, integrated, become one's greatest power. Helping other survivors [of suicide] is my mission.

I know I am associated with television and I can't seem to break that. It seems to be my lot. You could do worse. I could be not working at all!

[on acting in the Polaroid TV commercials] I absolutely wasn't going to do them. I said I was tired of doing scale commercials. I had done 75 commercials by then and I had nine wardrobe changes in my car -- the Ali MacGraw look, the Candice Bergen look, the housewife look, the person who feeds the dogs dog food look, the shopper look. I was ready to change at a drop of a hat.

I wasn't even going to do commercials. I thought they were demeaning. I used to sit in front of the TV set with my little glass of whatever and say, "That poor sucker, look at what he's doing." He was making a living, that's what he's doing. I finally broke down and said to myself, "Hartley, you have a thousand bucks in the bank; you better get your tush out there and see if there's any commercial interest in you."

Well, thank God I have this face and it's a believable face and that also seems to be my acting style. My karma doesn't seem to be a big screen karma; it's definitely a little screen karma.

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