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IMDbPro

Joyce Van Patten

  • Actress
  • Producer
  • Soundtrack
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000757
Joyce Van Patten in The Andy Griffith Show (1960)
Cheyenne, a retired rock star living off his royalties in Dublin, returns to New York City to find the man responsible for a humiliation suffered by his recently deceased father during WWII.
Play trailer2:08
This Must Be the Place (2011)
23 Videos
13 Photos
Adept at both comedy and drama, veteran "second lead" and character actress Joyce Van Patten was born on March 9, 1934, in New York City. Prodded by a typically assertive magazine editor (stage) mother, Joyce and her equally famous older brother Dick Van Patten displayed natural talent and began performing regularly at a very early age.

Of Dutch, English and Italian descent, Joyce was auditioning for modeling roles before reaching her first birthday, and by the age of 6 was on Broadway performing in the play "Popsy" (1941). In the same year she and brother Dick appear on radio with "Reg'lar Fellers," a summer replacement series for "The Jack Benny Program." As an adolescent, Joyce appeared in the Broadway plays "This Rock" (1943), "Tomorrow the World" (1943), "The Perfect Marriage" (1944), "The Wind Is Ninety" (1945) (also with Dickie) and "The Bees and the Flowers" (1946).

Following her relatively brief marriage (1950-1953) to Thomas King at the age of 16 which produced her son Thomas Casey King, who later turned actor and billed himself as Casey King, Joyce moved to teen parts on such TV anthologies as "Armstrong Circle Theatre" and "Kraft Theatre." On TV she appeared a few times on brother Dick's TV series Mama (1949) and originated the role of Janice Turner Hughes on the popular daytime soaper As the World Turns (1956).

As she grew into a young adult, Joyce purposely dressed down and downplayed her beauty in order to play more interesting characters. Specializing in smart, calculating, cynical, earthy and brittle characters, Joyce reveled in wry comedy as well as quirky drama. Making an inauspicious film debut with an unbilled role in the urban drama Fourteen Hours (1951) with a later small part in The Goddess (1958) starring Kim Stanley, Joyce remained a strong presence on TV and in the theatre. Such popular Broadway shows would include "The Desk Set" (1955), "A Hole in the Head" (1957) and "Spoon River Anthology" (1963). She also appeared with Dick elsewhere on stage with "The Male Animal" (1953), "The Tender Trap" (1955), and "Oh Men! Oh Women! (1955). In 1957, she married actor Martin Balsam and their daughter, Talia Balsam, also became an actress.

In addition to co-starring in the TV diner sitcom The Good Guys (1968) co-starring Bob Denver and Herb Edelman and playing a neurotic assistant to a TV variety show star in The Mary Tyler Moore Hour (1979), Joyce would grace a host of popular 60's and 70's TV shows, including "The Defenders," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Ben Casey," "Dr. Kildare," " "Perry Mason," "The Danny Kaye Show," "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Outer Limits," "The Jack Benny Program," "Gunsmoke," "Mannix," "Love, American Style," "Medical Center," "The Odd Couple," "Columbo," "The Bold Ones," "Family" and "The Bob Newhart Show."

Joyce's infrequent movie roles would be some of her most interesting and quirkiest. She played naïve "square" Peter Sellers's plain-Jane girlfriend in the "hippy" comedy I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968); played one half of a romantic couple with real brother Dick(!) in the teen dramedy Making It (1971); portrayed one-half of a bickering couple held hostage and given marital advice by a house-breaking thief in Bone (1972) (featuring son Casey); played an embittered woman picking up hitchhikers in Thumb Tripping (1972); played a conniving Southern belle fiancée in the Lucille Ball version of Mame (1974); portrayed a bedridden trailer park trash wife in the murder mystery The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery (1975); and a blunt Little League supervisor in the hit comedy The Bad News Bears (1976). She also returned to Broadway as a replacement in the two-person comedy drama "Same Time, Next Year" (1975) and the short-lived "Murder at the Howard Johnsons" (1979).

Other vital theatre, both Broadway and regional, in later years included "I Oughta Be in Pictures" (1980), "The Supporting Cast" (1981), "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1983), "Rumors" (1988), "Jake's Women" (1992), "Ring Round the Moon" (1999), "Taller Than a Dwarf" (2000), "Harvey" (2003), "The Oldest Profession" (2004), and "Rabbit Hole" (2006) and "The People in Pictures" (2011). Also, seen in TV movie versions of hit plays such as You Can't Take It with You (1979) as Miss Wellington, and Bus Stop (1982) as diner owner Grace, she also appeared in Malice in Wonderland (1985), Maid for Each Other (1992) and Jake's Women (1996). She also was part of the cast for the first season of the comedy Unhappily Ever After (1995). She was a standout as the overbearing mother to Jason Beghe's quadriplegic son in the horror flick Monkey Shines (1988).

Into the millennium, Joyce has supporting roles in the films Marley & Me (2008), Grown Ups (2010), God's Pocket (2014) and Diane (2018); and the TV programs "Oz," "The Sopranos," "NYPD Blue," "Desperate Housewives," "The Good Wife," "Boardwalk Empire" and "Cady Did."

After two rather brief marriages, Joyce married twice more -- briefly to actor Hal Lynch and a longer one to actor Dennis Dugan.
BornMarch 9, 1934
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BornMarch 9, 1934
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000757
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  • Awards

Photos13

Dinah Manoff and Joyce Van Patten in Maid for Each Other (1992)
Dinah Manoff, Liz Torres, Nell Carter, and Joyce Van Patten in Maid for Each Other (1992)
Liz Torres and Joyce Van Patten in Maid for Each Other (1992)
Allen Garfield and Joyce Van Patten in McCloud (1970)
Joyce Van Patten in McCloud (1970)
Sandy Kenyon and Joyce Van Patten in The Andy Griffith Show (1960)
Ron Howard, Frances Bavier, Joyce Van Patten, and Don Wyndham in The Andy Griffith Show (1960)
Lee Philips and Joyce Van Patten in The Twilight Zone (1959)
Salma Hayek, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Maria Bello, David Spade, Kevin James, Maya Rudolph, and Joyce Van Patten in Grown Ups (2010)
Rob Schneider and Joyce Van Patten in Grown Ups (2010)
Honor Blackman, Brian Keith, Dean Martin, Shirleena Manchur, Judi Meredith, Joyce Van Patten, and Carol White in Something Big (1971)
Peter Sellers, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jo Van Fleet, and Joyce Van Patten in I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968)

Known for

Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Kevin James in Grown Ups (2010)
Grown Ups
5.9
  • Gloria
  • 2010
Monkey Shines (1988)
Monkey Shines
6.2
  • Dorothy Mann
  • 1988
Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson in Marley & Me (2008)
Marley & Me
7.0
  • Mrs. Butterly
  • 2008
Bone (1972)
Bone
6.8
  • Bernadette
  • 1972

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actress

  • Alzheimer's (2019)
    Alzheimer's
  • Mary Kay Place in Diane (2018)
    Diane
  • Joyce Van Patten in The Rest (2018)
    The Rest
  • Cady Did (2018)
    Cady Did
  • Vic Noto in Boardwalk Empire (2010)
    Boardwalk Empire
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Turturro in God's Pocket (2014)
    God's Pocket
  • Angel's Perch (2013)
    Angel's Perch
  • Janet Montgomery in Made in Jersey (2012)
    Made in Jersey
  • Connie Britton, Edward Burns, Heather Burns, Marsha Dietlein, Anita Gillette, Tom Guiry, Michael McGlone, Caitlin FitzGerald, and Kerry Bishé in The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012)
    The Fitzgerald Family Christmas
  • The People in the Picture (2011)
    The People in the Picture
  • Julianna Margulies in The Good Wife (2009)
    The Good Wife
  • Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Elizabeth Olsen, and Chace Crawford in Peace, Love & Misunderstanding (2011)
    Peace, Love & Misunderstanding
  • Sean Penn in This Must Be the Place (2011)
    This Must Be the Place
  • Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Kevin James in Grown Ups (2010)
    Grown Ups
  • Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson in Marley & Me (2008)
    Marley & Me

Producer

  • Broadway Legends

Soundtrack

  • Danny Kaye in The Danny Kaye Show (1963)
    The Danny Kaye Show

Videos23

Grown Ups
Clip 0:32
Grown Ups
Grown Ups
Clip 0:37
Grown Ups
Grown Ups
Clip 0:42
Grown Ups
Grown Ups
Clip 0:40
Grown Ups
Grown Ups
Clip 0:30
Grown Ups
Grown Ups
Clip 0:30
Grown Ups
Grown Ups
Clip 0:37
Grown Ups
Grown Ups
Clip 0:32
Grown Ups
Grown Ups
Clip 0:42
Grown Ups
Grown Ups
Clip 0:40
Grown Ups
Trailer
Trailer 1:01
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 2:57
Trailer

Personal details

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    • March 9, 1934
    • Brooklyn, New York, USA
    • Dennis Dugan1973 - 1987 (divorced)
    • Casey King
    • Timothy Van Patten(Half Sibling)
  • Other works
    Directed "Spoon River Anthology" play by Charles Aidman based on the poetry of Edgar Lee Masters (Theater West, Hollywood, California, USA).
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Pictorial

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Mother of actress Talia Balsam. Mother-in-law of actor John Slattery. Former mother-in-law of George Clooney.
    • Often played astringent, nervy, or sharp-tongued characters, with some notable exceptions.

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