Mary Loretta Hartley (born June 21, 1940) is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her roles in film as Elsa Knudsen in Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962), Susan Clabon in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), and Betty Lloyd in John Sturges' Marooned (1969). She has appeared extensively on television, with notable roles as Claire Morton in the ABCsoap operaPeyton Place (1965), various roles in the CBS television western drama series Gunsmoke, and a series of commercials with James Garner in the 1970s and 1980s.
Early life
Hartley was born in Weston, Connecticut on June 21, 1940, the daughter of Mary "Polly" Ickes (née Watson), a manager and saleswoman, and Paul Hembree Hartley, an account executive. Her maternal grandfather was John B. Watson, an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism.[3] She grew up in Weston, Connecticut, an affluent Fairfield County suburb within commuting distance to Manhattan.[4]
Hartley began her career as a 13-year-old in the White Barn Theatre in Norwalk, Connecticut. In her teens as a stage actress, she was coached and mentored by Eva Le Gallienne. She graduated in 1957 from Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut, where she was an active member of the school's theater group, Staples Players. While a student at Staples, she boldly telephoned screenwriter Rod Serling to ask him to speak in her class. Serling answered the call himself, chose to visit and speak in her classroom, and years later remembering their previous interaction, cast Hartley in an episode ("The Long Morrow") of The Twilight Zone.[6] Hartley also worked at the American Shakespeare Festival.[7]
Her film career began with an uncredited cameo appearance in From Hell to Texas (1958), a Western with Dennis Hopper. In the early 1960s, she moved to Los Angeles and joined the UCLA Theater Group.[2]
In 1983, Hartley reunited with Bixby in the sitcomGoodnight, Beantown, which ran for two seasons and brought her another Emmy Award nomination. (She worked with Bixby again in the 1992 TV movie A Diagnosis of Murder, the first of three TV movies that launched the series Diagnosis: Murder).
In January 2018, Hartley began a recurring role on the Fox first-responder drama 9-1-1 as Patricia Clark, the Alzheimer's-afflicted mother of dispatcher Abby Clark (Connie Britton).
Advertising
Hartley at the 2005 Voice Awards
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hartley appeared with James Garner in a popular series of television commercials advertising Polaroid cameras. The two actors had such natural on-screen chemistry that many viewers erroneously believed that they were married in real life. Hartley's 1990 biography, Breaking the Silence, indicates that she began to wear a T-shirt printed with the phrase "I am not Mrs. James Garner."[10] (Hartley went as far to have a shirt made for her infant son, reading "I am not James Garner's Child" and even one for her then-husband: "I am not James Garner!" James Garner's actual wife then jokingly had a T-shirt printed with "I am Mrs. James Garner.") Hartley guest-starred in an episode of Garner's television series The Rockford Files in 1979. The script required the two to kiss at one point and unbeknownst to them, a paparazzo was photographing the scene from a distance. The photos were run in a tabloid trying to provoke a scandal.[citation needed] An article that ran in TV Guide was titled: "That woman is not James Garner's wife!"[citation needed]
Between 2001 and 2006, Hartley endorsed the See Clearly Method, a commercial eye exercise program, whose sales were halted by an Iowa court after a finding of fraudulent business practices and advertising.[11][12]
Honors
Hartley received an honorary degree from Rider College in 1993.
Personal life
Hartley has been married three times. Her first marriage was to John Seventa (1960–1962). She married Patrick Boyriven on August 13, 1978, with whom she had two children, Sean (born 1975) and Justine (born 1978).[13] The couple divorced in 1996. In 2005, Hartley married Jerry Sroka.[14] Hartley and Sroka co-wrote and starred in a romantic comedy based on their lives titled Our Almost Completely True Story, released in 2022.[15]
In her 1990 autobiographyBreaking the Silence, written with Anne Commire, Hartley talked about her struggles with psychological problems, pointing directly to her grandfather's (Dr. Watson) practical application of his theories as the source of the dysfunction in his family. She has also spoken in public about her experience with bipolar disorder and was a founder of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.[16] She currently serves as the foundation's national spokesperson.[2]
In 2003, Hartley was hired by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline to increase awareness of bipolar medications and treatments. She frequently promotes awareness of bipolar disorder and suicide prevention.[17]
Her brother, Paul Hartley, has a PhD in research philosophy and is the author of the book The Seventh Tool: a novel in 3 volumes (2013).[citation needed]
In 2009, Hartley spoke at a suicide and violence prevention forum about her father's suicide.[18]
^"Leadership". 2013 Annual Report. American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. pp. 40–41. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015. Retrieved August 5, 2017.
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