Joan Tompkins

About Joan Tompkins

Who is it?: Actress
Birth Day: July 09, 1915
Birth Place:  Mount Vernon, New York, United States
Occupation: Actress
Spouse(s): Steve Appleby (? - ?) Bruce MacFarlane (? - ?) Karl Swenson (widowed in 1978)
Children: Four stepsons, including Steven Swenson

Joan Tompkins

Joan Tompkins was born on July 09, 1915 in  Mount Vernon, New York, United States, is Actress. Early in her career, in 1938, Joan Tompkins played opposite Henry Fonda in a run of plays in White Plains, New York. She later became well known on radio in the role of Nora Drake. During her long years in radio, she also acted on Broadway in "Pride and Prejudice", "My Sister Eileen" and many other plays. Joan met the actor Karl Swenson, "the man of a thousand voices", in the radio studio and later married him. Later, they moved to southern California and founded an acting company in Beverly Hills, with Karl directing and Joan acting. After Karl's death in 1978, Joan retired into a new career. She established a writing group. She wrote several books, herself, and was an insightful critic and a voice of encouragement to the group members, who themselves published many books. She died on January 29, 2005, at her home in Orange County, California, at the age of 89, and was survived by four stepsons, their children and grandchildren.
Joan Tompkins is a member of Actress

Does Joan Tompkins Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Joan Tompkins has been died on January 29, 2005(2005-01-29) (aged 89)\nOrange County, California, U.S..

🎂 Joan Tompkins - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

When Joan Tompkins die, Joan Tompkins was 89 years old.

Popular As Joan Tompkins
Occupation Actress
Age 89 years old
Zodiac Sign Leo
Born July 09, 1915 ( Mount Vernon, New York, United States)
Birthday July 09
Town/City  Mount Vernon, New York, United States
Nationality United States

🌙 Zodiac

Joan Tompkins’s zodiac sign is Leo. According to astrologers, people born under the sign of Leo are natural born leaders. They are dramatic, creative, self-confident, dominant and extremely difficult to resist, able to achieve anything they want to in any area of life they commit to. There is a specific strength to a Leo and their "king of the jungle" status. Leo often has many friends for they are generous and loyal. Self-confident and attractive, this is a Sun sign capable of uniting different groups of people and leading them as one towards a shared cause, and their healthy sense of humor makes collaboration with other people even easier.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Joan Tompkins was born in the Year of the Rabbit. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Rabbit enjoy being surrounded by family and friends. They’re popular, compassionate, sincere, and they like to avoid conflict and are sometimes seen as pushovers. Rabbits enjoy home and entertaining at home. Compatible with Goat or Pig.

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Biography/Timeline

1908

During her radio performances, she met Karl Swenson, who portrayed the Scandinavian Lars Hanson on Michael Landon's Little House on the Prairie NBC television series. Tompkins herself guest starred twice on Little House. The couple married sometime after Swenson divorced his first wife, the former Virginia Hanscom (1908–2003). They were living in southern California by 1957.

1930

In the 1930s, Tompkins was married to actor Steve Appleby. In the 1940s, she was married to actor Bruce MacFarlane.

1938

In 1938, at the age of 23, Tompkins joined Henry Fonda in performing plays in White Plains, New York. She appeared on Broadway in New York City in stage productions of Fly Away Home (1935), (her first Broadway appearance) Pride and Prejudice (1935), The Golden Journey (1936) and My Sister Eileen (1940).

1954

Tompkins first appeared on television in 1954 at the age of thirty-nine in the segment “Guest in the House” of NBC's Kraft Television Theater. Four years later, she appeared as Sarah Sheldon in the 1958 episode “The Spy” of the Goodyear Theatre. That same year, she portrayed a woman named “Patience” in NBC's western series The Californians, and as a gossip columnist named Beverly King in an episode of The Danny Thomas Show. Subsequent appearances were on the situation comedies, The Donna Reed Show, and Bachelor Father. In 1960, she played Martha in “The Twisted Root” of the syndicated series, The Brothers Brannagan.

1959

Tompkins performed on radio in the soap opera role of Nora Drake on This Is Nora Drake, which ran on CBS radio until 1959. Her other roles on radio programs included those shown in the table below.

1960

In 1960, she also appeared in three Warner Brothers/ABC series, Maverick, as Mary Burch in the episode “Bullet for the Teacher”; Hawaiian Eye, as a tourist in “Man in a Rage”, and The Roaring Twenties, as Celia Morton in “Layoff Charley”. In 1960-1961, she appeared twice on Boris Karloff's Thriller, starring Boris Karloff. Between 1962-1964, she made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of murderer Florence Holman in the 1962 episode, "The Case of the Poison Pen Pal," and Emily Green in "The Case of the Deadly Verdict" in 1963. As Sadie Norman in the 1964 episode "The Case of the Sleepy Slayer", she appeared with husband Karl Swenson, who played her husband Charles Norman.

1967

Tompkins appeared twice with David Janssen on the ABC television series The Fugitive. In the 1967 episode Dr. Richard Kimble, using the alias "Douglas Beckett", is hired as a chauffeur for a wealthy family, with Tompkins playing the mother, Madge Glenn. Her daughter Joanne Glenn, portrayed by Katherine Crawford, is involved with the pool maintenance man, Dan Holt, played by Mark Goddard, formerly of Lost in Space and Many Happy Returns. Madge tries to break up her daughter's romance, and then Holt discovers the identity of Dr. Kimble and blackmails him to provide cover so that Holt can continue to see Joanne without the family finding out about the ongoing relationship. Pete Duel, prior to Alias Smith and Jones, played a young socialite in the 1967 episode. She also appeared in the 1967 episode "There goes the Ballgame" as Rose. She is also fondly remembered by fans of classic television as the mother to Don Grady's TV wife Tina Cole on My Three Sons playing the recurring role of Lorraine Miller. She played the part nine times during the period from 1967-70.

1970

In the 1962-1963 television season, Tompkins played legal secretary Trudy Wagner in Edmond O'Brien's NBC legal drama Sam Benedict, co-starring Richard Rust. From 1967-1970, she guest starred nine times as Lorraine Miller in Fred MacMurray's CBS situation comedy, My Three Sons, with her last appearance in the episode "St. Louis Blues" on December 19, 1970.

1980

Tompkins's last roles were in 1980, as Grandma Gertie Wells in the episode “Generations” of ABC’s Eight Is Enough and as a woman physician in The Night the City Screamed, another television film.

1994

After World War II, Tompkins became a foster parent for a war orphan, a handicapped Polish youth named Tomek Machcinski, who became a Photographer, known as the “Man of a million faces”. In 1994, their story was portrayed in a documentary. After Karl Swenson's death in 1978, Tompkins organized a group to help prospective Writers improve their narratives and to obtain publication of their works. She resided in Dana Point in Orange County, California, at the time of her death at the age of eighty-nine. She was survived by four stepsons from Swenson's first marriage. One is named Steven.

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