Joan Tompkins

Joan Swenson (July 9, 1915 – January 29, 2005),[1] previously known as Joan Tompkins, was an American actress of television, film, radio, and stage, who co-founded with her husband, Karl Swenson, an acting company in Beverly Hills, California.

Joan Tompkins
Tompkins (right) as Susan Price Wells with Cameron Prud'homme and Charme Allen in the radio serial David Harum, 1947.
Born(1915-07-09)July 9, 1915
New York, U.S.
DiedJanuary 29, 2005(2005-01-29) (aged 89)
Orange County, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1953-1980
Spouse(s)Steve Appleby (? - ?)
Bruce MacFarlane (? - ?)
Karl Swenson (widowed in 1978)
ChildrenFour stepsons, including Steven Swenson

Early years

Tompkins was born in New York.[2] She was the daughter of Florence Aiken.[3] She began acting in stock theater immediately after she finished high school.[4]

According to the Social Security Death Index, Tompkins, listed as Joan Swenson at death, was living in New York when she procured her Social Security number, probably in the late 1930s.[1]

Tompkins was discovered by actress June Walker, who said, "She has the finest diction of any young actress I've heard in years."[5]

Stage

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),[6] (her first Broadway appearance)[3] Pride and Prejudice (1935), The Golden Journey (1936) and My Sister Eileen (1940).[7]

Radio

Tompkins performed on radio in the soap opera role of Nora Drake on This Is Nora Drake, on CBS radio from 1949 to 1957. Her other roles on radio programs included those shown in the table below.

ProgramRole
Against the StormSiri Allen[8]
David HarumSusan Wells[8]:94
Lora LawtonLora Lawton[8]:206
Our Gal SundayMadeline Travers[8]:262
Young Widder BrownJoyce Turner[8]:361
Your Family and MineJudy Wilbur[8]:362

Film roles

Tompkins's film roles included that of Aunt Thora from Denmark in The Christine Jorgensen Story (1970), who gives the world's first transsexual, George Jorgensen, the name "Christine", after her deceased daughter and George's cousin.[9]

She appeared as Miss Musto in the comedy film Popi, starring Alan Arkin and Rita Moreno[10]

Tompkins appeared as Judge Beth Weaver in Zigzag, an American film based on the British picture False Witness.[11]

Tompkins appeared as Grandma Dennison in the 1970 comedy I Love My Wife.

Television appearances

In 1954, Tompkins played Marion Walker in the CBS drama Woman with a Past.[12]:1189

Tompkins first appeared on television in 1954 at age 39 in the episode “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 Patience in NBC's western series The Californians, and gossip columnist 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.

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 and1964, 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.

Tompkins appeared twice with David Janssen on the ABC television series The Fugitive. She portrayed a mother in the 1965 episode, "Fun and Games and Party Favors".[13] She also appeared in the 1967 episode, "There Goes the Ballgame," as Rose. Tompkins also played Lorraine Miller, the mother of Katie Miller Douglas (Tina Cole) on My Three Sons. She played the part nine times during the period from 1967-70.

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.[12]

Her other television roles include:

  • Adventures in Paradise as Cora Summers in "Assassins" (1961)
  • Hazel as Florence Gurney in "Hazel and the Gardener" (1962)
  • The New Breed as Mrs. Marsh in "How Proud the Guilty" (1962)
  • Bus Stop, as Sarah Jenkins in "The Runaways" (1961) and unknown role in "I Kiss Your Shadow" (1962)
  • The Danny Thomas Show, two episodes (1959 and 1962)
  • The Lieutenant, two episodes (1963–1964)
  • Route 66, as Mrs. Thomas in “Between Hello and Goodbye” (1962)
  • The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters as Martha Pollux in “The Day of the Wizard” (1964)
  • The Eleventh Hour, three episodes, including the two-parter, “Does My Mother Have to Know?”, in the role of Aggie Britt (1964)
  • Mr. Novak as Mrs. Douglas Morgan, Sr., in "The Private Life of Douglas Morgan, Jr." (1964)
  • Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. as Mrs. Harper in "A Date for the Colonel's Daughter" (1964)
  • Perry Mason, three episodes (1962–1964)
  • Dr. Kildare, three episodes (1962–1965)
  • Slattery's People, as Dorothy Ralston in “Question, What Time Is the Next Bandwagon?” (1965)
  • The Farmer's Daughter in "Katie's Castle" (1965)
  • Mannix as Mrs. Dover in “Turn Every Stone” (1967)
  • Mission: Impossible as Miss Putnam in "The Seal" (1967)
  • Occasional Wife as Mrs. Brahms in "Pilot" and "No Cookie for Dessert" (1966)
  • I Dream of Jeannie as General's wife in "Invisible House for Sale" (1968)
  • Bewitched as Harriet Walters in "Once in a Vial" (1968)
  • The Brady Bunch as Mrs. Tyler in “The Honeymoon” (1969) which was that show's premiere episode
  • Lassie, in two episodes, including the role of Mrs. Davis in the 1964 episode “The Little Christmas Tree” and as Katherine in the 1971 segment entitled “The Awakening”
  • The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as Mrs. Thorn, secretary to Lou Grant, episode "Who's in Charge Here?" (1972)
  • Griff, as Ruth in “Elephant in a Cage” (1973)
  • Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, three episodes, including two as a judge (1973–1974)
  • Barnaby Jones, three episodes, including role of Judge Edith Royce in “Voice in the Night” (1976)
  • The Waltons, as Mrs. Herbert in "The Achievement" (1977), the final appearance of Richard Thomas in the series and the episode in which John-Boy Walton he obtains publication of his first novel[14]
  • Emergency! as Maggie Trigg in “The Most Deadly Passage” (1978), made into a television movie the following year

Personal life

In the 1930s, Tompkins was married to actor Steve Appleby.[15] In the 1940s, she was married to actor Bruce MacFarlane.[16]

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).[1] They were living in southern California by 1957.[17]

Last years

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.

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.

References
  1. "Social Security Death Index". ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
  2. Lentz, Harris M. III (2006). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2005: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. p. 367. ISBN 9780786452101. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  3. "Some Young Unknowns In 'Fly Away Home'". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. New York, Brooklyn. February 3, 1935. p. 28. Retrieved May 14, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Joins 'Joyce Jordan". Harrisburg Telegraph. Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. June 2, 1940. p. 4. Retrieved May 14, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Studio Notes". The Evening News. Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. December 24, 1938. p. 12. Retrieved May 14, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Dimond, Bushnell (February 2, 1935). "Broadway At Night". The Evening News. Pennsylvania, Wilkes-Barre. p. 2. Retrieved May 14, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "("Joan Tompkins" search results)". Playbill Vault. Playbill. Archived from the original on 15 May 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  8. Terrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-7864-4513-4.
  9. "The Christine Jorgensen Story". fandango.com. Retrieved January 21, 2010.
  10. "Popi". fandango.com. Retrieved January 21, 2010.
  11. "Zigzag". fandango.com. Retrieved January 21, 2010.
  12. Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 924. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
  13. "The Fugitive: "Fun and Games and Party Favors"". fandango.com. Retrieved January 20, 2010.
  14. "The Waltons: "The Achievement"". fandango.com. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
  15. "Studio Notes". The Evening News. Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. April 5, 1939. p. 18. Retrieved May 14, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. Francis, Robert (May 20, 1945). "Candid Close-Ups". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. New York, Brooklyn. p. 26. Retrieved May 14, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "In Memory of Karl Swenson (1908-1978)". zunshine.com. Retrieved January 18, 2010.
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