Jessica Walter death: Emmy-winning Arrested Development and Archer actor dies aged 80

Actor confirmed to have passed away in her sleep at home in New York City on 24 March

Jessica Walter death: Emmy-winning Arrested Development and Archer actor dies aged 80 (Getty Images)

Jessica Walter, the Emmy award-winning actor best known for roles in Arrested Development and Archer, has died aged 80.

The news was confirmed by her daughter, Brooke Bowman, who said in a statement, “It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of my beloved mom Jessica.

“A working actor for over six decades, her greatest pleasure was bringing joy to others through her storytelling both on screen and off. While her legacy will live on through her body of work, she will also be remembered by many for her wit, class and overall joie de vivre.”

Walter was confirmed to have passed away in her sleep at home in New York City on Wednesday, 24 March.

Starting out her acting career in New York City, Walter first appeared in a number of Broadway productions, including Advise and Consent, Neil Simon’s Rumors, A Severed Head, Nightlife, and Photo Finish, which earned her a Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Newcomer.

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Walter also appeared at New York’s Playwright’s Horizons and the Los Angeles Theater Center, where she starred in Tartuffe opposite husband Ron Leibman, who died in 2019. She also appeared in the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Anything Goes.

In film, Walter turned up in Clint Eastwood’s 1971 directorial debut, Play Misty for Me, the 1984 film The Flamingo Kid, and the 1998 comedy Slums of Beverly Hills.

On television, Walter is perhaps best known today for her turn as the oblivious wealthy matriarch Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development (running 2003 to 2006), for which she earned an Emmy nomination (Outstanding Supporting Actress) and two SAG nominations. She was also part of the show’s fourth and fifth seasons, which ran on 2018 and 2019 on Netflix.

In recent years, Walter also voiced Malory Archer on FXX’s animated series Archer.

Over the years, she also had Emmy-nominated roles in Trapper John, MD and Streets of San Francisco.

In 1975, she won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her role in The NBC Mystery Movie.

Walter also served as 2nd National Vice President of the Screen Actors Guild, and was an elected member of the SAG Board of Directors for over a decade.

In lieu of flowers, Deadline reports that the family asks that donations be made to Guide Dogs for the Blind.