Kathryn Joosten Bio - Kathryn Joosten Biography

Kathryn Joosten: Biography

Mother died of cancer in 1963.

In her twenties, she was entering into a new career as a psychiatric nurse in a medium security wing for disturbed teenagers. Through that job she met and married a psychiatrist, gave birth to two boys and settled down as a suburban housewife in Lake Forest, Illinois, a well-to-do suburb of Chicago.
In 1980, she divorced her husband because of his alcholism.

She took classes at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.

She is recognized as one of Murphy Brown's secretaries, Frazier's agent's mother and the bingo buddy to Drew Carey's girlfriend. But it is her portrayal of Mrs. Landingham, the foil, friend and secretary to Martin Sheen's President Bartlet on The West Wing that has propelled her into the spotlight she truly deserves.

Kathryn was nominated in 2008 for a SAG Award along with her Desperate Housewives castmates for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.(edit)
When her mom was dying, Kathryn vowed that someday she would pursue her dreams of acting.(edit)
She began acting at the age of 45.(edit)
Kathryn won a 2005 Emmy for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Desperate Housewives. She was nominated for the same category and the same show in 2008.(edit)
She has appeared in over a dozen plays, six movies, eleven national television commercials, two pilots, ten drama series and over twenty sitcoms. (edit)
In his autobiographical novel "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," (p.33, "Mistakes We Knew We Were Making) David Eggers reveals that Kathryn Joosten hung the wallpaper in his bedroom when he was a child.(edit)