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Joan Hotchkis, veteran actress, writer, screenwriter, playwright and groundbreaking feminist performance artist, whose career spanned over five decades, has died. She was 95. She died on September 27 in Los Angeles of congestive heart failure, according to her daughter, Paula Chambers.
Hotchkis was the last surviving child of Preston Hotchkis and Katharine Bixby, civic leaders in Los Angeles with statewide and national influence throughout the last century, who led everything from the Metropolitan Water District to the California Historical Society. More importantly, Hotchkis was an exquisite human being: warm, generous, supportive, gracious, open-minded, and funny. She cared about each person she met and used her resources to uplift the downtrodden, especially women, artists and elders. Hotchkis was also ahead of her time in writing and starring in plays, a feature film and performance art with a progressive feminist viewpoint.
After earning a B.A. in Psychology from Smith College and an M.A. in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street Teacher's College, Hotchkis taught nursery school in New York "for about fifteen minutes" (her words) before becoming an actor in 1954 at the age of twenty-seven. She got work right away despite her inexperience. While home for the holidays, she auditioned for the leading role of Lizzie in "The Rainmaker" at the Players Ring theater in Hollywood and got the part, earning praise and encouragement from other actors.
Returning to New York, Hotchkis became a member of The Actors Studio, where she studied with Lee Strasberg. She was cast in numerous TV commercials and guest spots. While shooting one of those commercials, she met director Bob Foster; they married in 1958 and had a daughter, Paula.
Hotchkis played Myra on long-running soap opera "The Secret Storm," portrayed Stella in "Streetcar Named Desire" at the Northland Theater in Detroit, did summer stock, and debuted on Broadway in 1960 at the Cort Theatre in "Advise and Consent," with Conrad Bain, Ed Begley and Richard Kiley.
After divorcing in 1967, Hotchkis moved with Paula back to her hometown of Los Angeles, where she joined the Actors Studio West, and quickly landed guest spots on "Bewitched," "General Hospital" and more. She was the female lead opposite William Windom on "My World and Welcome To It" (1969-70), and played Dr. Nancy Cunningham, the sometime-girlfriend of Jack Klugman's Oscar Madison, on "The Odd Couple" (1971), a role for which she is still beloved today. Throughout the 70s, she guest starred on many shows including "Lou Grant," "Charlie's Angels," "Mannix," "The New Dick Van Dyke Show," "St. Elsewhere," "Marcus Welby" and "Barnaby Jones" before co-starring as the lascivious Lydia in the syndicated sitcom, "The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts" in 1980. On the big screen, she had roles in "The Late Liz," and "Old Boyfriends," and she co-starred opposite William Holden in the film "Breezy" (1973), directed by Clint Eastwood, and co-starred with Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor as Anna "Mama" Hartley in the cult classic, "Ode to Billie Joe" (1976).
Hotchkis had a gift for writing. With noted Method acting teacher Eric Morris, she co-wrote the now-classic acting handbook, "No Acting Please." In 1974, Hotchkis became a playwright with "Legacy," about the day an upper-class housewife spirals into a complete mental and emotional breakdown. She starred in the one-woman play at the Actors Studio West, directed by Morris. In 1975, Hotchkis turned screenwriter for the film adaptation and added other actors to portray the characters that she played in the stage version, with Karen Arthur directing the filmed version of "Legacy." It was the first feature film directed by Arthur and the first shot by cinematographer John Bailey and edited by Carole Littleton.
Shortly after the last shot of "Legacy" was in the can, Hotchkis was diagnosed with meningioma (a non-cancerous brain tumor) and had it successfully surgically removed, allowing her decades more productivity. Meanwhile, "Legacy" won the Best Newcomer Award at the Tehran International Film Festival. Photos from the fest show Hotchkis, still looking glamorous with her recently shaved head.
Surviving brain surgery changed Hotchkis' priorities: she gave up on TV and film and returned to the stage. At the Taper Too Theater, she played Fluffy Mother in "Cowboy Jack Street" (1976), followed by Madame Irma in "The Balcony" at the Odyssey Theater (1983). At the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Hotchkis played Paulina in "A Winter's Tale," Lady Gay Spanker in "London Assurance," and Judith Bliss in "Hay Fever" (1983-84 season). At Milwaukee Repertory Theater, she played Isabella, Louise and Mrs. Kidd in "Top Girls," and Mrs. Sutphen in "A Woman Without Means" (1984-85 season). In Los Angeles, she played Mrs. Temptwell in "The Grace of Mary Traverse" at Los Angeles Theatre Works in 1988.
Memorably, Hotchkis portrayed Amanda Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie" four times: at Los Angeles' Callboard and Fountain Theaters in 1981, at Nashville's James Polk Theater in 1982, at Cincinnati's Playhouse in The Park in 1985, and at Los Angeles Theater Center in 1988.
Inspired by a "writing for performance" workshop taught by the legendary Rachel Rosenthal, in 1990, Hotchkis transformed herself from actor to performance artist. Her first performance art piece, "Tearsheets: Letters I Didn't Send Home," directed by Steven Kent, was a multimedia solo work that exposed the sexism and brutality beneath the pretty surface of her upper-class childhood. Hotchkis debuted "Tearsheets" at Highways Performance Space, received rave reviews, toured it through the Southwest, and then to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it was the only American production to win a "Fringe First" award in 1992.
For "Tearsheets," according to the Los Angeles Times, Hotchkis "borrowed moments from three generations of her family's history ... and turned an authentic late-19th Century, early-20th-Century dynasty into a late-20th Century one-person feminist performance piece." Hotchkis told the Times that while the show presents her view of her family's history, it's more an exposing of "California cattle-ranching and dynasty values ... I look at how patriarchy works on children and women and how it tries to have people disassociate themselves from their bodies."
In 1996, a 68-year-old Hotchkis lit up the performance art world with "Elements of Flesh, or Screwing Saved My Ass," a shocking, highly personal tour de force about aging and sexuality, directed by Clifford Bell and again produced at Highways Performance Space. Joan performed "Elements" to sold-out audiences and standing ovations at Highways and throughout Southern California. The show got great reviews, and also hate mail - proof that she had dealt a blow to the sick and damaging belief that elders do not, cannot or should not have sex.
Hotchkis was always very interested in social justice, supporting progressive nonprofits and mentoring bright young women from underprivileged backgrounds. She provided critical support to activists, including future head of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Torie Osborne, and defender of Ethiopian women's rights, Bogaletch "Boge" Gebre.
As an actor, writer, producer, performance artist, philanthropist, mentor, and friend, Joan Hotchkis inspired countless people with her passion, courage, generosity and delightful blend of elegance and playfulness. She is survived by daughter Paula and many loved ones who will miss her greatly.
The memorial will be private, but donations can be made in Hotchkis' memory to Highways Performance Space, a great organization that supported her fabulous transformation from mainstream actor to performance art crusader for the rights of women, artists and elders.
