Janet Margolin

• Name — Janet Margolin • Birth Name — Janet Natalie Margolin • Born — 25 July 1943 • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Died — 17 December 1993 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Resting Place — Westwood Memorial Park • Years Active — 1961–1993 • Occupation — Actress • Children — 2 (including Julian Wass)

Margolin was born in New York City to a Jewish family. Her father, Benjamin Margolin, was a Russian Jewish accountant who founded the Nephrosis Foundation, now the Kidney Foundation of New York, and her mother, Annette (Lief), was a dental assistant. She stated in The Journal Register that she had been sent to a psychiatrist at the age of nine when discussing her role as Lisa Brandt in David and Lisa. Her father had many friends and clients who were associated with theater and would often ask her to audition for roles. Until the late 1950s, Margolin aspired to become a doctor, yet was always interested in acting and decided to give it a try following insistence from her father's friends. She attended the High School of Performing Arts and, just prior to her graduation, did a screen test for Five Finger Exercise, where she was urged to sign a contract, but declined, instead returning to New York.

Margolin's earliest acting roles were in a commercial for Zest and several installments in the soap opera The Edge of Night. In 1961 at the age of 18, while a prop assistant at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Margolin won a pivotal Broadway stage role as Anna in Morris West's Daughter of Silence, beating 200 other applicants. Despite mixed reaction to the play, critics unanimously praised Margolin's performance and she went on to be nominated for a Tony Award. Her performance as Anna charmed director Frank Perry, Margolin was immediately cast to played her first movie role as the female lead in David and Lisa and traveled to Argentina in 1964 to feature in The Eavesdropper, where upon her return she signed a 1-film-a-year contract with 20th Century Fox. She co-starred with Marlon Brando in 1965's Morituri and with Steve McQueen in the western Nevada Smith. By 1967, she was considered by the Baltimore Sun one of Hollywood's "brightest new stars," by then having featured in around five films. Numerous film studios made efforts to commit her to a long-term contract. Later that year, she also played Wanda in the movie Enter Laughing, as the love interest of the character David Kolowitz, played by Reni Santoni in his first leading role. In Take the Money and Run (1969), she played the love interest of the bumbling thief played by Woody Allen, and in Annie Hall (1977), she played the social-climbing wife of Allen's character. In 1979, Margolin co-starred with Roy Scheider in director Jonathan Demme's thriller Last Embrace. Margolin's last film appearance was in Ghostbusters II in 1989, and her last television roles were in an episode of Murder, She Wrote ("Deadly Misunderstanding") and in Columbo: Murder in Malibu in 1990.

In August 1968, Margolin married Jerry Brandt in Los Angeles; they divorced in October 1971. Commenting on the marriage during a 1979 interview, Brandt said, "...being married to Janet was like being in the intensive care unit. In California she went to a shrink six days a week and I went three days. Finally, I said 'forget it.'" Margolin worked with Woody Allen in two films as (former) love interests, most notably Annie Hall. In a fake interview, Allen writes of working with Janet, stating in his own words: “ Occasionally I was forced to make love to her to get a decent performance. I did what I had to do in a businesslike way.” Later that decade in December 1979, she married actor/director Ted Wass and had two children, including Julian Wass. During the eighties and early nineties before Margolin's death, film role offers became scarcer, preventing continued mainstream success. She managed only small (usually guest) television roles. Margolin frequently and erroneously has been identified as the sister of actor Stuart Margolin and director Arnold Margolin, though she acted alongside Stuart Margolin in the pilot episode of the TV series Lanigan's Rabbi, where they appeared as husband and wife. She was a friend of producer/actress Jennifer Salt, who had co-starred with Wass in the 1970s sitcom Soap.

Margolin died of ovarian cancer at the age of 50 on December 17, 1993, in her Los Angeles home. She was cremated and her ashes were placed in an urn garden at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Film • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1962 — David and Lisa — Lisa Brandt • 1965 — The Greatest Story Ever Told — Mary of Bethany • Bus Riley's Back in Town — Judy • Morituri — Esther — Alternative title: Saboteur: Code Name Morituri • 1966 — The Eavesdropper — Inés — Alternative title: El ojo que espía • Nevada Smith — Neesa • 1967 — Enter Laughing — Wanda • 1968 — Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell — Gia Campbell • 1969 — Take the Money and Run — Louise • 1973 — Your Three Minutes Are Up — Betty • 1977 — Annie Hall — Robin • 1979 — Last Embrace — Ellie Fabian • 1988 — Distant Thunder — Barbara Lambert • 1989 — Ghostbusters II — The Prosecutor Television • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1961 — The Edge of Night — Betty Morrissey — August 17, 1961 episode • 1962 — Ben Casey — Illyana Trivas — Episode: "Legacy from a Stranger" • 1962 — Alcoa Premiere — Barbara — Episode: "The Hands of Danofrio" • 1963 — East Side/West Side — Doris Arno — Episode: "You Can't Beat the System" • 1963 — The Defenders — Dinah Caldwell — Episode: "Old Lady Ironsides" • 1964 — Arrest and Trial — Helen Kazar — Episode: "A Circle of Strangers" • 1966 — Ten Blocks on the Camino Real — Esmerelda — TV movie • 1967 — Coronet Blue — Riva — Episode: "The Assassins" • 1971 — Medical Center — Terri Spencer — Episode: "Web of Darkness" • 1971 — The Young Lawyers — Celia Bradbury — Episode: "The Bradbury War" • 1971 — The Interns — Rose — Episode: "The Manly Arts" • 1971 — The Last Child — Karen Miller — TV movie • 1971 — Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law — Jan Herron — Episode: "The Forest and the Trees" • 1972 — The Mod Squad — Cathy — Episode: "Eyes of the Beholder" • 1972 — Family Flight — Carol Rutledge — TV movie • 1973-1975 — Police Story — Various — 3 episodes • 1974 — Pray for the Wildcats — Krissie Kincaid — TV movie • 1974 — Planet Earth — Harper-Smythe — TV movie • 1974 — Lucas Tanner — Zeta Alexander — Episode: "By the Numbers" • 1975 — The Wide World of Mystery — Susan Browning — Episode: "Please Call It Murder" • 1975 — Police Woman — Lisa Tibbett — Episode: "Pattern for Evil" • 1975 — S.W.A.T. — Emily — Episode: "Vigilante" • 1976 — Joe Forrester — Episode: "The Promised Land" • 1976 — Serpico — Helena — Episode: "The Serbian Connection" • 1976-1977 — Lanigan's Rabbi — Miriam Small — 5 episodes • 1977 — Martinelli, Outside Man — Rosalie — TV movie • 1977 — Murder in Peyton Place — Betty Anderson Roerick — TV movie • 1977 — Sharon: Portrait of a Mistress — Carol — TV movie • 1977 — Starsky and Hutch — Dr. Judith Kaufman — 2 episodes • 1978 — The Eddie Capra Mysteries — Daniella Stephans — Episode: "Nightmare at Pendragon Castle" • 1979 — The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal — Rose — TV movie • 1980 — The Plutonium Incident — Judith Longden — TV movie • 1987 — Tonight's the Night — Chris — TV movie • 1990 — Murder C.O.D. — Maye Walsh — TV movie • 1990 — Columbo — Theresa Goren — Episode: "Murder In Malibu" • 1990 — Murder, She Wrote — Rita Garrison — Episode: "Deadly Misunderstanding" (final appearance)